Alcohol, an Elixir or Poison. Why Do People Drink So Much during the Holidays. Stopping Alcohol Abuse

Is alcohol truly the festive elixir we often believe it to be, or does it mask a darker reality during the Christmas season? This episode dives into the multifaceted role of alcohol during the holidays, examining how it can be both a source of joy and a potential peril. We explore the cultural tendencies that lead many to overindulge, risking their health and well-being in the process. From the sobering statistics linking alcohol to chronic diseases and accidents to its use as a crutch for loneliness and depression, we shine a light on the serious consequences that often accompany holiday cheer.

28 Million Alcoholics in USA,  11% of people 12+
400 Million Alcoholics in the World   15+
Europe has 15% of their people labeled as Alcoholics
Alcohol increases Chronic Diseases, Mental Health, Liver Disease, Accidents, Injuries and Violence, both Domestic Violence and Homicides.

As we navigate this complex relationship, we share insights from the Recovery Freedom Circle, a beacon for those seeking to reclaim their lives from addiction. With over 27 years of Recovery, we discuss the profound benefits of a life without alcohol, including increased energy and enhanced self-worth. We challenge listeners to reconsider the way they celebrate, advocating for a focus on health, family, and the true spirit of Christmas. By prioritizing well-being and embracing a lifestyle of sobriety, you can enrich your life and strengthen your connections with loved ones, turning the festive season into a celebration of genuine joy and spirituality.

Chapters

• 0:02 The Impact of Alcohol
• 10:09 Promoting Health and Sobriety

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome. Let's talk about alcohol. Is alcohol that joyous elixir or that dangerous poison? Welcome again to another episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast, where we encourage you to laugh every day, to work hard, work hard in recovery, work hard in your relationships and work hard in your jobs or your business or in school. Just work and to love unconditionally. Just put more love out there. Do not have an agenda. Just love as much as you can and watch it. Love come back tenfold. Remember recovery is beautiful. Your EQ is your IQ and you cannot outthink an emotional issue. We encourage you to join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle, where everybody has an opportunity to join into the community, where we can talk about recovery, the steps, healing, motivation, inspirational quote, a question, a struggle, some type of success that you may have, so we can all participate and share in each other's recovery, where you do not have to live in the addiction, where you get to live in recovery and live your best life. So join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle. The link is in the show notes. Join the community, be a part of something wonderful.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Now let's jump into this week's episode. This week's episode alcohol. Why do people love to just talk about alcohol and think that it's some type of magical drink. In some senses alcohol is magical in both ways, in a positive way and in a negative way. Alcohol can take your body, your brain and your actions into all types of directions. But people seem especially now, since we are now entering into the Christmas season that kind of get overdone with alcohol, whether that's going to Christmas parties, holiday parties, family functions or they're invited somewhere, and they're always bringing some type of gift, mainly wine, but there's also some bottles of liquor or some other alcoholic infused drinks. In the same way, nowadays even people spend time giving away gambling, lottery tickets or scratch-offs. What we just wonder is how dumb are people? Why would you gift some type of addiction or poison or vice to a person? Whether it's gambling or it's alcohol, it's no different than if you gave a person just a whole a pound of weed or a bunch of pills or something. It's just idiotic, but let's get back to alcohol. Idiotic, but let's get back to alcohol.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Alcohol, especially in this season of December, can be used twofold. One, why everybody thinks that they have to celebrate and they overindulge. More than likely they go one drink, two drinks, three drinks too many, which causes a lot of problems. I think their alcohol adds to this festive mood? It does not, because to me it takes away from the actual days and what the meaning of Christmas truly is, which is about the family, about joy, about just almost like buying gifts for people, as well as the religious aspect the birth of Christ and getting closer to some type of spiritual world. And a lot of churches end their services with joy to the world and you just want to keep spreading joy. But for some reason, alcohol is also, in this month, used in another way to deal with the loneliness that I'm just going to. I have no family, I don't have any friends, there's probably a slowdown in work and they just go home and they just drink, either watch a game, watch a movie and just depress and depress some more. And that is using alcohol in both instances in a negative way. When you overindulge and when you use it to mask and escape your feelings, you are not utilizing alcohol.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Now, to me, alcohol is a poison. It is no different than fast food, it's no different than forms of gambling. In what, truly, what do we want? We all want to have maximum health. We want to be able to run, have sex, make money, do all those wonderful things. We want to have a healthy body and a healthy bank account, and alcohol, gambling and all that stuff takes away. But let's keep focusing on alcohol, because that's what this episode is about.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Now let's look at some statistics. How many alcoholics are there? Well, in the United States there is about 28 million alcoholics, so that's about 11% of the population. I'm talking about 12 and over. How many alcoholics are there worldwide? 400 million alcoholics worldwide. We're talking about 15 and over. And if we look at Europe, europe has the highest incidence of alcoholics 15% of Europeans 15 and over are alcoholic. That's a problem, especially when we start to dive down into the numbers, into the numbers about what alcohol truly does and how it can affect you know, your whole well-being. You know alcohol is the third most common cause of death in developed countries. Just pause that there for a second. And so, if we think about it, what does alcohol contribute? Because we have.

