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Sobering Facts About Holiday Drunk Driving

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This is the season for celebrating with family and friends. But, when it comes to drunk driving, this most joyous time of year is also the deadliest. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), every holiday season, hundreds of lives are lost due to drunk drivers.

Drunk driving facts

Over the past five years, an average of 300 people nationally died in drunk driving crashes during the Christmas through New Year’s holiday period. From 2012-2016, in the month of December, the NHTSA reported 14,472 people lost their lives in traffic accidents. Of those December deaths, 28%, or 3,995, people died in drunk-driving crashes.

Approximately one-third of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers (with blood alcohol concentrations [BACs] of .08 of higher). In every State, it’s illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, yet one person was killed in a drunk-driving crash every 50 minutes in the United States in 2016.

In 2016, the NHTSA reported 10,497 people killed in these preventable crashes. What’s more, over the 10-year period from 2006-2016, an average of more than 10,000 people died every year in drunk-driving crashes.

Steps to Prevent drunk driving

At this time of year, the NHTSA suggests the following steps to prevent drunk driving:

  • If you will be drinking, plan on not driving.
  • Plan your safe ride home before you start the party.
  • Designate a sober driver ahead of time.
  • If you drink, do not drive for any reason.
  • Call a taxi, phone a sober friend or family member, use public transportation, etc.
  • Download NHTSA’s SaferRide app from Google Play or the iTunes Store which helps you identify your location and call a taxi or friend to pick you up.
  • If someone you know has been drinking, do not let that person get behind the wheel. Take their keys and help them arrange a sober ride home.
  • If you see an impaired driver on the road, contact local law enforcement. Your actions could help save someone’s life.

Call The Council

If you, a loved one, or friend have a problem with alcohol, call The Council on Recovery at 713-941-4200 or contact us online. We are Houston’s leading non-profit provider of prevention, education, treatment, and recovery services. We can help!

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 45

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 45 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

In the aftermath of the fall of Rome in the 5th century and the loss of its literary and cultural majesty, the European continent became widely diverse and generally devoid of scholarship. The Church was the only institution of wide-spread power. In this environment, which lasted almost 600 years, there were a number of mythic systems which emerge. One was the great Celtic legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. A host of stories emerged out of this system, about kings, queens, knights and ladies, who pursue glorious quests in search of physical, psychical and spiritual treasures.

Holy Grail Illustration

The most prominent of these quests is the search for the “Holy Grail,” which is the cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper and which Joseph of Arimathea used to capture some of Christ’s blood as he was lowered from the Cross. Joseph was portrayed as part of a group that then fled Palestine, traveling West with the Cup to found an order in the Celtic lands charged with keeping the Cup. The Arthurian Knights that sought the Grail were on quests for spiritual enlightenment and ascension, which they achieve by coming into the presence of the Grail.

Those of us on the journeys into lives of sobriety are on similar quests…quests to achieve a sense of freedom, peace and serenity. Having made the decision to commit ourselves to the journey, we must do the work to recover with a sense of determination and rigor. We must explore the dark and frightening elements of our past in all its dimensions and find a conscious contact with our Higher Power so we can repair the harm we may have done in our disease and develop a saner mode of life.

Finally, we fully commit ourselves to a life of service, to mankind and to the cosmos. In relatively short order, we find ourselves in a place just as glorious as those the Arthurian Knights achieved in the presence of the Grail.

Alarming Increase in Adolescent Vaping and Nicotine Use in 2018

teenage vaping

An alarming increase in the prevalence of vaping among adolescents has raised public health concern, according to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Research into vaping among teens was conducted by the University of Michigan. It indicated a sharp increase in the prevalence of nicotine vaping: 10% among 12th-graders, 7.9% among 10th-graders, and 2.6% among 8th-graders. These percentages mean 1.3 million additional adolescents engaged in nicotine vaping in 2018, as compared with 2017.

