Alcoholism - Episode 11

Episode Transcript

(00:18):
Hi, I'm Daniel Barley along withmay Omar Weeks. Welcome to Psychobabbile dash
Me. Today we're going to talkabout alcohol use disorder. But before we
start, we want to put outa disclaimer that this in no way is
meant to replace mental health treatment andthe episode may be triggering for some individuals.
So with alcohol use disorder is apattern of alcohol use that involves problems

(00:42):
controlling your drinking, being preoccupied withalcohol, or contributing to the use of
alcohol even whenever it causes problems.And in the United States, it's estimated
that twenty nine point five million peopleages twelve and up met the criteria for
alcohol use disc disorder in the lastyear, and worldwide, three million people

(01:06):
die every year related to alcohol use. It affects like every parts of your
body, right Danielle, Yes,your brain, your pancreas, your liver
right, and also the you know, motor vehicle accidents related to that,
and it does change your brain chemistrywhen you are a heavy drinker. So

(01:27):
you want to go over the criteriathat we use for the alcohol use disorder
Danielle, Yes, Okay, Soyou only actually need two of these twelve
to meet the criteria that we usein the profession. So first they say
that alcohol is taken in larger amountsover a longer period than intended, like

(01:47):
binge drinking. Right, the persistentdesire or unsuccessful attempts to decrease use or
control use of alcohol, great dealof time to spend activities to obtain alcohol,
use alcohol, or from the effectsof alcohol, you know, hangovers,
cravings or strong desires to use alcohol. Recurrent use resulting in failure to

(02:08):
fulfill major life obligations at work,school, or home. Continued use of
alcohol in spite of problems caused bydrinking, whether those be social, personal
in your marriage or your relationships,social work, or recreational activities are given
up or reduced because of alcohol use, Like if they're not serving, you
know, alcohol, I'm not goingto go that kind of thing. Continued

(02:30):
alcohol use in situations where it isphysically hazardous. Continued alcohol use despite persistent
physical and psychological problems that are causedby your drinking, and tolerance which is
a need for increased amounts of alcoholto get the desired effect and or diminished
effect with the same amount of alcohol, which is basically the same thing.
And then withdraw which may develop severalhours to a few days after reducing or

(02:53):
stopping drinking. And I've had patientssay that I'm not an alcoholic because I
didn't drink for two days and nothinghappened. Well, sometimes it takes longer,
and the thing with alcohol is thatit can kill you, Yeah,
especially with with withdraws. So andtwo, I think the myth is people
think that they're not alcoholics because theydon't drink every day, you know.

(03:14):
Because on a personal note, I'lljust say my father was an alcoholic.
He did become clean and sober,but he didn't drink every day. He
did more of the benches drinking.Yeah, like whether it have been on
the weekend, you know, he'ddrink for a day or two days,
which it did affect our lives,you know, as as children, because

(03:37):
we were younger then. And sometimeshe would call off work. He was
a mill worker, and so Ialways remember my mom would have to call
him off. Now he worked reallyhard, and but just the alcohol and
it it was in the family,so like his dad, you know,
like that. But I just rememberbeing impacted as a young child because my

(04:00):
dad would be like, I'm goingto the grocery store to get ice cream
or like you'd be like, I'mgoing to get pizza, and sometimes you
would come back and sometimes you wouldyou know, and it was it was,
it was tough. It was itwas really hard and impacted us.
But he did become sober and hehas passed on due to cancer. But

(04:23):
just it it affects the whole family, yeah, and everyone around you.
Yeah. So some of the symptomsof withdrawal or increase in your pulse,
sweating, hand tremors, difficulties,sleeping, nausea, and vomiting. You
can start hallucinating and then you canhave seizures and like we said that,
uh you know these you can diefrom alcohol withdrawing. And some of the

(04:47):
simple questions you can ask yourself,you can ask a loved one. Is
the cage questionnaire that we ask people. So that's ages. So have you
thought that you need to cut down? Are people annoyed the a by your
drinking? Do you feel guilt overyour drinking? And do you need eye
openers to start the day. Andjust to touch back on what Danielle was

(05:11):
saying about the binge drinking, Sothe National Institute at of Hell says that
quote. Healthy drinking is women onedrink per day, men two drinks per
day. Heavy drinking, which alsodefines binge drinking, is four more drinks
per day or more than eight drinksper week for a woman, five or
more drinks per day or more thanfifteen or more drinks for men. So

