Treatment Options for Alcohol Addiction

Alcoholism, or sometimes called alcohol use disorder, is a serious condition where an individual is incapable of controlling their urge to drink. People suffering from this feel as though they are unable to function in regular everyday society. Professional and personal relationships, jobs, goals, and health are all negatively impacted. Side effects associated with alcohol abuse can lead to major complications and difficulties. It is important for those suffering from alcohol dependence to seek help from medical professionals and substance abuse support groups.

It isn’t always clear when someone is an alcoholic and it can take some time to accept that reality in order to begin the healing process. It is important to lookout for the following warning signs:

• Feeling a need to continue drinking
• Change in behavior after drinking
• Having a strong desire for alcohol when not drinking
• Prioritizing alcohol over more important responsibilities
• Investing a large portion of income on alcohol
• Inability to control alcohol consumption

Drinking too much alcohol can cause serious health problems. It doesn’t matter if the drinking is short or long-term. Life-threatening situations can arise and it is important to be aware of intake. 

Some short-term effects are reduced brain activity, slow reflexes, delayed reaction time, blurry vision and difficulty breathing. Long-term effects are liver disease, brain defects, vision damage, heart problems, bone loss and increases the risk of cancer, which is why treatment via the following ways is necessary:

• Admitting a problem: The most important step towards treatment is acceptance. One of the hardest challenges for many alcoholics is accepting that they have a critical problem and seeking help with alcoholics anonymous and other programs. Treatment varies from person to person, however the general route is as follows:

• Detoxification: This is the process of slowly cutting down on alcohol consumption under medical guidance. Withdrawal symptoms are very uncomfortable and doctors can help alleviate any discomfort with proper medication.

• Alcohol rehab centers: There are two types of rehab, inpatient and outpatient. Inpatient is where an individual lives in a treatment facility for 30-90 days, while an outpatient involves the individual taking part in the program as they go about everyday life.

There are many reasons as to why people turn to drinking. Whatever the reason, there is always the possibility of long-term dependence. People may start off with the best of intentions, but may find themselves in an unfortunate circumstance. Alcohol addiction can be caused by several triggers, for instance:

1. Cope with loss
The death of a loved one, whether they are family or a friend, can hurt someone on a deep level emotionally and physically. The grief may feel unbearable and people turn to alcohol to soothe the pain. Avoiding the natural grieving process can be a factor in alcohol dependence over time.

2. Stress relief
It is easy to want a way of dealing with the stress of everyday life after a hard day and drink a bit of alcohol to unwind. However, it will become more difficult to achieve the same results of pleasure as tolerance builds up and that is when more alcohol is needed to experience the same effects.

3. Anxiety
Nobody wants to worry all the time and alcohol is a way for some to not have to deal with anxiety as it lowers inhibitions. People feel freer to go about their day without overthinking everything and this is a common way of developing dependence to alcohol.

4. Pleasure
Many drinks for the simplicity of feeling good. It is a way for them to be happy and not stress over their problems.

5. Pain and trauma
Drinking may be a way for some to deal with unresolved trauma. Perhaps they did not have anyone at the time to help them cope, thus leading to it getting bottled up inside for so long. Treating the trauma can, by extension, help with alcoholism.

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Listening to yoga music can be therapeutic

Listening to music does give us pleasure, and a new study has discovered that hearing yoga music during bedtime is good for the heart's health. Previous researches have shown that music can reduce anxiety in patients with heart disease. However, studies on the effects of music on the heart in patients and healthy individuals have produced inconsistent results; partly they did not state what style of music was used.

"We use music therapy in our hospital and in this study we showed that yoga music has a beneficial impact on heart rate variability before sleeping," said the study author.

The body's heart rate changes as a normal response to being in "fight or flight" or "rest and digest" mode. These states are regulated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, respectively, and together comprise the autonomic nervous system.

High heart rate variability shows that the heart is able to adapt to these changes. Conversely, low heart rate variability indicates a less adaptive autonomic nervous system. Low heart rate variability is associated with a 32-45 per cent higher risk of a first cardiovascular event. Following a cardiovascular event, people with low heart rate variability have a raised risk of subsequent events and death.

This study investigated the impact of listening to yoga music, which is a type of soothing or meditative music, before bedtime on heart rate variability. For this, researchers incorporated 149 healthy people with an average age of 26 who participated in three sessions on separate nights: Yoga music before sleep at night; pop music with steady beats before sleep at night; and no music or silence before sleep at night.

At each session, heart rate variability was measured for five minutes before the music or silence started, for ten minutes during the music/silence, and five minutes after it had stopped. In addition, anxiety levels were assessed before and after each session using the Goldberg Anxiety Scale. The level of positive feeling was subjectively measured after each session using a visual analogue scale.

