Enablers...What it looks like.

Enablers
Enablers are the people in the addicts life who make it easier for them to continue their pattern of chemical abuse. Anyone involved in the alcoholic/addicts life can be an enabler: husbands, wives, children, parents, employers, coworkers, or healthcare workers. These are normally the people who want the addict to change the most. It hurts to see the addict in pain, so the enabler does things to help reduce that pain. Here are a couple of examples of how people enable addicts:

• Borrow money to pay off bills or damages as a result of the alcoholic's behavior;
• Make excuses for their inability to perform at work;
• Attempt to get them out of a drunk driving charge or other serious situation; and Lie to others about their intoxication.
• Lend money that they know will be spent on alcohol or drugs;
• Take over the addicts chores because he or she is too drunk or high to do them;
• Lie to others to make their home life seem normal.
• The addict may be the one asking you to enable the addictive behavior, either explicitly demanding things or blaming you for a lack of support. A common reaction by friends and family is, "What is wrong with me that this person is behaving like this?" This is the beginning of the enabling cycle, which escalates beyond the control of the enabler. It ends only when the enabler finally realizes the addiction is not controllable.

Alive & Addictied

"To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace. "
—Gerald G. May, M.D,author of Addiction and Grace
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/vinexley/Doc9.htm

State Health plan S.C.

State Health Plan Introduces Tobacco Cessation Program

Beginning January 1, 2006, State Health Plan subscribers and their covered dependents may participate (at no charge) in the Free & Clear® Quit for LifeTM Program, a research-based system that has been very successful in helping people stop tobacco use. A Free & Clear Quit Coach works with each participant to create a personalized “quit plan.” Free nicotine replacement products, such as patches, gum or lozenges, are available through Free & Clear®. If the quit coach recommends bupropion, a generic drug, it may be prescribed by a physician.

If a quit coach determines that a participant who is under 18 needs nicotine replacement therapy, the quit coach will send the participant a letter asking his physician to authorize nicotine replacement therapy. After the quit coach receives and verifies authorization from the minor’s physician, the participant will receive the nicotine replacement products.

Participants have access to a toll-free support line from 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. The program is offered through APS Healthcare.

For more information, or to enroll in the Quit for LifeTM Program, click on the link below or call 866-QUIT-4-LIFE (866-784-8454), toll-free, beginning January 1. Your eligibility will be verified, and you will then be promptly referred to a quit coach.

Free & Clear online call-back request form

THE CAROLINA REGION of NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS
GREATER CHARLOTTE AREA
PO BOX 10035
CHARLOTTE, NC 282121-
704-379-0440
http://www.crna.org/areas/greatercharlotte.html

My Quit Smoking Stats

Your Quit Date was: Monday, October 11, 2004 at 12:00:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free:456 days, 22 hours, 56 minutes and 26 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked:9139
Lifetime Saved:2 months, 9 days, 19 hours
Money Saved:$1,599.50

Photo by CRBowman 2006

South Carolina needs to raise tax on cigarettes

Senator Chauncy Gregory

305 Gressette Building

PO Box 142

Columbia, SC 29202-0142

Subject: Increase the tax on cigarettes

Dear Senator Gregory:

South Carolina needs to raise the tax on cigarettes. One of the best methods for discouraging youth addiction to tobacco is increasing the price of cigarettes. Studies show that when the price of cigarettes goes up, youth and adult smoking rates go down. For every 10 percent increase in cigarette price, youth smoking rates will drop by about 7 percent and adult rates about 4 percent. Efforts to deter youth smoking have clear long term benefits.

Fewer smokers mean significant health care savings for South Carolina taxpayers. Our state spends $307 million in smoking related healthcare costs. A decrease in smoking rates, as a result of a 93 cent tax increase, will result in millions of dollars in future health care savings.

In addition, raising the cigarette tax will provide immediate relief to South Carolina's budget by creating a new revenue stream.

Save lives, help fund tobacco control programs and raise new revenue for South Carolina at the same time. Support a 93-cent increase in the cigarette excise tax. It's a win-win solution for South Carolina.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Bowman

The Heavy Toll of a Legal Drug
Of all the drugs of abuse, alcohol takes the greatest toll on our society. According to a 1998 report from the National Center on Substance Abuse and Addiction at Columbia University, alcohol is more closely associated with crimes of violence than any other drug. It is a bigger culprit in murder, rape, assault, and child and spouse abuse than any illegal drug. Untreated alcoholics incur health costs that are at least twice as high as those for non-alcoholics. In 1996, the indirect and direct costs related to alcohol reached $86 billion.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy deals with illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin but doesn't devote attention to alcoholism. Consequently, one U.S. congressman is trying to set up a separate national commission to do the job. Minnesota Republican Jim Ramstad is a recovering alcoholic. He says the goal of a two-year national commission on alcoholism would be to streamline and better coordinate existing government programs, boost public and private sector support for alcohol treatment and research, evaluate the cost effectiveness of treatment and improve alcoholism research.
-- Janet Firshein

Just The Facts

1. The impact of nicotine is jacked up because tobacco companies add ammonia to cigarettes.
2. Cigarette companies advertised “light” cigarettes as less harmful to the smoker, although they can deliver the same levels of tar and nicotine.
3. A Big Tobacco executive once said, under oath, that he believed Gummi Bears were addictive like cigarettes.
4. In the past, Big Tobacco has compared the addictiveness of cigarettes to M&M’s.
5. In the past, Big Tobacco has compared the addictiveness of cigarettes to that of television.
6. 63% of high school smokers say they want to quit.
7. Nicotine has been found in the breast milk of smokers.
8. Every day, about 3,900 youth ages 12 to 17 try a cigarette for the first time.
9. Every day, about 1,500 youth become daily smokers.One tobacco company secretly developed a strain of tobacco they named "Y1" that contained 50% more nicotine.
10. In the past, Big Tobacco has compared the addictiveness of cigarettes to coffee.

http://thetruth.com

Smoking Parents can still keep kids from starting

Smoking parents can still keep kids from starting
By Amy Norton Fri Jan 6, 11:35 AM ET
Parents who can't kick the smoking habit themselves can nevertheless convince their children not to start, a new study shows.
Researchers found that a program aimed at helping parents talk with their kids about smoking lowered the likelihood that children would try cigarettes by the 6th grade. All of the parents were smokers themselves.
Past studies have shown that the children of smokers are at high risk of taking up the habit, which makes it "critical" to help these parents address the topic with their kids, according to Dr. Christine Jackson, a senior research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research Chapel Hill Center in North Carolina.
Many parents who smoke, she told Reuters Health, may be reluctant to have such discussions because they feel guilty about their smoking or believe they'd seem "hypocritical" to their children.
But parents who speak from the experience of becoming addicted to nicotine may in fact have more credibility, Jackson pointed out. "They absolutely hate the fact that they smoke," she said. "They can be incredibly persuasive."
However, keeping kids from smoking may take much more than simply telling them not to do it -- the tactic many parents rely on.
The new study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, looked at the effects of a program that helped smoking parents learn "anti-smoking socialization."
The researchers randomly assigned 776 families to one of two groups: a program group where parents periodically received written materials to help them discuss smoking with their children; or a comparison group where parents received only short fact sheets on smoking.
Parents in the program used the materials to help them talk with their children about their own history with smoking and what it means to be addicted, among other topics.
They were also encouraged to take small, everyday measures to dispel the image that smoking is normal -- like not leaving dirty ashtrays in the house and not asking their kids to bring them their pack of cigarettes.
Three years later, the study found, 12 percent of children in the program group said they had tried smoking, versus 19 percent in the comparison group.
The findings show that, with the right tools, parents who smoke can discourage their kids from doing the same, according to the researchers. Yet, Jackson said, the role of these parents in smoking prevention efforts has until now been largely ignored.
"But parents who smoke are critical," she said, "because it's their children who are most likely to smoke."
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, January 2006.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Nicotine Addiction: My Battle

I quit smoking 14 months ago! I used the patch, took a smoking cessation course, started exercising and used the American Lung online program. www.LungUSA.org I was a smoker's smokers. Quitting is one of my proudest accomplishments.

I truly never believed I could quit....but I did and so can anyone. The one requirement is wanting to quit. Wanting to quit is half the battle. Think about how much time you have spent being a smoker....but we must remember that becoming a non-smoker takes time. Most people fail because they don't spend enough time unlearning their smoking habit.

To unlearn this rotten habit it helps to use tools and there are many, like taking a smoking cessation course. Taking a course helps you meet other people who truly understand your struggles, it's a great place to share and learn. Making new habits and finding new rewards was essential in recondtioning my smoking behavior. I also educated my self on the consequences....I mean I was ready to hear the horror stories. http://whyquit.com Was a very helpful website for this.

Things to remember:

Work a program

Be kind to yourself

Find new healthy rewards- You will need them!!!!

Educate yourself about your addiction and BREATHE.

NEIL YOUNG LYRICS
"Needle And The Damage Done"
I caught you knockin'at my cellar door
I love you, baby, can I have some more
Ooh, ooh, the damage done.
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done.
I sing the song because I love the man
I know that some of you don't understand
Milk-blood to keep from running out.
I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's like a settin' sun.

