Episode Transcript
Myths about Drinking Problems
Hello, my friends. Welcome back. You may have noticed that I have a new intro, so I'm just kind of changing things up on the podcast a little bit, because I realized that I have had the podcast for over two years. And I looked at my downloads recently and I've had over 100,000 downloads, so, woo, woo. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening.
I hope that that shows you, you're not alone. There's been a hundred thousand downloads of this. Of this show and there are lots of people. Listening to other podcasts as well about drinking. And there's lots of people who are looking for other ways to change your drinking. So know that you are not alone and know that I am very, very grateful to you if you're just joining the show for the first time or.
You've been in it since the beginning. I just want to thank you so, so much. Today. I want to talk about myths about drinking problems. And I'm going to go through submits. And I also want to invite you to the next alcoholic date, which is the month long break that I do every month. It starts the first of the month.
And it is a group that you joined privately. It's not on any of the socials. You joined it privately so you can use whatever name you want. You can be incognito, but just know that it's, it's a group and it's a way to get support and tools for taking a break from drinking. . Our next one starts May 1st and you're going to get daily emails. You're going to get a very extensive guide book.
You're going to get a lot of tools, a lot of resources. There is a chat feed, so you can interact with other people. And there's two. Two group meetings a week that you are welcome to join and get that additional support. Sometimes just being around other people and hearing other stories can be so life-changing and inspirational. So I do want to invite you to the next alcohol a day, and you can find that at alcohol tippingpoint.com/alcoholic day.
Feel free to join their it guys is very affordable. It's $79 and you can use the code love L O V E all caps and get 20% off just for being a podcast listener. So I want to love you and I want to thank you. And I want to give you a safe space to practice, not drinking. So check that out. Let's talk about myths about drinking problems.
And also kind of miss in general about alcohol. So here's a myth, everyone drinks. Now, I know it can feel like everyone is drinking. I get it. It does definitely seem that way. However, according to the CDC. More than one third of adults do not consume any alcohol and more than 45% of adults report light drinking defined as fewer than three drinks per week.
So that's a pretty big portion of the population, right? One third of adults aren't drinking. Two thirds are yes, but even those maybe are not drinking as much as we are drinking or as I was drinking, I don't have the stat here, but I have heard something like. , The percent of. There's a small percent of people who are drinking the greatest percent of alcohol.
, just pointing that out because it seems like when you quit drinking that you're going to be the only person in the world who doesn't drink. And the fact is there's lots of people that don't drink. And even when I think about it in my own life, I can think of coworkers that don't drink neighbors, friends, you know, they're not, everyone is a heavy drinker. So just reminding yourself that you're not alone.
In. Changing your drinking and you won't be alone. If you don't drink. We have just kind of gotten used to surrounding ourselves with heavy drinkers and we get used to it. Right. But these are the facts. Not everyone drinks. Okay. Myth number two, alcohol is legal, so it can't all. So it can't be all that harmful.
Well, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you know, that. I am not a fan of alcohol. And we have seen in the us that drinking to excess is linked to 95,000 deaths a year. And so I'm, it's not just like the alcohol poisoning. It's higher rates of car crashes. It's accidents. It's falls, it's burns. It's other injuries.
, and then it's also the link between alcohol and your health. You know, we know a lot about the link between alcohol and liver disease. But drinking too much has been linked to higher rates of heart disease, stroke cancer, weakened immune system, depression, anxiety learning, and memory problems.
Honestly, alcohol affects every system of your body. It is legal, but it is harmful. So you can kind of think of it. Like we do cigarettes. So, and it's a drug it's also considered a carcinogen, which is a cancer causing drug. And it's a toxin. I just like to remind people that, like, it's not just a drink. It is a toxin and it is harmful.
Okay, our next myth, it can't happen to me. And so this is that whole idea, that whole stigma, that there is like a typical alcoholic. You know, I don't like to use that word alcoholic. The word is alcohol use disorder, and we'll get into that a little bit more. , But, but there is this idea that, , you are, you are born with it and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. And.
That there are certain people that become addicted and you are not one of them. Well, the thing is addiction works from prolonged habitual use of an addictive substance. It doesn't matter. And it doesn't care if you're a man woman, poor, rich. Anyone can become addicted. That's just how addiction works. Right. And then we are talking about becoming addicted to alcohol.
And that can happen to anyone. Yes. You have higher risk. If you have a family history of substance use, if you have, if you start at a younger age, , there we are finding more and more that genetics is playing a role in it. But. Anyone can become addicted. It doesn't matter where you're starting. You can get there.
