Continual ongoing prayer is necessary if the alcoholic is to maintain the willingness and courage which are needed to fully overcome this disease and eliminate any threat of a potential setback. Some degree of spirituality is necessary for a healthy recovery and permanent sobriety as well.

When the initial fear and desperation have left, the alcoholic feels a false sense that all is well. Willingness is an attitude that shall act as a means of identifying and dealing with problems in the middle and late stages of recovery.

Willingness backed by accountability will help the alcoholic realize that they have inherited a disease which will shadow them the remainder of their lives. Permanent sobriety is the only way an alcoholic can live a healthy and productive life. The willingness to continue practicing daily spiritual maintenance shall aid the alcoholic well in their life long quest for permanent sobriety.

How a person can stop drinking largely depends on their ability to recognize that a problem exists. Once that occurs they must then focus on several key factors, which over time, will help the alcoholic develop the coping skills needed to make it through recovery and into permanent sobriety. The key factors to be recognized are as follows; honesty, prayer, willingness, sincerity, forgiveness and tolerance.

Recovery serves as a prelude to permanent sobriety. A successful recovery ultimately leads to that seldom visited side of alcoholism which is known as permanent sobriety. The ability to incorporate these principles into the daily life of the alcoholic is a difficult but rewarding transition that is called recovery.

Complete and total honesty with oneself is a step that will seriously test the alcoholic and bring questions to the surface that, when answered honestly, will typically break down the emotional wall of denial which has been built by the continual cycle of alcohol abuse.

By taking what was realized through honesty, the alcoholic then needs to share his inner most shortcomings with God as he envisions Him. Prayer is perhaps the single most powerful weapon the alcoholic has to overcome his or her illness.

If your doctor does advise you to cut down on your drinking, here are some steps that can help you:

1. Write down the reasons you are cutting down or stopping. Why is it that you want to drink less? There are many reasons why you may want to cut down or stop drinking. You may want to improve your health, sleep better, or get along better with your family or friends. Make a list of the reasons you want to drink less.

2. Set a drinking goal. Choose a limit for how much you will drink. You may choose to cut down or you may choose to not to drink at all. If you are cutting down, keep your intake below these limits:

Women: No more than one drink a day

Men: No more than two drinks a day

A drink is:

a 12-ounce bottle of beer;
a 5-ounce glass of wine; or
a 1 1/2-ounce shot of liquor.

Please note that these limits may be too high for some people who have certain medical conditions or who are older. Talk with your doctor first about the limit that is right for you. Now–write down your drinking goal on a piece of paper. Put it where you can see it, such as on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror.

If you believe you are drinking too much alcohol, a few simple steps can help you improve your life and health by cutting down.

When can you tell if you drink too much?
Answer “yes” or “no” to the following questions:

Do you drink alone when you feel angry or sad?
Does your drinking ever make you late for work?
Does your drinking worry your family?
Do you ever drink after telling yourself you won’t?
Do you ever forget what you did while you were drinking?
Do you get headaches or have a hang-over after you have been drinking?

A “yes” answer to any of these questions may indicate that you have a drinking problem. You may want to check with your physician to be sure. Your doctor will be able to tell you whether you should cut down or refrain from drinking alcohol all together.

If you are told that you are an alcoholic or have other medical problems, you should not just reduced the amount you are drinking–you should quit drinking alcohol completely. Your doctor will advise you about what is right for you.

If you are traveling along the alcohol highway, my suggestion is to truly turn your “will” over to a higher power, the energy of the universe, God, or whatever you choose to call it.

If you believe that there is a power greater than yourself, then you are half way home. Recognizing this causes an immediate sense of humility which allows you get out of your ego, and step into some sense of freedom. It is a new path, and a new day.

For me a twelve step program truly worked. Everyone has their own thing that will help them from picking up a drink or a drug. Find what that is, and stick with it. It also helped me to be reading spiritual literature. Books such as “Conversations with God” and anything by Marianne Williamson really helped.

A little over 9 years I made the decision to become sober and it was the best thing I ever did in my life. What I recognized years later was that I was trying to escape the typical adolescent feelings of inadequacy, and I wanted to fit in with my peers.

