#alcohol archivos - The Resilient Human Project

Do you lie about how many avocados you eat?

I have yet to meet anyone who lies about their consumption of avocados. Wouldn’t it seem a little strange if all your friends started lying about how many avocados they eat? Why? Because avocados are not an addictive drug and thus no-one worries about controlling the amount of avocados they consume. Alcohol by contrast is an addictive drug; it is the most damaging drug in our society. All drugs start out as fun but as the tolerance and dependence increase so the fun decreases. With alcohol, lying about the amount of alcohol we drink is so normal in our society that we do not even really notice it. Lying usually…

When I think of all the good times I have wasted having good times.

Many years ago (beginning of the eighties) I was on holiday with a friend, accompanied by our respective girlfriends. Ten days in the sun on a Greek island. Our days consisted of getting up late around midday, going for a swim and having a shower − mostly to help with the hangover. Then lunch accompanied by beer that would mark the start to the day’s drinking. Night-time was all a blur − cocktail bars and discos. Our holidays could be described as a homage to alcohol. I was successful in my work with a high pressure job and drank alcohol most days. I justified my behaviour as “work hard -…

Fire, aim ready!

“Ready, aim, fire!” always works better than, “fire, aim, ready!” Want to know yourself? Then, adopt the right attitude. Years ago in a previous life, I was involved in a project for an insurance company. Its European communication network had started to behave in a random way − some pretty weird stuff. It was affecting their business. They asked my company to investigate the problem and recommend a fix. We found that a couple of years earlier there had been a problem with the network and a technician had quickly designed a software patch to fix it. It worked up to a point; but new problems arose and were fixed…

Which sort of happiness do you prefer?

Happiness has become something of an obsession in our society. You only have to look around you; there are so many books, videos, blogs about the subject. In spite of this, there are still many anxious, depressed and unhappy people. Very few mention that the best way to find happiness is simply to stop searching. You have all that you need to be happy − right here, right now. So what do I mean when I talk about happiness? For many years I thought happiness and having a good time were the same thing. They are not! Having a good time is about aversion; it is about escaping your life…

Living with an alcohol addict is difficult

Alcoholism is not an incurable disease nor are there two categories of drinkers: “normal” and “alcoholics”. It is a fact that most people who fall into drug/alcohol addiction manage to get free. Alcohol is a legally available very addictive drug. In 2008 in an independent study it was identified as the most damaging drug in our society. It is also classified as a category 1 carcinogen. Becoming an alcohol addict is easy. No one ever decided consciously to become addicted; just like everyone else they thought it was harmless fun. In our society it is difficult not to consume alcohol, especially when you consider that every youngster in our society…

Drinking too much?

Typically before reaching the age of eighteen a youngster will have been exposed to more than 100,000 examples of alcoholic advertising. This tells us that alcohol is fun, sporting, sexy and even good for your health. This contrasts sharply with independent science which shows conclusively that alcohol is a Category 1 carcinogen (WHO/IARC 1988), highly addictive and the most damaging drug in our society (D. Nutt et al 2008). These are facts. Alcohol creates dependence for anyone who drinks regularly. Many of us will drink unless there is a reason not to; eg. work in the morning, pick up the children, got to drive home. These events act as brakes…

Some facts about alcoholism and Alcohol

You may have heard of the Golden Rule: "He who hath the gold, makes the rules." What this means in practice is that our beliefs about alcohol are distorted. In our society an 18-year old youngster will have already been exposed to 100,000 examples of alcohol advertising – all with the intention of hooking you and keeping you hooked. Make you drink alcohol. All the explanations I give here have been sourced from reputable independent, scientific, medical bodies. There is no such thing as an alcoholic, nor the disease alcoholism:There is no other drug in which users are categorised as normal and diseased. For example, we do not have normal…

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