Researchers found that heart rate variability increased during yoga music, decreased during pop music, and did not significantly change during the silence. Anxiety levels fell significantly after the yoga music, rose significantly post the pop music, and increased after the no music session. Participants felt significantly more positive after yoga music than they did after pop music. "Science may have not always agreed, but Indians have long believed in the power of various therapies other than medicines as a mode of treatment for ailments," noted the Dr.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                       https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                     FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                   

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The Three Keys to Happiness and How to Attain Them

Countless life gurus and public speakers instruct and assure their audiences that the key to happiness lies in whatever they are about to recommend: a diet, a new gadget, or a trip to an exotic location. This prompted me to ask myself: What is the key to happiness? What makes humans happy? And finally, what does science have to say about happiness?

 

As a scientific field that has everything to do with our emotions and longings, psychology should have the key to happiness. In fact, psychologists today believe that there might be more than one key to happiness, namely three, to be precise. There is a whole field of psychology called positive psychology that deals with the study of happiness.

Researchers at Penn State University argue that there are 3 aspects to human happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. In every activity that we do, one or a few of these aspects come into play. When present, these 3 aspects of happiness will significantly enhance your life, but when absent, they can make you feel lazy, depressed and powerless.

If you want to become a much happier person by doing a few simple exercises that we share with you in this article or seek to expand your knowledge about happiness, just continue reading.

1. Pleasure

What Is Pleasure?

Pleasure is connected to positive emotions like joy, fun, satisfaction, pride, and excitement. These emotions feel great, but they are also scientifically proven to have marked positive health consequences and will improve your social relationships.

An example of a pleasurable activity is a fun night out with friends, an inspiring walk on a beach, a romantic date with your significant other, an interesting movie, a delicious meal, or anything else that makes you feel good.

How to Maximize a Pleasant Activity?

Don’t forget that humans are social beings. Both experimental findings and, maybe, your intuition as well support the idea that engaging in a pleasant activity, like a hobby, with others is more pleasant than engaging in the same activity alone.

Exercises that Will Boost Pleasure

If you find it difficult to relax and experience pleasure, you can try the following exercises. All of these are very customizable. You can choose the format, time and frequency of these exercises. The goal is to target and promote the activities that make you savor life much more.

1. Three Pleasant Things

Remember 3 things you did today that were fun, amusing, exciting, or pleasant. Write them down and explain how they made you feel. After a week, try looking back at your list and try to gauge what makes you feel happier and makes your life more pleasant and fun, you might be surprised!

2. Plan a beautiful day

Imagine/write down all the activities you’d like to do on a perfect day. Note, they have to be realistic. If you’d like to lay in bed all day that’s fine too, but try to be specific. Would you watch your favorite movie, read a great book, or do something entirely different? Now make that day happen, and then reflect: did that day feel as great as you imagined it would be? If not, why not? Repeat in some time.

3. Just set aside some time for the things you enjoy doing, such as hobbies and sports. Research proves that it is very important to be consistent to see a significant improvement. If you don’t hate writing, you can also write down how you feel before and after the fun activity and check your progress every month. This will not only motivate you to continue but will also boost your positive emotions.

2. Engagement

What Is Engagement?

By engagement or flow, psychology researchers mean a person’s ability to zone into whatever they are doing. You know that feeling when you’re so engaged with your task that you forget about everything that is going on around you? That is flow.

After finishing the task, that person will feel accomplished and delighted. Several studies report that a state of flow also increases the quality of performance and aids learning. Examples of flow include musicians improvising, a teacher explaining the study material with zest and vigor, a parent teaching his or her child to say a new word, etc.

As with pleasurable activities, engaging activities can, but don’t have to be work-related, one can experience flow during a sports activity, a hobby, or anything that challenges you, but isn’t too overwhelming.

The Exercise that Increases Engagement

To really increase flow, the best thing you can do is Mindfulness Meditation.

Mindfulness meditation is proven to reduce stress and increase focus, memory, relationship satisfaction and flexibility of thought. All you have to do is to pay attention to your feelings, thoughts, experiences, and sensations without the goal of changing or judging them. You are in the moment, focused on our present experiences, no matter how good or bad they might be.

The Body Scan is one of the shortest and most common types of mindfulness meditation. Those of you who were in a yoga class will be familiar with it. You can try doing a simple body scan by following the video guide at the end of the article.

3. Meaning

What Is Meaning?

All of us search for a sense of meaning in life, we need to explain to ourselves why we have the goals we have and why some things are more important to us than others. It turns out that this sense of purpose or belonging that psychologists call “meaning” is the top-ranked predictor of a person’s life satisfaction.

When we find meaning in an idea or goal, we feel so empowered that we are often ready to endure all the challenges, difficulties, and negative emotions that life throws at us. A person will find meaning in whatever resonates deeply with them, be it a role in a family, a social group, a religion, an organization or a tradition.

