Medical Detox Programs in a stress-free environment

I had an uncle who died in his early 40’s from alcohol. He never really seemed drunk, my family members was not surprised when, after not being able to reach him for a few days, they went to his home and found him dead in bed. Unfortunately, although I heard the family discussing his drinking, I never heard them discuss alcohol detox or rehab.

Some may think that unless a person actually appears to be drunk, they’re not alcoholics or, at least, they’re not in danger. Nothing could be further from the truth – their liver is chronically overworked and can, eventually, fail. This process is accelerated by the use of over-the-counter painkillers – I’m sure my uncle popped a few aspirin every morning – since they also cause liver damage and internal bleeding.

As the years go on, and the damage continues, the liver becomes less able to detoxify the body and, like my uncle, you’re basically poisoned to death. His liver failed, but the real source of the problem was alcohol abuse. Don’t be fooled by drinkers who never get drunk – they need alcohol detox and rehab. There may still be time to heal the body.

I read an eight-year-old article today about the combination of painkillers and alcohol. It referenced the original press release from the FDA about warnings being required on over-the-counter painkillers: if consumed with alcohol, they could lead to liver damage and internal bleeding. What caught my eye in this article were the statistics on drinking. At that time, there were 11 million people who drank enough to need alcohol detox and rehab. According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there are now over 15 million.

That’s a big jump in eight years. Obviously, we’re creating drinkers faster than we can handle them. Not just occasional drinkers, but people who drink so much it’s considered alcohol addiction or abuse.

Why is this? From my viewpoint, the problem is two-fold: We continue to allow advertising that presents drinking as part of the good life, instead of the killer it really is, and we don’t get people who abuse alcohol into alcohol detox and rehab. When it comes right down to it, these two actions would change the scene.

The solution, of course, is not so simple. Who’s going to employ the hundreds of thousands of workers in the alcohol industry? Who’s going to turn down the billions in advertising dollars and the even greater amount of taxes on alcohol products collected by government? And what about the business tax paid by hundreds of thousands of bars all over the country?

The only people making money off alcohol addiction and abuse should be those who offer alcohol detox and rehab. If it’s done right, that’s one business that will eventually go out of business.  And that’s the way it should be.

The University of Wisconsin has a new strategy to curb alcohol abuse among students – calling the parents. If the kids are underage, they can also be given a summons and, no matter how old they are, can be sent to alcohol detox.

Some think of this approach as a throwback, out of touch with the modern world. Nevertheless, it seems to be working: Second offenses have markedly decreased and not one of the students involved has dropped out of school.

The University of Wisconsin has a history of tolerance when it comes to drinking: the snack bar used to serve beer, and campus buses were equipped with kegs. But, over the years, things changed. Drinking became antisocial instead of social. In fact, according to the University’s chancellor, “just about every unpleasant incident, every crime, involves alcohol abuse by the victim or the perpetrator.” This includes everything from theft to rape.

The Chancellor also said that alcohol abuse is the number one health and safety problem on every college campus.

Statistics show that kids whose parents talk to them about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse are 50 percent less likely to succumb to the temptation. That’s the kind of grass roots movement we need. If combined with alcohol detox for those who already have a problem, getting parents involved could eventually reduce the incidence of alcohol abuse significantly.