Corking the Bottle

This woman is 10-months sober, living in a treatment facility, and trying to maintain her sobriety. Here is her brief interview with Dr. Phil. https://www.drphil.com/videos/isolation-especially-in-recovery-can-be-a-very-big-no-no-says-woman-who-is-10-months-sober/

Are you staying sober during the pandemic? Here is a Dr. Phil interview with a woman who started drinking every day to stay "comfortably numb." Have a look. It lasts less than five minutes. https://www.drphil.com/videos/woman-adhering-to-stay-at-home-orders-says-she-drinks-nearly-every-day-to-keep-her-mind-off/ t Here is the conclusion to the above. The woman confesses she is self-medicating. https://www.drphil.com/videos/mom-of-4-admits-to-drinking-daily-while-sheltering-at-home-with-kids/ I don't want to be like her. So far I am sober as a nun.

Whether you're a fan of Dr. Phil or not (I am, but he annoys me sometimes), he comes up with good stuff and hosts some knowledgeable experts. That's true as he helps viewers deal with coronavirus from his kitchen at home. Yesterday he interviewed psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen. (Never forget that name. Lemme hear you say "Amen!") He claims some anxiety is good for you because it leads you to take proper safety measures. The students on spring break flooded the beaches and ignored the corona threat by not distancing themselves from others. They weren't anxious about the illness. Then they carried covid-19 back north to their grandparents and others. So a little stress can protect us. However, chronic stress damages the hippocampus part of the brain, which controls memory and mood. Sleep -- 7 1/2 to 8 hours a night -- and exercise restore the hippocampal cells. So does proper nutrition. Amen mentioned onions, mushrooms, and garlic in particular. He adds that wri...

Here is more from the Dr. Phil show I encouraged you to watch earlier. ( https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-ssl-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=ssl&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.drphil.com%2Fshows%2Fblack-and-blue-blackout-drunk%2F#id=2&vid=f92308c4a4ba8d33367ee4313910e4cf&action=view ) At .10 Slurred speech, poor judgment Coordination, motor skills, balance impaired Uninhibited, slow thinking, emotionality At .20 All the disabilities from .01 Disoriented, uncoordinated Double vision, blackouts, aggressive Vomiting, gag reflexes impaired (may choke on vomit) At .25 All of the above Mental, physical, sensory severely impaired Possible loss of consciousness High risk of choking on vomit At .30 See above, plus: Medical emergency zone May pass out Tremors, memory loss, possible death At .35 Breathing and heart rate decrease Lose bladder control; passed out on the floor in a pool of your own urine Possible death is 50% At .40 Dif...

My brain was fried when I was drinking. I didn't drink to have a good time. I drank to kill the brain cells that were making me hurt. But alcohol doesn't discriminate between brain cells. In my last post I blogged about a sobering (pun intended) episode of Dr. Phil. Have a look back at it. In it, the good doctor listed effects and defects to the brain when we drink: Slower Clumsier Dumber Irresponsible Unpredictable Immature Impulsive Our brain becomes a version of itself. So whatever you started with goes straight downhill, according to Dr. Phil. Alcohol limits parts of the brain from communicating with other parts. What is going on in our heads when we reach .08, the legal definition of drunk? Tune in tomorrow.

I watched Dr. Phil last week and got scared. I mean really, really scared. The guest was an alcoholic -- a blackout fall-down drunk. What scared me was he was just like I used to be. If I hadn't found help and if I hadn't found faith in God, I would still be like him. Or dead. You can watch the show at  https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-ssl-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=ssl&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.drphil.com%2Fshows%2Fblack-and-blue-blackout-drunk%2F#id=2&vid=aef121448c652f58ef1e1f8050cdd3b5&action=click . I know you're busy and may not want to take 38 minutes to watch the commercial-free broadcast. That's why for the coming blog posts I am going to pull some statistics and facts and maybe some quotes because it's all really good stuff. If you aren't ready to stop drinking, at least look at his face after one of his many falls. That could have been me. Or you???

"So much wasted time." These were the last words of David Cassidy as he died of liver shutdown due to alcohol poisoning. He was a heavy drinker and alcoholic going clear back to his Partridge Family days. Much later, he was arrested for DUI in 2010, 2013, and 2014. He was sentenced to three months of rehab. After his release, David told Piers  Morgan, "If I  take another drink, I’m going to die, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I’m dead. … It’s very humbling, and it’s also humiliating,” adding that admitting to his disease gave him hope. "'I dropped  to my knees, and I felt something go through me that was like, I felt this experience that was just, thank you God. I felt this relief,” Cassidy said. “I begged it, and I was crying and weeping like a little boy, like a, like a sobbing little infant, like I’m sure I did many times as a kid. And I felt this incredible sense of relief, because I stopped lying to myself.'” ( https://us.blasting...

I have been looking today to identify my best self and my toxic self. This comes from an episode of Dr. Phil yesterday. It strikes me as a different way of doing Step 4: "Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves." Life Coach Mike Bayer was on the show. He told two mom/sisters, "When you're your best self, you're being your authentic self, so our best authentic self. The anti-self is the characteristics that we think get in the way of being our best self." ( https://www.drphil.com/videos/life-coach-mike-bayer-explains-how-your-best-self-and-anti-self-affect-your-daily-life/ ) In other words, what are the messages you tell yourself about you? He had them list their authentic selves, draw a picture of what that might look like, then give it a name. Then they did the same for their toxic selves. Watch the video. Bayer wrote a book called,  Best Self: Be You Only Better . ( https://www.coachmikebayer.com/book ) It isn't about how to stay awa...

I remember these sappy comics running in my local paper as I was growing up. To an adolescent boy, anyway, they were sappy. My parents loved me, and I loved them. But Love with a capital L with a girl with a capital G? That seemed far away. As I am learning as an adult, that wasn't really love at all. Foreigner: "In my life there's been heartache and pain I don't know if I can face it again Can't stop now, I've traveled so far, to change this lonely life "I want to know what love is I want you to show me I want to feel what love is I know you can show me...." http://www.songlyrics.com/foreigner-feat-nate-ruess/i-want-to-know-what-love-is-lyrics/ Alcoholism. "What's love got to do with it?" Tina Turner sang. Plenty. You can't give what you don't have. Scott Peck, in The Road Less Traveled , claims, "Love is not a feeling...Love is an action, an activity." ( http://www.mscottpeck.com/ ) Dr. Peck goes on ...