Speaker 1: 6:55

If you start drinking alcohol almost at any level, it will always increase your incidence of having chronic diseases. It affects your mental health. Think about it this way Alcohol is a depressant. We wonder why there's over 280 million depressed people in the world. Well, if 400 million people are drinking alcohol, the deduction is easy you are already unable to process your feelings and you are introducing a depressant into your body, so your emotional state of being causes you to even be more depressed and so that affects your mental health, which will increase your anxiety, which will increase so many other disorders, and then, of course, it's going to increase your liver disease. So those three things are very prevalent Chronic diseases, mental health, liver diseases. And then, if you take it a step down, is leading cause of accidents.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Look at how many times people have DWIs, whether they're arrested or they actually cause an accident which actually can kill a person, injure a person or injure property, as well as obviously kill the alcohol, the person that's drank the alcohol or injured the alcohol, the person who drank the alcohol or damaged the property of the alcohol of the person that took the alcohol or damage the property of the person that took the alcohol. So it has a lot of accidents, has a lot of injuries and of course, there is so much violence around alcohol. People don't realize that domestic violence and homicides are just at extremely high rates and a lot of people will say that a lot of times the shooters and homicides. 80% of those people have some amount of alcohol in their system before they start killing another person or multiple people. Domestic violence is just as an extreme. A lot of people put it around 60, almost like two-thirds of almost domestic violence cases involve alcohol. One person starts usually obviously the male, most times Females kind of get aggressive, thinking that the male will never hit back, so then they become an aggressor. But you have almost two-thirds of the people that have domestic violence. So you know, those two things are just sad statistics. We could lower the amount of domestic violence and homicide or really truly limited the amount that they did drink.

Speaker 1: 9:40

And then, lastly, which I think are truly most important, is what else does alcohol do? It damages your DNA. It is a toxic to your DNA. It also affects and reduces your REM sleep. So you cannot get healthy if your DNA can get damaged by drinking alcohol and you can't be truly healthy if you cannot get proper sleep. So just those statistics alone.

Speaker 1: 10:09

I would suggest people not drink, limit their drinking. So if you're an alcoholic, call me, talk to me. I can help you through the Recovery Freedom Circle. We stop addiction. That is the beauty of the system. We stop addiction because we build up your character, we build up your self-esteem, your self-worth.

Speaker 1: 10:33

But I truly encourage people to stop using holidays as a way to get drunk or to drink more, because all you're doing is putting poison in your body and, like I said, it's no different than putting the poisons that is out there fast food and other ways to poison our bodies, especially in forms of gambling.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Our bodies especially in forms of gambling, and I haven't put any alcohol in my body in 27 years and I feel so energetic, I feel rested, I just feel like I have control of my body, that I can really understand all my feelings, understand when I'm dehydrated, I understand how to just have a healthy, productive body where I'm still active, and that's what I encourage. I hope everybody has a body where they can walk, run, lift, swim, do whatever you need to do, and so then, of course, you can then spend it with your spouse, with your partner, with your kids, with your pets, and you have all that energy. So I encourage you to take care of your body. So with that we are going to end and conclude this episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast.