November 12, 2011 blog

November 12, 2011 Blog

Wise beyond their years.

They filed in to the library as I hurriedly substituted my projector for the school’s malfunctioning one:  sixty fresh-faced children from the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program at Mesa Middle School.  Their teacher is a long time patient and friend and after reading my book, she asked if I would speak to her students.  In my studies, I have come to the conclusion that this is the ideal age group we need to reach if we are going to have any success educating children about alcohol.  Most have not tried it yet and they have open minds and are receptive to learning about it.

They were wonderful:  alert, attentive, and very courteous.  Hispanic, Filipino, Caucasian, and Asian, they made a wonderfully heterogeneous group.

I started by asking their ages. “Any twelve-year olds?”

“I used to be twelve,” a bespectacled redhead in the front row chimed in.

“I hope so,” I answered, and the children all laughed.

I started by telling them of the drunken nineteen-year-old girl that died in the hot tub at the upscale Shell Beach, CA hotel a month before.  I gave her a name, Dana, and they were shocked that the hot water could accelerate her alcohol poisoning.

I had their attention.

I explained how alcohol is a poison and how easy it is to kill yourself with it if you drink hard liquor fast and pass out before you get sick enough to throw up.

I explained in terms they could understand that alcohol makes people feel good because it increases a chemical called dopamine in their brains.  I then showed them how drinking all the time lowered the dopamine, and made the alcoholic want to drink more to raise it. They understood that this was the cause of addiction.

I taught them how alcohol makes some people angry and mean, how some people act crazy when they drink, how drunk people sometimes black out and wake up in bed with someone they don’t know.

I showed them how alcohol is a depressant and is the absolute worst thing to drink when a person is depressed.  They understood when I related that one-third of all alcoholics die of suicide.

I told them about the pain that teens suffer because they drink: the rape of the girl passed out at the party, the unintended intercourse, the sexually transmitted diseases, the unwanted pregnancies, and the arrests for DUI and MIP.

I presented the many health risks of alcohol: cancer, osteoporosis, hepatitis, insomnia, reflux disease, fetal alcohol syndrome, and many more.

I related how alcohol prevents teens’ brains, principally the pre-frontal cortex, from maturing. That is the area of the brain important for judgment, decision-making, and impulse control.

I told them that they had to watch out for each other when there was alcohol present, that they should always go to parties with a friend, and each should commit to keeping the other safe.

The redhead in the front row began to cry.  “How do you get someone to stop?” she almost sobbed.

I explained that the person drinking had to be willing to stop and then told her about the intervention process.

I told them that we have ordered bracelets stating, “I’ve got your back” and that they could have one to wear if they promised to look out for each other when they were at a party.

When finished speaking, I asked for questions.  There were many good ones.  The best one came from a bronze-skinned girl in the back.

“If alcohol is so bad, how come it is legal?”

Out of the mouths of babes.

Oct 31, 2011 Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2011 BLOG

AMY’S TRAGIC END

Amy Winehouse, popular singer-songwriter, was found dead in her home by a security guard on July 23. Empty vodka bottles were strewn about. Paramedics arriving on the scene described her as “beyond help.”

Last week, coroner Suzanne Greenaway announced that Winehouse suffered a “death by misadventure”; the “unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels (of alcohol) was her sudden and unexpected death.”

Dr. Greenaway obviously excels in double speak.

A “misadventure”?

“unintended consequence”?

“Potentially fatal”?

“Unexpected death”?

Amy Winehouse had a serious and recurring problem with alcohol. She had recently relapsed after a brief time of sobriety. As so often happens in a relapse, the disease rapidly progresses.

In June, she abruptly canceled her European come back tour. Swaying and slurring her way thorough barely recognizable numbers, she was jeered and booed off the stage in Belgrade.

Amy reached the point of no return on July 23.

Her personal physician, Dr. Christina Romete, talked with her on the phone the night before her death. While Amy was slurring her words, Dr. Romete asked when she would quit. Amy told her they would talk that week end.

She never made it.

Her blood alcohol was 0.40. Not a “potentially fatal” level, an indisputably fatal level. The small amount of Librium in her system (used to prevent seizures in people withdrawing from alcohol) may have hastened her respiratory arrest.

At 0.40 percent, the brainstem, the center of all vital functions, shuts down. Temperature control, blood pressure, and breathing are suppressed.

Once the breathing stops, the heart can only last a minute or two. A fatal arrhythmia or cardiac standstill is the terminal event.

The beverage of choice for alcohol poisoning is some form of distilled spirits. Vodka is a favorite. The high alcohol content (80 proof/40%) allows the blood alcohol to rise very quickly, taking the victim through the stages of intoxication without the body being able to eliminate it. If the level reaches 0.40 % before the victim vomits, the end soon follows.

Unfortunately, alcohol poisoning is a common cause of death in teens in the U.S.

Parents, please educate your kids on the dangers of alcohol poisoning. Don’t wait. They may not appear to be listening, but they will remember what you say. Better yet, read Chapter 5 “Dying of Acute Alcohol Poisoning” in The Sobering Truth together with them. The vivid description of the process of death by acute alcohol consumption will make an impression.

Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide each year.

You only read the high profile stories.

They are all as tragic as Amy’s.

jh