The study’s authors suggest that policies in place in the 2017–2018 school year were not sufficient to stop the spread of nicotine vaping. Additionally, rapid growth of new vaping devices, such as the Juul, will require modified strategies to keep adolescents from vaping and its associated negative health effects.

The Center for Recovering Families’ Adolescent Services department is carefully tracking and responding to the increase in teen vaping.  Through Mindful Choices, our High-Risk Behavior course, as well as prevention, parent education, and counseling services, the Center for Recovering Families is in the vanguard of local efforts to stem the tide of teenage substance abuse in our community.

If you or a loved one needs help to stop vaping, call the Center for Recovering Families at 713-914-0556, contact us online, or download our brochure. We can help. Start here.

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 44

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 44 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

In the Charles Dickens’ story, A Christmas Carol, the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly banker whom no one likes and who has nothing good to say about life, sees an apparition late on Christmas Eve.  It is of his long dead partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him of the errors of his miserly ways and foretells the coming of three spirits in dreams Scrooge is to have that same night.  Scrooge 1

In the first such dream, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to the place of his boyhood and has him witness an adolescent Ebenezer struggling with his long abandonment by his father to a difficult boarding school. The young Ebenezer is rescued and brought home by his dear sister, but, as he grows into manhood in the dream, he becomes obsessed with the idea of working tirelessly to be financially successful, perhaps as a counterweight to the feelings of loneliness and deprivation he had as a boy.

The Ghost takes Scrooge through the various times of his later life…early adulthood, middle age, and full maturity, observing his increasing focus on financial success and on a gradual withdrawal from society.

The second dream has the Ghost of Christmas Present taking Scrooge around to those people of Scrooge’s current life, showing their happiness with simple things despite a very meager set of living circumstances.

The third dream, with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, focuses on a series of dire future happenings that seem fully ordained, but for which Scrooge becomes obsessed with a desire to change.

Upon waking up on Christmas morning, Scrooge is entirely transformed.  He immediately attends to the serious circumstances of those people in his current life and commits himself to living a happy, joyous life with all those around him.

It occurs to me that, while the circumstances and nature of Scrooge’s addiction is radically different, the process of his deterioration over time and the depth of the societal chasm he creates for himself provide a stark parallel to our lives in the diseases of alcoholism and drug abuse.   Looking at the process of his change over Christmas Eve into Day, there appears a wonderful, if highly compressed, parallel to our getting sober and working the steps.

The confrontation with Marley is the beginning of the great awakening.  The journeys on which he is taken by the three Spirits seem akin to the working of Steps, traversing the long-gone and recent pasts to get a sense of the depth of his disease, and then the embrace of a new way to be present in the world.  They all seem a very sharp and poignant parallel to our own journeys.

The people Scrooge attends to on Christmas Day and beyond – his housekeeper, his clerk and family, and his own nephew, the son of his dear sister – all convey to Scrooge an infectious joy and wonder at life, one that seems to echo our own joyous lives in sobriety today.

Debunking the Myths About Holiday Drinking & Driving

drinking&driving2018Celebrating the spirit of the holidays often includes drinking holiday spirits. Most people celebrate responsibly. But during the holiday season, people are more likely to drink beyond a safe limit than at other times of year. And when driving is involved, the resulting consequences can be tragic. Despite all the evidence of the dangers, myths around drinking and driving still abound. Some of them can prove fatal.

Myths & Facts

Myth: Your decision-making abilities and driving skills are not impaired until intoxication occurs.

Fact: Even a few drinks can diminish your decision-making, including the decision of whether or not to drive. So your driving skills may be compromised well before physical signs of intoxication. Though you may initially feel stimulated by a drink or two, alcohol consumption can rapidly decrease good judgment and reaction times. And while you may not feel or appear drunk, the sharpness needed for good decisions and responsible driving can be dulled by even a small amounts of alcohol.

Myth: If you’re not slurring your words or feeling inebriated, it’s okay to drive.

Fact: Coordination needed for safe driving diminishes long before the signs of intoxication occur. Additionally, the sedative effects of alcohol increase your risk of losing attention or falling asleep behind the wheel.

Myth: After drinking all evening, it’s okay to drive after “sobering up.”

Fact: After finishing drinking, you may misjudge how long alcohol will affect your driving abilities. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol’s effect on the body and brain may persist long after the final drink. Despite a cup of coffee or cold-shower, alcohol in the bloodstream can continue to impair your judgment and coordination for many hours.

Myth: A couple of cups of coffee will sober you up.

Fact: Though caffeine may help avert drowsiness, it doesn’t affect the alcohol that’s still in your bloodstream impairing judgment or coordination. It may take hours for your body to return to normal after metabolizing alcohol. In this way, time without additional alcohol provides you the only way to sober up. And sober is the only truly safe way to drive.

A simple message

Though there are many myths about drinking, driving, and other behaviors, the facts readily dispel each one of them. According the CDC, every day, 29 people in the U.S. die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. The Council on Recovery wants everyone in our community to be safe during this season and recommends adherence to the old adage, “Don’t Drink and Drive”.

If you must travel after drinking

If you must travel after drinking, ride with a designated sober driver. Or call a cab, Uber, or Lyft. Some of these offer free or discounted rides during the holidays. METRO offers free rides on local bus, rail, and lift services from 6 p.m. December 31 until 6 a.m. on January 1. AAA-Texas offers free “Tipsy Tow” service on New Year’s Eve, providing a one-way ride up to 10 miles for the driver and vehicle to the driver’s home. However you get home, just get there safely.

We can help

At this season, if you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol, drugs, or other addictive behaviors, call The Council at 713-941-4200 or contact us online. Recovery can be the sweetest gift you give yourself or a loved one this year. Start at The Council. We can help!

Internet Gaming Disorder: When Entertainment Turns Into Addiction

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) may follow the same trajectory as other addictions.

For most, gaming is not a problem

Internet gaming is wildly popular. According to the Entertainment Software Association, nearly two-thirds of American homes have at least one person who plays video games. And that’s not just kids. Nearly 160 million adults play games on the internet. Of that number, 45% are women. As a major source of entertainment, games are highly engaging and competitive. For most people, internet gaming is stimulating and enjoyable.

When gaming turns into addiction

But some people cross the line from enthusiastic focus on gaming to distressed addiction.  That means their use of video games has progressed from use to misuse, and then abuse. It’s much the same trajectory as occurs with other addictions, such as alcoholism and substance use disorders.

Symptoms of gaming addiction

Like other addictions, internet gaming disorder (IGD) can create significant impairment or distress in a person’s life. Symptoms may include:

  • Preoccupation with gaming
  • Withdrawal symptoms, such as sadness, anxiety, or irritability, if gaming is not possible
  • Build-up of tolerance and the need to spend more time gaming to satisfy the urge
  • Inability to reduce playing and/or unsuccessful attempts to quit gaming
  • Giving up other activities due to gaming or loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities
  • Continued gaming despite problems
  • Deceiving family members or others about the amount of time spent on gaming
  • The use of gaming to relieve negative moods, such as guilt or hopelessness
  • Having jeopardized or lost a job or relationship due to gaming

Risk factors and treatment

The risk factors related to IGD and criteria for diagnosing and treating it are still being researched and developed. Therapeutic  interventions, such as counseling and intensive outpatient treatment, have also emerged as more is understood about this uniquely 21st century addiction.

How to get help

As with all addictions, personal awareness of the problem and the willingness to get help are the important first steps to dealing with it. The Council’s Center for Recovering Families offers clinical assessments for those struggling with video gaming and/or internet addiction to determine the scope of the problem and the best course of  treatment. We offer therapeutic counseling, psycho-educational services, and recovery support for both adults and adolescents dealing with a variety of addictions associated with the internet and video gaming.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction to internet gaming or any other addiction or co-occurring mental health disorder, call The Council on Recovery at 713-942-4100 or contact us here. Start at The Council. We can help.