It was the early seventies and it seemed that everyone was getting high. For 24 years I continued using, till 1997, when I woke up one morning and recognized that I just couldn’t to live like this any longer. I consider myself very lucky, as bad karma had begun to surround me everywhere I turned.

I was earning very good money at the time, but a huge hole continued to build inside me, and I realized that I wasn’t going to stop using. My drinking and pot smoking turned to cocaine and then eventually crack. I was sinking fast. It was by the grace of God, a good therapist, and a caring doctor, who finally helped me get on the track to sobriety.

I committed myself into joining an evening re-hab, and completed the program in a few months. The important key to remember that I have a disease which is called alcoholism. It is a fixation of the mind which affects our physical, emotional, and spiritual states.

Has your drinking advanced to alcohol abuse or alcoholism? Ask yourself these questions:

- What are your first thoughts in the morning? If having a drink ranks in the top 1 or 2, there could be problem.

- Do you feel guilty about your drinking enough to hide it from those who care about you? From your boss, or your spouse, or children?

- Do you often think about how you should cut back on the amount of drinking you do? Have you made failed promises to stop?

- Do you get irritated when others mention or, disapprove of your special relationship with alcohol?

Answering yes to any of the questions could be an indicator that you have at least alcohol abuse and perhaps even suffer from alcoholism. Seek help now!

The terms alcoholism and alcohol abuse are in fact two different stages of alcohol addiction.

Alcoholism involves an uncontrollable physical need and emotional dependence on alcohol. Even when all aspects of the drinker’s life have been adversely affected, the drinker cannot stay away from alcohol. Alcoholism is a chronic disease that can progress even to the point of death if left untreated.

Alcohol abuse is a less severe stage of drinking than alcoholism. The alcohol abuser may still drink excessively and even suffer from health and social consequences, but never entirely loses their control over alcohol as would the true alcoholic.

While not always easy to identify the true alcoholic, there are signs that can be recognized. Not everyone suffering from alcoholism experiences all of these symptoms. Because they are likely to be secretive about it, it can be difficult to ascertain in another.

Here’s what to watch for:

1. Keeping drinking secret from friends and family; drinking alone a lot; hiding the alcohol in odd places.

2. The inability to stop drinking once started.

3. Have full or partial “blackouts,” where the memory of events while drinking isn’t complete.

4. Becoming annoyed when a regular drinking ritual, like having a drink after dinner, is interrupted.

5. Leaving behind past hobbies and pleasurable activities.

6. Drinking becomes a compulsion or a necessity.

7. The more time without a drink, bad temper and irritability is displayed.

8. Gulping strong drinks to reach the drunk feeling as rapidly as possible.

9. Tolerance levels are reached making it necessary to drink even larger amounts to attain the needed feeling.

10. Relationships, work, financial troubles increase, sometimes involving legal actions.

11. When no alcohol has been consumed for a while for whatever reason, experiencing symptoms of physical withdrawal - shaking, sweating, and nausea.

People sometimes don’t stop and consider exactly what they are doing when they are drinking alcohol.

First of all the alcohol will enter the esophagus and exit into the stomach, where it is then absorbed into the blood stream. It will then end up in the liver which has the job of breaking it up into different chemicals.

The subsequent functions of the liver will turn these chemicals into h2o and co2, which are then just excreted from our organism. This all sounds quite simple but this function bears a lot of strain on the liver to produce such changes.

The problems begin though when even more alcohol is consumed as the liver is not able to deal with it. The result being that the alcohol level in our blood will begin to rise.

Brain imaging studies have proven that long term alcohol abuse can physically shrink the parts of the brain that control learning and memory. This shrinkage is greatest in the cortex of the frontal lobe which is the center of higher intellectual functions and naturally this shrinkage will grow with age and continued alcohol use. The first noticeable sign of damage from alcohol is short-term memory loss.

Periodic imagining in alcoholics over a five year span showed the brain shrinkage steadily progressed throughout the study. The level of brain shrinkage was directly related to the amount of alcohol consumed and the results were far above anything in the normal range of brain loss.

Alcohol related brain damage can occur in any alcoholic that consumes large amount of alcohol over a long period of time. The extent of the damage is dependant on the system of the drinker, the type and amount of alcohol consumed and the accompanying diet of the drinker.