Exercises that Promote Meaning

Try at least 1 of these meaning exercises:
 
1. 3 Meaningful Things
This exercise is similar to the one we shared in the first exercise section. Your task is to remember/write down 3 things every day that were meaningful or significant to you. Describe your experience and try to understand how you felt. Repeat for a week and then look back, did anything change? If so, think why.

2. Do Something Altruistic vs Do Something Fun
This exercise is great for those of you who aren’t sure if they’re lacking meaning or pleasure in life. Plan 2 activities: one should be fun, let’s say an evening out at a fancy restaurant, and the other should be generous or meaningful, like helping a family member with some tedious chore.
After doing both, compare how each made you feel.
Which one made you feel better and the effects of which lasted longer? The activity that made you feel more accomplished and lasted longer is the one that is more important to you, no matter which one it ends up being.

3. Best Possible Self
This exercise was designed to promote meaning and optimism. You'll have to contemplate your best future in all areas of your life (e.g. romantic life, occupation, well-being, etc.).
Imagine in as much detail as you can your most important goals and picture how your life will improve once you’ve accomplished them. Think about this exercise as a realization of your potential and your dreams. After a week of doing this, you will feel much happier and more motivated.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/       
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To tackle insomnia go online

How did an online community looking to beat stress and insomnia blossom around videos of ear-to-ear whispering and hair-combing?

When 19-year-old Chicago resident Vishwesh S is struggling with stress, he knows he is going to toss in bed for hours before he doses off. Determined not to catnap the next day at sociology class, he decided to get help online.

That's where he found Maria. A pretty, soft-spoken blonde, Maria regularly uploads videos of herself leisurely applying make-up, tapping on her hairbrush rhythmically and playing teacher with a blackboard.

Vishwesh is part of a loyal following of six lakh viewers who are hooked to watching over 178 of Maria's videos.

Devoid of any sexual references (she is fully clothed when she imitates the White Queen), Maria's videos are lulling millions battling stress and insomnia to sleep using Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).

ASMR is an experimental perceptual phenomenon characterised as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp and spine in response to visual, auditory or cognitive stimuli. The triggers can vary from exposure to slow and unique speech patterns, watching another person complete a task (often in a diligent, attentive manner) to receiving close personal attention from another person. Haircuts or a touch from someone on the head and back are also a strong trigger, which explains the happy head feeling you experience during an old fashioned champi.

Although the term ASMR was coined in 2008 by a community of like-minded thinkers, they agree there is no scientific proof as yet to back the theory. But a burgeoning community of video recorders and viewers are vouching for its effectiveness.

"It's tricky to describe," says 27-year-old Alex Lynch from Russia, musician and creator on the ASMR Facebook page that has 13,000 subscribers. Most videos are about 20 minutes to an hour-long and feature soft tones and light with the subject performing mundane tasks repetitively. Roleplay is also popular where every day tasks are enacted with slow, purposeful motion. Combing of hair, dismantling clocks and reading out children's fairy tales seem to be big hits. For Lynch, ASMR was a term that explained something he has been experiencing all his life. "The community includes 70-year-olds too, but they tend to hide it from family because we lack scientific proof. If it makes someone feel better, and doesn't hurt anyone, it can't be all that bad," he says over mail.

ASMR artists (it's classified as an art for lack of medical proof) need not be qualified and often experiment with the content of the video. UK-based Emma or Whispers Red ASMR, according to her YouTube channel, gets 60,000-odd hits for every video she uploads. This she does at least twice a week. "Fans are very vocal about what they like and even suggest what I could do the next time around." She is currently involved with Braingasm, a Canadian docu that explores the subject.

Meanwhile, Antonio Jovanov, 19, a student at the University of Illinois, shoots and uploads ASMR videos in his spare time using his laptop. He mentions 'triggers' that can help induce relaxation. Jovanov uses a binaural microphone to whisper through each end to make it seem like the viewer has someone murmuring in their presence. This writer fell asleep during one of his videos, owing to its slow paced monotony.

"That's the point," explains 39-year-old Roberto Bordonaro, an Italian IT consultant, who is working on a device which can trigger ASMR by design. The response varies from one person to another but supporters say ASMR helps deal with depression, panic attacks and stress.

Dr Vikas Agrawal, sleep apnea expert at Asian Hospitals draws a parallel to Tinnitus retraining therapy used for those suffering from Tinnitus or a ringing in the ears in the absence of external sound, leaving them prone to insomnia. While he isn't convinced about ASMR, he says it can't hurt patients. "We ask patients to turn the radio on and tune in between two stations. The distorted air wave disturbance acts as a noise canceller to the perceived sound. There is no great science and it works without side-effects," he says, drawing a parallel.

Meanwhile, ASMR artists and fans continue to sleep in perceived peaceful bliss thanks to videos that run with a disclaimer, "this video cannot replace any medication or professional treatment"

ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.

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