http://whyquit.com/
Smoke Because I Like Smoking!
Ask almost any current smoker why she continues to indulge in such a dangerous activity and she will normally reply, "Because I like smoking." While she may say this in all honesty, it is a very misleading statement, both to the listener and to the smoker herself. She does not smoke because she enjoys smoking, rather she smokes because she does not enjoy not smoking.
Nicotine is a powerfully addictive drug. The smoker is in a constant battle to maintain a narrow range of nicotine in her blood stream (serum nicotine level). Every time the smoker's serum nicotine level falls below the minimum limit, she experiences drug withdrawal. She becomes tense, irritable, anxious and, in some cases, even shows physical symptoms. She does not enjoy feeling these withdrawals. The only thing that will alleviate these acute symptoms will be a cigarette. The nicotine loss is then replenished and, hence, the smoker feels better. She enjoyed smoking.
A smoker must also be cautious not to exceed his upper limit of tolerance for nicotine or else suffer varying degrees of nicotine poisoning. Many smokers can attest to this condition. It usually occurs after parties or extremely tense situations when the smokers finds themselves exceeding their normal level of consumption. They feel sick, nauseous, dizzy and generally miserable.
Being a successful smoker is like being an accomplished tightrope walker. The smoker must constantly maintain a balance between these two painful extremes of too much or too little nicotine. The fear which accompanies initial smoking cessation is that the rest of the ex-smoker's entire life will be as horrible as the first few days without cigarettes. What ex-smokers will learn is that within a short period of time, the physical withdrawal will start to diminish. First, the urges will weaken in intensity and then become shorter in duration. There will be longer time intervals between urges. It will eventually reach the point where the ex-smoker will desire a cigarette very infrequently, if ever. Those who continue to smoke will continue to be in a constant battle of maintaining their serum nicotine level.
Included in this battle is the great expense of buying pack after pack and the dangerous assault on the smoker's body of inhaling the poison nicotine along with over 4,000 other toxic chemicals which comprise the tars and gasses produced from the combustion of tobacco. These chemicals are deadly by themselves and even more so in combination.
So the next time you think of how much you once seemed to enjoy cigarettes, sit back and take a serious, objective look at why you have such an idealization of this dangerous product. Consider all the consequences. You will probably realize that you feel physically and mentally better now than you ever did as a smoker. Consider all of this and - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel
© Joel Spitzer 1983, 2000 Page last updated by Joel Spitzer on August 24, 2003

If I had My Life to Live Over Again By Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck
contributed by Liz
Note: Erma Bombeck needed an organ transplant, and even though she could have been moved to the head of the waiting list, due to her prominence and wealth (like Mickey Mantle), she refused to do such, and subsequently, died from organ failure.

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER -
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television-and more while watching life.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."
There would have been more "I love you's".. more "I'm sorry's" ... but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.
Stop sweating the small stuff. Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what. Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who Do love us. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally,physically, emotionally, as well as spiritually. Life is too short to let it pass you by.
We only have one shot at this and then it's gone.

The Riddle of Addiction

Charlotte Reeves Bowman

This riddle,

this madness,

this sickness that....

makes children fear abandonment,

takes parents hostage,

leaves sores on the hearts of the inflicted.

The restlessness of

being nothing,

having nothing,

and only pretending that NOTHING is wrong....

this is the junkies anthem.

Love becomes another anxious fix.

Some people know too much about this riddle,

Know when it began,

how it evolved,

but they know absolutely nothing about the solution.

Some might long for it,

other's run from it,

but the human race as a whole tends to leave it alone.

Maybe some get courageous and try to catergorize it,

the holy rollers love to preach about it.....

trying to exorcise it with half truths about morality.

Problem is.....the riddle ain't a moral issue.

It's a beginning to an end,

a reminder that the human psyche has found a plastic answer for a wooden solution.

Adult Children of Alcoholics

http://www.adultchildren.org/
The following information is from
Adult Children of Alcoholics
World Service Organization, Inc.

The Problem
Many of us found that we had several characteristics in common as a result of being brought up in an alcoholic or other dysfunctional households.

We had come to feel isolated, and uneasy with other people, especially authority figures. To protect ourselves, we became people pleasures, even though we lost our own identities in the process. All the same we would mistake any personal criticism as a threat.

We either became alcoholics ourselves, married them, or both. Failing that, we found other compulsive personalities, such as a workaholic, to fulfill our sick need for abandonment.

We lived live from the standpoint of victims. Having an over developed sense of responsibility, we preferred to be concerned with others rather than ourselves. We got guilt feelings when we trusted ourselves, giving in to others. We became reactors rather than actors, letting others take the initiative.

We were dependent personalities, terrified of abandonment, willing to do almost anything to hold on to a relationship in order not to be abandoned emotionally. We keep choosing insecure relationships because they matched our childhood relationship with alcoholic or dysfunctional parents.

These symptoms of the family disease of alcoholism or other dysfunction made us 'co-victims', those who take on the characteristics of the disease without necessarily ever taking a drink. We learned to keep our feelings down as children and keep them buried as adults. As a result of this conditioning, we often confused love with pity, tending to love those we could rescue.

Even more self-defeating, we became addicted to excitement in all our affairs, preferring constant upset to workable solutions.

This is a description, not an indictment.

Step One

STEP1 alcoholic alcoholics addicts AA NA OA EA CA GA ALANON anonymous groups Self help step one first step help info aa na ea
Step 1 admitted we were powerless over (whatever your affliction) and that our lives were unmanageable.
What happens when I drank/use drugs.
The fear it created.
The guilt it created.
The regret it created.
The harm I did to myself.
The harm I did to other people.
The financial damage.
The psychological damage.
The relationship damage.
The mental damage.
How it effected my working.
How it effected my self esteem.
For Books About The 12 Steps Click here