REATMENT OF ALCOHOL PROBLEMS: ALCOHOL ABUSEAlcohol abuse is similar to alcohol dependence (alcoholism) except for the absence of physical dependence, that is withdrawal and/or tolerance. Practically speaking, alcohol abuse can be considered to be present when there is a pattern of alcohol problems and the sense that alcoholism is “just around the corner.” Alcohol abuse may be present in an individual even if loss of control is unclear because there may have been no efforts to control or moderate alcohol use. If physical dependence and loss of control have not occurred, then moderation of drinking practices from a physiological standpoint is possible. However, depending upon the person’s social situation and life circumstances, this may still represent a monumental feat. Consider the college student who is heavily into the partying and drinking set. Changing drinking patterns will require marked changes in the student’s circle of friends, daily routine, and choices of recreational activities. To achieve this magnitude of change will require the client be engaged in more than a Dutch uncle talk!To do this, to our minds, requires that the individual be engaged in some formal alcohol treatment, which involves alcohol education, individual counseling, and participation in a group with others in the same situation. Monitoring the individual’s efforts to moderate alcohol use and avoid future problems is imperative. Through this process, in a number of cases, evidence may mount that there is loss of control, or preoccupation with drinking. Therefore abstinence and alcoholism treatment is now needed. In essence, if efforts to address alcohol abuse are unsuccessful, the diagnosis of alcoholism can now be made.*95\331\2*

STRESS BREAKDOWN: FIRST SYMPTOM – HIGH LEVELS OF SENSORY INPUT CAUSE DISTRESS
Information comes in to the brain through sensory nerve fibres. Usually sensory nerves are activated by tiny sense organs or ‘receptors’ which respond to certain sensations and fire off the nerve. There are receptors for heat sensation, touch, position sense, balance, acceleration, cold, light, sound, taste and smell. As well, the muscles and the joints are supplied with stretch receptors which provide the information necessary for the body to know where its various parts are.There doesn’t seem to be a specific receptor for pain impulses. We experience pain from over-stimulation of nerves which don’t have specific sense receptors, and also whenever specific sensor receptors are over-stimulated. Thus a too-loud noise, a too-cold stimulus, a too-hot stimulus, or a too-bright light, will all cause the person to feel pain.Pain is experienced, therefore, when the sensory nerve fibres are over-stimulated. There is a corresponding hypersensitivity which occurs not when the incoming fibres are over-stimulated, but when the receiving brain cells are over-sensitive. Receiving brain cells become over-sensitive when they are over-stimulated in stress breakdown. Thus the over-stimulation of brain cortex cells in stress breakdown may have the effect of making the incoming information disagreeable, just as excess actual stimulation makes the sensory input disagreeable or painful.In stress breakdown which has gone beyond second stage, the receiving brain cells are so over-sensitive that strong sensory stimulation becomes actually disagreeable.Even stimulation which has previously been highly enjoyable, such as sexual stimulation, music and perfume or exotic tastes can become disagreeable in the third stage.In third stage breakdown, women who previously enjoyed an active sex life might claim to be totally uninterested in sex and, even more than that, actually turned off it. ‘I can’t stand him to even touch me, doctor. What’s wrong with me?’ In the third stage, over-stressed people who normally love music might be irritated by the very music they previously enjoyed. This leads to over-stressed people complaining that the radio or TV is too loud, and that they have ‘gone off’ their favorite programmes or activities.
*30/129/5*

What are thoughts, and how do we control them? If we can control thought stimulation in the cerebral cortex6 the sleep centre will take over. In other words, if we can control thoughts, we will shift into the THS and sleep will follow soon.

In the THS, or in any hypnotic state, the stage is dim and you cannot see what is going on. Hypnosis is like using a single spotlight to focus on a small part of that big stage in the theatre. The concentration is maximized by the spotlight, so that the rest of the stage is ignored and the mind is only aware of the limited activities focused on by the spotlight. The change from the awake state to any hypnotic state is like the theatre stage beginning to dim and the spotlight beginning to form and focus on a particular part of the stage. This spotlight can focus on any part of the stage suggested by the hypnotist Hence the focus can be on our memory bank— some of us have the ability to regress back to childhood and experience things we thought we had forgotten. This spotlight can be focused on some of the anxious moments in our lives, but can also be focused on some peaceful non-threatening parts of our lives.

*99\174\4*

“I am like this because of what I have done.” Unlike the hostile reaction the patient does not openly express this idea unless we first gain his confidence, and then bring him to talk quietly about his inner thoughts.