(05:36):
if you think about that, Imean, you know, if you have
two drinks every night and you're aman, that's fourteen drinks a week.
I mean that's pretty close, right, yes, And then you want to
go with some of the meds thatwe give to treat alcohol. Yeah,
some of the meds currently that we'represcribing in our office as vivitrial. It's

(05:57):
an injection that is on monthly.And what it does is that you know,
whenever you have an addiction, youhave pleasure sensors in the brain,
and what the vivitrol does is itkind of comes in it it covers those
pleasure sensors so that you don't haveurges to drink. You can't drink on
it because you will get sick.I've had so much success with it.
Yeah, there's the oral nltrek zoneright also that helps, But once again,

(06:25):
the patient that's taking it can't drinkon it because they will get sick
from it. There's an abuse whichI don't do you see that. No,
I don't use it that much becauseI don't think it works because if
you don't take it, then youjust drink and anterbuse just makes you sick.
But backing up on the vivitral,the naltres so, the n oltreksone
is the pill form of the vivitrol, and you have to make sure that

(06:47):
you're opiate free. For some peoplesay seven days, others say fourteen.
And when I worked, it wasalways fourteen days, because if you are
on opiates and you start these drugs, you'll go into like opiate withdrawal.
Yeah, because that the vital treats. We're not talking about the opiates,
but it treats opiates and alcohol.And I've seen at work extremely well as

(07:12):
long as they take it and theycome back for it. And then I've
also used Gabba petin or neuron thatalso does the same thing Danielle is talking
about. It reduces the cravings.And Campero, which is another also an
older drug that also reduces the cravings. Yes, some of the risk factors
for alcohol use may be that theperson began in their teens steady drinking every

(07:36):
time, starting at an early age, Like I said, family history,
which, like I had talked about, there was a family history depression and
other mental health problems, history oftrauma emotional trauma PTSD, having we were
just talking about this. Having bariatricsurgery indicates that may increase the risk of

(08:00):
developing the alcohol use disorder, socialand cultural factors. Having friends or a
close partner who drinks regularly increase therisk of your alcohol use disorder. Yeah,
and that bariatric surgery. I knowit sounds like it's out of left
field, but I had two patientsthat that happened to that had never had
trouble with alcohol, and then theyhad the surgery and once since your you

(08:24):
know, stomach becomes the size ofa pee, they would get loaded on
like two drinks. But they wereboth became alcoholics and had all sorts of
health issues from you know, fallsbecause they got drunk so easily, to
problems with their liver, their immunesystem. They're pancreast because it can cause
chronic pancreatitis. So bizarre, butit does happen. Yeah, right now,

(09:05):
we're going to introduce a special guest, a good friend of mine that's
gonna talk today about her struggles withalcohol use. Yeah, thanks for joining
us. We really appreciate it,no problem, Thanks for inviting me.
So, I guess we want tostart, like, when did it start?
When was the beginning? When didyou notice that it was an issue
or a problem? You know,I think it's had been going on for

(09:30):
quite some time before I was willingto admit that it was a problem obviously,
I you know, to go back, I I drank when I was
younger, more socially like through Calle, even a little bit in high school.
So I did start a little early, but nothing crazy. Even through

(09:54):
college. It was more during thesummers and on breakin and things like that.
It was binge drinking. Yeah,because I was a college athlete and
so I didn't really went to avery strict college, so there was just
not a lot of an opportunity forme to get into too much trouble right

(10:16):
then, when I graduated college,I grew up in Wheeling. I graduated
college, and I moved to Richmond, Virginia, and I got a job
that I was in the brokerage industry. And I don't know if anybody,
if you recall anything back in thelate nineties, early two thousands, it

(10:37):
was a big There were a lotof drinking was a part of the job,
like after hours, you went tohappy hour, a lot of the
you know, conferences and things likethat. So it was socially acceptable.
It was socially acceptable almost that wasyou know what you did. Yeah,

(11:01):
And so it started I started drinkingmore and more, and then that I
had some I had some personal thingsgoing on in my life, and then
that it triggered me to just drinkmore and more. And what's more and
more? Like how much were youdrinking every day? Were you? Yeah?
I mean not every day. Imean, but I would say,