So I just like to remind people that, cause it. You know, it will affect anyone and everyone. And if you've listened to my show, you know, that there are wide range of people from all over the world, all different backgrounds that are, that have come on the show and they have shared how they have developed their own.
Addiction to alcohol and how they have recovered from it. So this brings us to our next myth. All alcohol use disorders are the same. So, this is where we're breaking the stigma about either you're a quote unquote normal drinker, or you're an alcoholic. You have a problem. And the thing is it is alcohol use disorder and it is on a spectrum from mild to moderate, to severe.
And that's based on how many symptoms you have, how, how. How you interact with alcohol itself? Right. And, and we have criteria that we can use to actually ask and see where you fall on the alcohol use disorder. Spectrum. And I've done an episode in the past about it. , but the point is. Is that it is a range. You don't have to hit a rock bottom. You can have a very mild alcohol use disorder, or you can get to where it is more severe. And that may be the case where it may be. You do, you are physically dependent and you need medical detox. , but also just pointing out. Another myth is, is that you have to have a problem with drinking to give up drinking.
You don't, you can just give up drinking because of 0.1. I'll call his ship for your health. Right. So you don't even have to have a problem with drinking. To quit drinking.
I really want to emphasize that. Okay, so next myth. You're always going to have a problem. You are at once you're addicted, you're always addicted. You're always going to have a problem. Listen to this stat. Most people, 75% recover. So the U S has studied this. , there's been a study by the CDC, the national Institute on drug abuse.
They've found that three out of four people who experienced addiction eventually recover. You know that that's huge. That's 75%. And that goes against our cultural perception that people never get better. Right life after addiction. Isn't just possible. It's the norm. So I do want you to remind, I want to remind you and give you hope. Like you're not going to be stuck in this loop. This habit, you can undo it.
And lots and lots of people have done it and it is possible. Okay. , and this kind of leads to this other myth that there's no treatment for alcohol use disorder. So again, it's like once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. That traditional saying there is treatment for alcohol use disorder. You can get prescription medications, you can get a naltrexone prescription, which is going to help reduce cravings. You can get that from your own doctor.
You can do other counseling. You can do online support groups. You can come do an alcoholic day and. And change this habit. Because I believe that this is a habit. That you have been drinking. Too much. And you need to undo the habit. And so that's why I'm so adamant about like, okay, let's practice, not drinking.
And let's not be perfect about it. I can't imagine any other behavioral change that people make. That is so tied to perfection as alcohol uses. And, and when we're changing our drinking, how we have to be perfect. And we, you know, if, if we get five days in and we go back to drinking, We have to stay at, start at day one. What about the people that go six months and then they, they drink and then they go back to day one.
I don't get that. I don't prescribe to that. That's not how we change. You know, it makes me think about my kids are in school. Right. And right now they're in eighth grade and, , my older daughter's a sophomore. And I'm thinking about, like, if they miss a day of school, Here we are in spring. And the schools like.
Not perfect. Not learning, not growing. You need to go back. You need to go start this grade over again. Or maybe even worse. You need to go back to kindergarten? No, we don't do that. Right. You keep everything that you're learning as you're learning, that is part of learning and growing and changing.
That is how we change, you know, there's that whole, I like to refer to this. This little graphic a lot, but. Change is not like a straight linear. Arrow. It is a squiggly line. And so when you are changing your drinking, when you are taking breaks, when you're giving it up, when you're done. It is going to be a squiggly line. That is just how change works and that's how we grow. And that's how we learn. No one is perfect at the beginning.
Please be kind to yourself. Please give yourself grace about that. And when you do have a slip up, if you're not hitting your goals, being alcohol free, get back on it. Keep going. Keep going, because that is how we make progress. Yeah. There's, there's the whole focus on direction. Not perfection.
And that's just moving us forward. That's failing forward, right? We like to say in the group, Hey, you know, you drank again. Okay. Own it. Learn from it. Move on, move on with your tits up. Keep going. That's what we like to say.
So those are the top myths about drinking problems. I hope that these are helpful to you. And I hope that, you know, like I said, you can change and most people do change. So please reach out to me if you need anything, any help at all, you can always email me, Deb at alcohol tipping point. Dot com.
And if you want to join the next alcoholic day with love to see you in the group, just go to alcohol tippingpoint.com/alcohol a day. And I'll see you in there. Have a wonderful day.