I have already explained this mechanism, and we have discussed the way in which pain becomes associated with punishment and then with guilt.

Have you had feelings like this, that somehow the pain is connected with the thing that happened long ago? If you have, face it openly. Remember that we have all done things that are wrong. And remember that psychological forces within us tend to bring these things to our mind, even when we suffer from pain that is due to simple and natural causes. So accept your pain for what it is—a warning of some injury to your body—a warning that has gone wrong and become too severe and prolonged.

The Philosophical Reaction to Pain-”It can’t be helped. I shall get over it.” This is the philosophical reaction. When we are free from pain we can see that this is the only sensible and mature way to respond. But when the time comes, and the pain is upon us, it is not quite so easy.

The philosophical reaction to pain is the attitude of mind that we must aim for. When we have this we have a firm base, at is were, from which to launch our self-management of pain.

How do we get it? By all the influences, great and small, that lead us to maturity. And of these influences there is none greater than understanding. And by understanding I mean something that is not necessarily of words, or of logic or of religion. It is that quality that the distressed patient refers to when he rises and says, “Thank you. I understand better now,” when in fact I have said nothing to him about understanding. But he does understand better. It is shown in the way his distress has eased. This Is what I mean by understanding.

*121\57\2*

The nervous symptoms of stress in themselves are often unpleasant and sometimes disabling. But there is an effect beyond the symptom itself. If we come to suffer some disorder of our nervous system, we examine the situation, and it invariably comes to our mind, ‘Is this the start of a nervous breakdown? Am I going crazy?’ Then there are deeper thoughts: It may be I have a tumour of the brain. A brain tumour! What will happen to me? To all of us? And the children?’

In this way the effects of a nervous symptom are much greater than the disability caused by the symptom itself. It is therefore very important, in our self-management of stress, to understand as far as possible the physiological and psychological mechanisms which operate in producing the symptom. We are then in a much better position to cope with the simple, unadorned reality of the situation.

Nervous tension

«I’m tense. Just can’t relax. Tense. Taut like a violin string. Feel if something touches me, I’ll snap. Come apart. Body is tense. Feel it in my muscles. Shoulders, neck, everywhere. But more than that. Tense inside, stomach in a knot. And I can’t describe it. Tense in my mind. Just can’t relax. Give anything to be relaxed. It is not any part of me. It is all through. Everywhere. It is me.»

People suffer nervous tension from stress in varying degrees of severity. Sometimes it is so severe as to be incapacitating. The individual can no longer do his job, or look after the home. With others it is less severe. Just takes the pleasure out of life, so that living becomes a burden.

The most acute danger, of course, is not that the tension will precipitate some terrible illness, but that the individual will turn to alcohol or tranquillizing drugs in an attempt to relieve his distress.

*49/98/5*

I’m not pretty

“You can see for yourself. I’m not pretty. Girls are meant to be pretty. I’m not. I’m less of a girl than I might be. I stand by the mirror, and poke my face. Poke it this way and that. They say it’s only skin deep. It does not matter how deep or otherwise. If you have not got it, you have not got it.

‘Sometimes I go out on a blind date. It’s not often I am asked a second time.

‘No God. There can’t be a God. This came to me before I was born. Often wonder what mother was like as a girl. But dad loves her. You can see it in all that he does. Oh God! Why should I say “Oh God”, when there is no God?”

Look around. Who are the girls that are sought after? Pretty ones? Not really. Who then? It is those who have naturalness about them. Naturalness, then he feels at ease. A good feeling. It’s good being with her. He wants to see her again.

This naturalness. How does a girl acquire it? It’s the same thing again, let our mind learn to run quietly. And the whole pattern of life can change.

I’m small

“I’m big enough and strong. But small. Small down there. At school a boy, no bigger than me, but twice the size, boasted. I just felt awful.

‘That was a long time ago. But the thought of it is still with me. Recurring again and again. Makes me too timid to go out with a girl. Could I marry, ever? Went to a girl.

Prostitute. Told her my trouble. Gave her a look. She laughed. But it seemed she was laughing at me, not at my trouble.

‘Get fussed at work thinking of it. One of the girls talks to me. She is kind. Do you think she knows? Do women know these things?”

Life is insecure. We are insecure. Our manhood is insecure. This is a part of human existence. Some incident may trigger our insecurity. Doubt grows on doubt. Doubting messages confuse the brain. And the ground is prepared to grow the seeds of stress.

A philosophical understanding as to what it is all about does something to ease our mind, and allows better integration in our brain. But what counts is the simple experience of man and woman together. Simple and good.

*15/98/5*