Raising Awareness on Alcohol Addiction

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, an event sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD). Recently, the NCADD announced that the theme for this year’s event is “Help for Today. Hope for Tomorrow,” and they will be promoting this theme in the event which has now been observed for the past 28 years across the United States. Alcohol Awareness Month is observed by groups including schools, colleges, churches and various other types of community organizations around the country.

One of the highlights of this year’s event is the weekend of April 4-6, the Alcohol-Free Weekend, when Americans were invited to skip drinking for the entire 72-hour period. The stated goal of Alcohol Awareness Month is, “to increase public awareness and understanding, reduce stigma and encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues.” This year’s focus is on the scourge of underage drinking, a public health problem that causes untold troubles for American families and communities. Some of the facts that NCADD is bringing to the forefront for this year’s event include:

• Every day, 7,000 Americans under the age of 16 will take their first drink of alcohol
• More than 6,500 deaths occur every year in incidents involving underage drinking, in addition to thousands more who are injured
• Young people who start drinking before they reach the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism compared with those who wait until they are 21 years old
• One in four American children are exposed to an alcohol-use disorder in their own homes
• All told, our nation spends around $62 billion every year to pay the price for underage drinking

According to the most recent statistics available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 64.2% of Americans over the age of 18 drink alcohol, and most of them identify as “regular drinkers.” Alcohol is by far the most commonly used drug in the United States, and it is also the one that causes the most deaths and injuries in terms of accidents and overdose. The best way to prevent an alcohol abuse problem or alcoholism on a wide scale, of course, is to keep young people from starting to drink at an early age, and that is the goal of this year’s Alcohol Awareness Month.

Narconon Supports Alcohol Awareness Month

As one of the leading providers of addiction treatment in the United States and worldwide, Narconon has extensive experience with the problems associated with alcohol abuse and addiction. Countless people over the years have come to Narconon for help with alcoholism and walked away fully rehabilitated and able to live the rest of their lives free from a dependence on the drug. The problem of alcohol is certainly large enough to deserve the attention provided by Alcohol Awareness Month, but the fact is that addiction to alcohol is an addiction like any other, and it is one that can be overcome using the right approach.

When an alcoholic arrives at a Narconon center for treatment, he or she will start out with a process of withdrawal like most other rehab centers, with the major difference that Narconon does not use drugs to treat drug addiction. If a medical detox is required for heavy alcohol abuse, this would be done before beginning the nutritionally based withdrawal at Narconon. After withdrawal, an extensive regimen of getting good rest and nutrition, moderate exercise, and time spent sweating in a dry heat sauna works to flush out toxic residues accumulated through extended drug use and to give the person a clean slate physically. Next, the person completes a series of life skills courses that help to address the reasons why he or she began drinking heavily in the first place. This serves to give the person greater stability so that he or she will be far less likely to relapse in the future.

Alcohol Awareness Month is largely about helping people realize that it is possible to recover from a drinking problem, and Narconon centers around the nation stand ready to provide this help.

Sourcecs:

• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm