Many people drink alcohol without concern for stigma. Instagram and Facebook accounts are routinely peppered with the occasional images of a half-empty goblet of wine or well-garnished cocktail glass.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), almost 88 percent of American adults report drinking alcohol at some point in their lifetime — including 71 percent who report drinking in the past year and more than 56 percent who say they had a drink in the past month.
Unfortunately, 7.2 percent of American adults also have an alcohol use disorder. The NIH describes an alcohol use disorder as “problem drinking that becomes severe.”
“There are several ways we have of determining, medically, if a person has an alcohol use disorder,” said John Schramm, LPC, ICAADC, an internationally certified advanced alcohol and drug counselor with Willowbrooke at Tanner and primary therapist for Regain at Willowbrooke. “For instance, have you continued to drink, even though it has strained your relationships with your family or friends, or have there been times that drinking or being sick from drinking has interfered with your work?”
The severity of a person’s alcohol use disorder depends on how many of these criteria are met during the same 12-month period:
- Have there been times when you ended up drinking more or drinking longer than you intended?
- More than once, did you want to cut down or stop drinking, or tried to cut back, but couldn’t?
- Have you spent a lot of time drinking, being sick from drinking or getting over the aftereffects?
- Did you experience a craving or urge to drink?
- Have you found that drinking — or being sick from drinking — often interfered with taking care of your home, family, work or school?
- Did you continue to drink even though it was causing trouble with your family or friends?
- Did you give up or cut back on activities that were important or interesting to you in order to drink?
- More than once, have you gotten into situations while or after drinking that increased your chances of getting hurt, such as driving, swimming, using machinery, walking in a dangerous area or having unsafe sex?
- Did you continue to drink even though it was making you feel depressed, anxious or adding to another health problem? Have you continued to drink after having a memory blackout?
- Have you had to drink much more than you once did to get the effect you want, or found that your usual number of drinks had much less effect than before?
- Have you found that you had withdrawal symptoms — such as trouble sleeping, shakiness, irritability, anxiety, depression, restlessness, nausea or sweating — when the effects of alcohol were wearing off?
“Many people are rather high-functioning even with these symptoms,” said Schramm. “The problem is that the ability to remain high-functioning is fleeting. Eventually, the problem can cost a person his or her job, family, home — everything.”
Overcoming an alcohol use disorder can be difficult for a working professional. He or she frequently surrounds himself with others who like to drink. Often, a person with an alcohol use disorder has even figured out how much he or she can drink and still remain functioning. Eventually, though, one drink invariably leads to another, and a next and a next, so that the individual loses control of his or her alcohol intake.
“The family suffers, the home suffers, the job suffers — every relationship that isn’t based on alcohol suffers, and eventually, even those that are based on alcohol can suffer,” said Schramm. “That’s why it’s important to seek treatment sooner rather than later, to preserve as much as possible.”
The consequences of alcohol aren’t only social, but physical as well. According to the NIH, about 88,000 people die from alcohol-related cases each year (alcohol contributes to more than 200 diseases and injury-related health conditions, such as liver cirrhosis and types of cancer), which makes it the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. And that figure doesn’t count the more than 10,000 alcohol-related driving fatalities that occur in the U.S. each year.
Willowbrooke at Tanner established Regain at Willowbrooke, a specialized substance abuse recovery program designed for working professionals who benefit from:
- Treatment for all types of alcohol, prescription and recreational substance abuse issues
- Multidisciplinary patient care teams that work to address unique needs, addressing the physical, mental and environmental aspects of substance abuse
- Recovery programs that integrate the latest behavioral health therapies and primary care to ensure emotional and physical wellbeing during treatment
- Innovative therapeutic techniques — such as expressive therapy, animal-assisted therapy and more — that help guide individuals toward recovery
- A private entrance that ensures discretion, serene mediation/reflection areas and complimentary refreshments
- A treatment schedule with work schedules in mind, offering treatment three evenings a week after work hours
Regain at Willowbrooke's therapy model focuses on the underlying issues that affect your ability to live a balanced and productive life. Regain at Willowbrooke treats a wide variety of substance abuse, including alcohol, benzodiazepines, marijuana, methamphetamine, narcotics, opiates, synthetic drugs and others.
“Recovery begins with realizing that there’s a problem and seeking help,” said Schramm. “We understand the reasons people drink. We know the problem is real, but so is the recovery.”
To learn more about Regain at Willowbrooke, call 770.812.6300 or visit www.RegainAtWillowbrooke.org.