Dare To Be Yourself Without Drugs And Alcohol

Whether you are young or not-so-young, there is one fact which is probably true-- when you began using drugs and alcohol, you may have thought it was a great way to fit in with others who were doing the same thing. If you think about it, though, there is something that is much better than taking on a self-destructive lifestyle in order to be one of the crowd-- you can now branch out into an entirely new venture, and dare to be yourself!

If you are like most people, you are probably wondering what you can gain from such a radical move. There are a number of answers to that, and all of them are equally valid. For starters, when you are no longer bound to drugs and alcohol, you will also no longer be bound to a lifestyle which holds you back and holds you down.

If you have not yet thought of it in those terms, perhaps now is a good time to start. As many people begin to use drugs and alcohol because they do not wish to conform, consider how much conforming you have been doing as a result! If you have been going where your crowd goes, if you have been doing what your crowd does, it would seem you have lost something very important somewhere along the line.

When you dare to be yourself without drugs and alcohol, you are making a great positive statement about yourself! You are now beginning to assert that being an individual is your true priority-- and there could not possibly be anything better than that!

If you have been focusing on drugs and alcohol for a long time, you may have lost sight of who you really are. You may have been going along with the crowd for so long that you are not sure what is important to you and what you want from life. The best thing about this dilemma is that it is never too late to start, and today is the very best time to start.

When you take on the task of asserting this priority, you will find that you will no longer be in the position of having drugs, alcohol, and that lifestyle defining who you are. Although the thought may seem a bit intimidating at first, it should not be; after all, what could be better than finding that there has been a competent, intelligent, very individual person there all along? You will find what works for you and what does not; and you will find a nearly-limitless world of possibilities opening up for you each day.

You have not reached this point by accident. You can reclaim your goals, your interests, your dreams-- and you will have a much healthier life in which to enjoy it all. All you need to do now is to decide that you really do want all of those things-- and then take the challenge to dare to be who you are!

Reasons Why You Must Quit Drinking Alcohol

Alcohol and your body don't go, but just how many people out there carry on drinking alcohol when they know this?

This should make you think before the next time you have a drink; within minutes of alcohol entering your body, it infiltrates your bloodstream, your brain, your liver, your pancreas, your kidneys, your lungs and every other living tissue in your body. When you think about it, everytime you have a drink of alcohol it's slowly killing you. Now that's a nice thought isn't it?

Did you know that heavy drinkers of alcohol are known as "Chronic Drinkers."

Studies have shown that heavy drinking will reduce the size of your brain, your reactions become slower and you begin to lose your memory. Also in the studies which where carried out, alcoholics showed signs of congnitive dysfunction, this was proved by using the latest technology in MRI scanning.

The strength of a drink you're drinking will have the effect and impact on the absorption rate. It's simple really the stronger drinks are absorbed quicker than weaker drinks.

When neat sprits are consumed in concentrated amounts, they can irritate your stomach lining, causing a response which delays the absorption of the alcohol.

Almost as soon as we have some alcohol, it seems to have an effect on out central nervous system. It begins by depressing the inhibitory centres of your brain. Alcohol effects people in different ways, some people become relaxed, others become very aggressive and some just become more confident in themselves, like taking more, and some even think they become more attractive (I don't think so).

If you have a problem with your drinking you'll notice the following. Once the euphoric feeling has worn off your on your way to a negative rebound. Which will include the following, depression sets in again, you become guilty and anxiety.

Please Do Not Lower the Legal Age for Drinking!

There has been so much discussion recently on lowering the drinking age to 18. Apparently, one of the key arguments is that if someone is old enough to die for his/her country in war then they should be old enough to drink. I don't buy it. This article will give just a few of the reasons that I totally don't buy this argument.

First, a short story I read in the paper this week. A group in England was petitioning that bars be kept open later to reduce the incidence of binge drinking. Yes, you read that correctly. Let them drink longer to reduce binge drinking. The justification was this - people increase the amount of alcohol consumption before "last call", so they will have a later "last call". Seems to me that a late last call is still a last call, and I just cannot imagine how letting people drink longer will reduce their level of drinking. This is similar to the reasoning I read about for proposing to lower the drinking age to 18.

First, as a college teacher, I can tell you that there is a HUGE difference in maturity between an 18 year old and a 21 year-old. HUGE. As a person reaches 21, they start to be more in control of their own actions and less likely to be swayed by the whim of their friends. Although there are always exceptions, the odds are better that a 21 year-old will take more time to reflect on the dangers of drinking and driving before getting behind the wheel when they are intoxicated. Maybe they have experienced a friend getting hurt or an acquaintance getting killed. Maybe they are just more likely to reflect on their own actions and be less swayed by sudden hormonal changes. I don't know all the reasons that the differences in those two ages are so pronounced, but I can assure you that they are.

Second, there is a strong belief in the "recovery" community about addiction and emotional development. Apparently, when a person becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol, his emotional development STOPS at the age that the addiction started. Someone that started drinking at 14 tends to have an emotional age of 14 until they enter a rigorous program of recovery. Why does this happen? I'll use alcohol abuse as an example. When someone starts drinking, they might start for fun or amusement. But if the alcohol use continues and crosses the line of addiction, then he soon starts using alcohol as a "solution" to stress. A problem comes up, and he no longer learns how to deal with that problem. Instead, he quickly downs a drink - providing an immediate "release" of anxiety. Of course the problem doesn't get solved that way, but there is an "impression" that the alcohol made the problem "less problematic." So the next time a problem comes up, alcohol is the solution - and smart problem solving behavior never develops.

Emotional maturity is a process of learning to solve increasingly complex problems using our own personal resources. In the process of dealing with problems, we flex our emotional muscles and expand our ability to handle similar problems. We mature. If all problems are met with alcohol, then there is no emotional growth. There is one solution for everything and that solution is a quick drink. If this happens once or twice, there is no huge issue. But if an addiction develops and this happens repeatedly, then a person's emotional growth is stunted. That is why a person that starts drinking heavily at age 18 can remain an 18 year old emotionally indefinitely.

If we reduce the drinking age to 18, then we will freeze the emotional development of a large number of people who tend to abuse alcohol. Now you are thinking that a huge number of people aged 18 are already drinking and that is true. But at least there is some deterrent to that happening with a legal age limit of 21. But if 18 year-olds are drinking when the legal drinking age is 21, what age group will start drinking if the age is pushed down to 18. I have no proof, but I would lay a bet that a much larger proportion of 15-17 year-olds would start drinking excessively. The group of under-aged drinkers would not decrease, it would just be younger.