(11:24):
I would say probably five days aweek. And how much would you drink?
It started off It all depends,you know. I was a I'm
a beer drink. I was wasa beer drinker. But then it became
shots and you know, things likethat, and so I don't even know
it was it was more than whatyour lot. I mean, yeah,

(11:46):
like I've had patience prob have youknow, four tall beers and two or
three shots of fireball, you know, kind of. I mean it was,
it was a lot. Yeah,I I don't know how much you
want me to go into. Iended up I got a dui and then

(12:07):
that didn't even phase me. Andhow old were you in this, like
when you got your first tu?I hold were you? Oh gosh,
I was it was? It waslater, I mean I was probably,
I think I was. It wasafter forty, like thirty thirty nine,
forty like around there. I can'tI can't remember exactly what. So you'd

(12:30):
been drinking for a long time,long time. Yeah, yeah, No,
I didn't lose my job. Idid lose my job at the brokerage
firm, and I think that triggeredsome things, like to where I was
drinking more because like that was athat was a hit because I had a
really good job. And was thejob loss related to your drinking? I
think that, yeah. I wouldsay, yes that I was never one

(12:52):
to like get up in the morningand need to have a drink, Like
I never drank before work, youknow, But I mean I was drinking
more and more, and I thinkit, yeah, it was yeah,
yeah, it catches up to yeah, and then you you were telling us
that you got a second I did, I got a second du y and

(13:13):
within a year and a half,so and you know, I was very
fortunate that that was not in anyaccidents. I didn't hurt anybody or myself
and those But I also think thatthen wasn't enough to be a wake up
call either. Like I continued ondrinking, and it got more and more.

(13:35):
And then I was working for ahotel design firm and COVID hit and
obviously there was nobody gone to anyhotel, so any kind of money I
was I was laid off. Sothen I was I was drinking more and
more, like earlier on in theday, like not waking up, but

(13:58):
like I mean, I was notworking, so I was drinking more,
and then I just I slowly Iwas. I think when I first noticed
like that it was affecting my healthbecause I have always throughout all of this,
I've always been a pretty healthy personand I never went to the doctor

(14:18):
I had, so I hadn't beengetting any kind of checkups to know any
kind of blood work to see whatit was affecting. And it wasn't.
And during COVID, I was helpinga friend of mine who had a cleaning
business just to make some extra money, and I was helping her clean and
I noticed physically like my legs werelike getting tired and you know things.

(14:39):
But I just didn't did anybody likethat you knew or in your circle,
like did it affect your relationships oranybody comment about Yeah, people would comment
about it, for sure, andI would blow it off and yeah,
I mean they yeah, it definitelydid. How the people that you were
hanging out with were they drinkers?Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it

(15:01):
was one of those things where itwas like, yeah, you went to
I went to work, and thenyou were at the bar after work.
Yeah. So I mean it wasdrinking as much, if not more than
me, you know, and itwas it was it was close to I
mean, like I said, itwas probably five six days a week that

(15:22):
I was drinking. And and thenit, like I said, I started
it noticing that it, you know, was affecting me, and then and
then it just got it like itI think it. My memory is very
fuzzy from when it went from likebad to okay, really bad, and

(15:45):
I just I lost. I wasn'table to walk, I wasn't able to
move and you know, I mean, it just yeah, a lot of
Once you came back to Wheeling,Yeah, yes, I will say that
Danielle and my older sister drove downto Richmond and brought me back and I
had zero recollections and what what?What prompted that? What happened? So

(16:08):
her friend that she was staying withhad called us and let us know that
she wasn't walking, she was justgetting worse medically. I did reach out
to somebody and in the medical fieldand they said, you need to go
get her or she's probably gonna die. And we did go get her.

(16:30):
Our first stop was Wheeling Hospital whereher kidneys were failing, her liver.
She was pretty much near death aboutthe time that we got her. And
were you still drinking until they cameto get you? I had stopped for
like I when they came to getme, I hadn't had anything to drink

(16:52):
for weeks because I just couldn't doanything. I remember I was door dash
she in like pedia light and thinkingthat like I could just fix it myself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, itjust I Actually I actually went to
This is the sad part is Iactually went to the emergency room at en

(17:17):
Richmond to Virginia Commonwealth University downtown Richmond. They kept me for two nights,
did a bunch of tests, andlet me go. And I think either
and then again I went call thatwhen I was at my friend's house,
I uh, we called an ambulanceand they took me to It was more

(17:38):
of a I don't know, maybelike an urgent care similar to here,
like kind of a pop up place, and I couldn't get off the floor.
They they were they refused to treatme, I mean to even acknowledge
that there was something wrong. Andthat was back during COVID time. So
I had gone in by myself,and then my friend and her husband like

(18:00):
like they wouldn't even help me upoff the floor. And so I did
try to get treatment, not youknow, at least I say treatment like
medical treatment. Not. Did yourealize that it was related to the alcohol
use? I figured I figured atthat point. I mean I didn't.

(18:22):
I didn't know what else it couldhave been, but I thought I didn't
realize it was nearly as bad asit was. Did you go through withdrawal
at all? I don't recall that. Yeah, And has it affected your
your cognitive abilities? Did and youshe was in Wheeling Hospital for three weeks.

(18:45):
You're looking at me, and Idon't remember. She went to Peterson
Rehabilitation Center for what eighteen months?I was there for thirteen months, thirteen
months, And the first I don'tI don't all Wheeling hospital at all.
That. I don't have any memoryof that. And then the first few

(19:07):
months of Peterson I don't have arecollection of but I hear stories and you
know, yeah, hallucinating. Iwas hallucinating. I was, you were,
You just don't remember, Yeah,what what was the I was on
all kinds of medicine. I doremember that. I mean I was drinking
the lac glose, Yeah, vitamins, the vitamins because you know, you

(19:27):
lacked that twelve twelve and the neurologistscener. We were real worried about her
liver, but ended up because wewere wondering if it was she's gonna have
to get a transport. Yeah,but it kind of got better the hallucinations
that the psych did come into Petersonand give her some risk for it all,

(19:51):
and she was able to stop hallucinating. That was one thing that I
was really nervous about. And mysister, sure, my older sister is
a nurse, and she happened tobe there visiting, you know, visiting
when one day when they the psychologistscame in and said that they were gonna
start to wean me off of Idon't think I was on a high dose,

(20:12):
but they were gonna wean me offthat. But I was very nervous.
I was cognitive enough to know atthat point that I was on it
for hallucinating, and I was concernedthat it was gonna they were going to
come back. They were going tocome back, and so I luckily I
have friends that are in family thatare in the medical field, and we're

(20:33):
able to you know, I said, I if I start this again,
and I need to be on itbecause I that was a big concern of
mine. But I don't I don'tremember the first few months of being in
Peterson and then once they took oncethey weaned me off of it, I
didn't have any more hallucinations that Itell us about you getting better, learning

(20:56):
how to walk again. Yeah,I mean I like the things that it
affected me, which I never knewthat like alcoholism could affect these areas.
But like I, I couldn't situp, I couldn't use my hand.
I couldn't feed myself. I meanI could do nothing on my own.
My legs I couldn't I couldn't movethem. So you know, through physical

(21:18):
therapy and everything. I mean,I'm I have you see, I have
these braces now and I walk,you know, can walk with a cane.
But I mean they didn't think thatthat would ever ever happen. You
know, I've worked hard for that. But and and all your labs are
normal now because I mean the livercan correct itself. And usually just had

(21:40):
blood work. I go back tothe doctor on Monday, because I've been
I've been out of Peterson. Itwas a year December thirtieth, and I
go back. I've been to thedoctor several times. But uh, I
had blood work just the other dayand I had Danielle her labs and her
labs are perfect, right, yeah, I mean my doctor ed Peterson,

(22:02):
what was said. He used tocall me as many miracle like because I
mean, for all intents and purposes, I mean, I shouldn't be here
talking right now. I mean,it was that bad. And I feel
they talk about the guilt you feel, and I'm fortunate enough that I guess

(22:22):
your body kind of adjusts and protectsyou from remembering that part. But these
guys had to they remember it,and I feel bad for that. Well,
yeah, I don't ever feel badabout that. And this is actually
the first time I've really opened upand talked about it. But I mean

(22:47):
maybe, I mean, I knowyou might need to talk to someone about
it just to get it out.You know. I don't try that before,
and I know that it different.That's one of them. I think
that was one of my struggles isthat I I didn't talk about it.
I've always been I always prided myselfon being a very independent person and I

(23:08):
moved away and you know the realityof it is is I wouldn't be here.
I didn't have people depend on dependingon that I could depend on.
So have you tried like AA oranything? You know I had to go
to That was part of like someof the rehab with my D with my

(23:30):
DUI is that. But have youtried it since? Because I know it
took this to get you. Yeah, I have not, and I don't.
I haven't. I haven't thought aboutit in that manner like just because
it's like I don't I don't haveany urge or any desire to drink right
at all, and if and Ithink I would if I would be open

(23:52):
to that if if it came toit, But I don't feel like I
feel like I feel like mentally it'shelping me. Because that was when I
got discharged. That was my biggestconcern. And I went to live with
Danielle, and you know, she'sworking during the day. So I went
and you know, I was ina nursing home and you know, my
friends in my roommates were seventy eightyyears old, you know, and you

(24:18):
know, and I will say thisabout the staff there was phenomenal to me.
I mean, I like, mentallylike that that was very good for
me. Like I couldn't have hada better staff and people that worked there
help helping me out, my physicaltherapist, my nurses, my aides,

(24:41):
and then you know, I hadsomebody coming to visit me, multiple people
every day, you know. AndI sat there for thirteen months, and
I saw people that didn't never haveany visits. You know, It's like
it's I was. My concern wasthat when I got out, like just
mentally, not that I would wantto drink, because I, like I

(25:03):
said, I've never that's never Idon't have any desire to just being alone
for long periods of time, butI mean that that was okay, I
would not so long story short,I wouldn't be opposed to it if if
I felt like I was struggling mentally. But I feel like I'm in a

(25:23):
really good place right now, andI you know, so I so I
have yeah, just for the youknow people listening. So you know AA
is Alcoholics Anonymous, and some peoplefind a lot of benefit in it just
kind of in the community and beingable to talk about their experiences. Yeah,
and then other people struggle absolutely too. And then sometimes even whenever you

(25:45):
talk, you can help help otherpeople. Yeah, not just yeah,
We're not trying to push it on, but just so people know that's an
option out there for people to help. And they also have ALAN on,
which is for the families of uh, the alcoholics to go to and kind
of talk about, you know,their enabling or their guilt or their feelings

(26:06):
about what happened. Yeah, yeah, it was, you know, like
I said, and it's and I'vecome so far, you know, since
I'm grateful for the second chance ofit. It sounds kind of corny,
but I mean, it's what itis. And you know, I work
hard and you know, still trying, you know, physical therapy and things

(26:30):
like that. I mean, it'sit's all. I look forward to it
and I'll trying to get better,a little bit better every time. Yeah,
And I'm telling you she has workedso hard. There's not a day
that she doesn't miss doing her herexercises. She's using the peloton, doing
ten miles on the peloton. Unfortunately, sad as it is physical therapy,

(26:56):
they cut her off, you knowhow, insurance too, So we're hoping
to eventually get her back into physicaltherapy. But I just want you to
know how proud I am of you. Well, thank you. I appreciate
that you've come like so far andI and I just love you, and
I think that you're just gonna I'mI appreciate it and I and like I

(27:21):
said, I couldn't have done itwithout everybody. And it's it's funny because
I think I grew up and alot of things came easily to me.
Like I was an athlete, andI I played all kinds of sports,
and I never in school, Igot good grades and I never really had
to work for anything, not thatI didn't work, but it was it

(27:47):
wasn't a struggle. And what thishas been, I've worked harder than than
I have in my entire life andand I'm I'm proud of right, yeah,
yeah life. I said, Iwouldn't be here if it weren't for

(28:07):
I mean, like I said,I mean I Danielle and my sister have
both said, like when they cameto I mean, Richmond's a seven hour
drive and it's like they picked meup and like their strategy was, will
drive until if we have to stopat a hospital, like it was that

(28:27):
bad. They said that they didn'tknow if I was going to make it
that I don't mean to make makeit all my chuckle, but yeah,
make it home. Yeah yeah,Well, I'm sure I speak for a
lot of people who are happy thatyou did. Well. Thank you.
I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Like I said, I mean,
everybody's struggle is different, and absolutelyI would, you know, if take

(28:52):
advantage. I was always one thatprided myself on being able to do things
on my own, and this wassomething that I that I couldn't and so
people were there to help you andtake advantage of anything that you know anybody
feels comfortable with. Well, thankyou so much for coming on, you're
welcome, thank you for having meso much, and just remember you're not

(29:15):
alone. Take care. Bye byem