Inside (29 articles)
New to AA? Start here – a list of 9 quick-read articles answering all your important questions on getting started with the 12 steps.
Early recovery is a difficult time. We must keep it simple and have an open mind, if we are to find our way to a better life.
Learn what to expect from counseling and find out how a counselor can help you move from use to sobriety and from sobriety to recovery.
The most challenging aspect of answering this is that it depends entirely on what we believe an alcoholic is.
Morning after drinking guilt and shame - why do you feel so low that next morning and what can you do about it?
Check Yourself: Alcohol Disease Risks and the Mortality Rates Associated with Your Level of Drinking
Based on your current level of drinking, find out your risk for certain cancers, cirrhosis, heart attack and stroke (and remember, if you’re still reasonably healthy, you can reduce your risks dramatically by curbing heavy drinking.)
Common AA myths: AA is a cult...AA is only for Christians...research says AA doesn't work, and more. Why not dig a little deeper and learn the truth?
Do you drink heavily? Would a daily thiamine and multivitamin supplement reduce your risk of brain damage? Read on to find out more.
OK – so we know that AA helps people stay sober…but how and why does it help? Well, some of the ways people benefit from AA include: by changing their social networks, by experiencing less depression, by increasing self-confidence and others.
Here are 2 facts about alcoholism: It tends to get worse over time (it is progressive) and most people experience a fairly similar progression of symptoms and consequences. Here is a timeline which charts the progressive experiences of alcoholism through the early, middle and late stages. If you have a drinking problem, find out where you fall on the timeline and consider what’s coming in the future.
Researchers say that your brain can make a nearly complete recovery – so long as you give it some recovery time. Here's a timeline of when you can expect different cognitive abilities will return to normal after you quit drinking.
How’s your liver? Find out more about alcoholic liver diseases, and most importantly, learn 8 ways to heal your liver now that you’re no longer drinking! (If you’re still drinking too much, there’s really only 1 thing you need to do - stop hurting your liver.)
Here’s how it works: take a pill each morning and know that for the rest of the day even a sip or two of alcohol will make you feel horribly ill. Need to quit drinking? Is disulfiram a good option for you? Read on to learn more about this FDA approved alcoholism treatment medication.
One of the finest compliments I receive from recovering alcoholics is that despite the fact that I am not an alcoholic, I understand how their minds work. I have profound respect for all the old sayings in AA. Some are open to interpretation - the "insanity of our disease" is a literal statement.
Although it may not be fair, women alcoholics suffer a far worse fate than men. They get more cancers, more liver disease and experience greater cognitive declines. Anyone drinking to excess needs help, but women alcoholics shouldn't wait even one more day. Get help, get sober; feel better.
So you’re drinking too much and you want to change – you have 2 choices, either cut down or quit entirely. While abstinence is the safest course of action it’s not for everyone, and some people want to at least try to cut down before conceding to a need for complete sobriety. Do you want to become a more moderate drinker? If so, here’s how to do it….
If you’re drinking for health reasons, you may want to think again, because while very moderate drinking may reduce your odds of heart disease, even moderate drinking is being shown to increase your risk for a host of cancers.
The more you drink the greater your risk to develop a problem… but how does your drinking compare to American averages? Find out where you fit in and find out - based on how much you drink - your risk of developing an alcohol abuse disorder.
DWI courts, based on the model of drug court, offer chronic DUI offenders a chance to beat alcoholism for good.
They call hypertension the silent killer. Heavy drinking greatly increases the risks.
Understanding the causes, treatments and prevention of painful pancreatitis.
Heavy drinking can cause acute or chronic stomach pain.
Take the 2 minute alcohol abuse screening quiz TWEAK - designed specifically for women.
A lot of people attend a single AA meeting and dismiss the group as "full of people that have nothing in common with me". 12 steppers call this phenomenon terminal uniqueness. It's very common, and it's usually completely false.
Learn how many calories some common alcoholic drinks contain.
Long years of heavy drinking may lead to a thiamine deficiency, and a syndrome known as Wernicke-Korsakoff (wet brain). Much of the brain damage experienced is unfortunately irreversible.
Why can some people drink heavily and never become alcoholics when other people get addicted so quickly?
Years of chronic and heavy drinking can substantially damage the organs and systems of the body, and although some of this damage is reversible, sadly, some of the cognitive declines are not. As follows are a list of some of the major organs, and how alcohol abuse can affect each of these organs.
While the biological basis of alcoholism is far from completely understood, research now seems to indicate that there is a genetic predisposition passed through families that leaves some more vulnerable to abuse. For anyone with an alcoholic close relative, extra caution must be exhibited when using alcohol.