Simon Stephens from Addictions UK speaks on the subject of addiction and shoplifting, on BBC Three Counties. Can shoplifting be an addiction, like drugs and alcohol? Can someone have a pathological dependency towards shoplifting?
For more information on addiction, go to http://www.addictionsuk.com
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin
Today is the day. Tuesday, October 11, 2011. I want to remember this day forever.
The day I decided to stop drinking.
The sunrise was beautiful this morning. Possibly the best one I’ve ever seen. Pink and blue hues in the sky sprayed with just the right amount of clouds, the brilliant orange sun barely peeking over the fall trees, as if uncertain of making its appearance.
There are knots in my stomach. I can’t breathe (allergies). I am on my period.
I am incredibly exhausted from being awake all night, tossing and turning and trying to banish the unwanted thoughts that kept racing through my head, taking up space where happy memories should be.
Most people have heard the words “monkey on my back” used as a term for defining addiction. Personally, I find the word “addiction” too soft a word to describe the monster every addict or alcoholic battles in daily life. It’s too clinical, too sterile, and just doesn’t pack the same punch as the monkey analogy.
As a hardcore alcoholic for more than half my life, I learned a few things about the monkey. First, he never knows when to keep his mouth shut. It’s not that he’s loud. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The monkey prefers to whisper, at least during the early stages of addiction. Day in, day out, he whispers in the addict’s ear, reminding the addict that it’s time to party. He whispers because he doesn’t want others to hear him. “They don’t understand you the way I do”, he whispers. “I’m your only true friend. It’s you and me, brother. Besides, it’s nobody’s business but our own.”
The monkey is also persistent. He never, ever leaves the addict’s side. He’s always there to remind the addict that one drink or one puff never hurt anyone. Sure, he makes himself a little scarce when trouble arrives, but he’s always watching from behind the scenes while the addict works things out. The monkey never leaves for long because
As a recovering alcoholic, married to a recovering alcoholic, also the daughter of alcoholics I don’t believe that alcoholism/addiction can be cured alone. We all need help especially with issues relating to denial.
Growing up surrounded by alcoholics and drug addicts meant that my teenage years were plagued with unmanageability and chaos. The abnormal became the normal and drinking, drug taking and violence was an everyday occurrence.
Once I became a mother myself something within me changed and I had a moment of clarity. I knew I wanted a better childhood for my children than I had myself. This new way of thinking for me was only the start. I tried to stop drinking by myself only managing a few days until I thought maybe just a few drinks at the weekend would be fine. Once the weekend came and the drinks began then I could not stop again I had set off the craving which then began the whole vicious cycle again. I had a few more failed attempts at doing it alone and began to lose hope.
My father and my husband had been working a 12 step programme so I decided I should try it also. Life slowly became less unmanageable and a lot more serene. With the help of other recovering alcoholics I managed to abstain from alcohol and have done so for nearly six years now. I am positive that I would not have been able to do this by myself as my own and my family’s failed attempts in the past to do it alone is all the proof I needed.
I continue to look to other alcoholics for support and guidance as again I have seen other alcoholics who think they no longer need help and can do it alone have relapsed and very quickly sank back into a life of unmanageability.
My life has turned around since I found recovery. I am now working with an addiction agency, undergoing a degree at my local University and leading a happy life. I am encouraged when my friends now tell me that it gets better ….
I am impressed with the work of Addictions UK and wish them well in their work.
Home alcohol detox programmes are highly beneficial for those who require a detox programme for alcohol related issues, but are unable to enter a residential treatment programme. There are many reasons why for some people, residential treatment is not suitable for them. The advantage of a home alcohol detox programme is that you need not have to leave your home to enter a stay at a rehab clinic, allowing you to get the immediate treatment you need without having to step a foot out of your door.
Some people are unable to get the time off work or have family commitments which means they are unable to enter a residential programme. The benefit of an home alcohol detox programme is that you can stay in the familiar surroundings of your home and can get treatment without having to let family or work colleagues know your circumstances. A home alcohol detox plan will always be carried out discreetly and safely.
After an initial assessment to see if you are suitable to a home alcohol detox programme and are successful, you will be prescribed medication that will help you to detox from alcohol safely and comfortably. Your home alcohol detox plan will be supervised by our expert team of medical staff. We highly recommend that you never attempt to detox from alcohol on your own without medical supervision. The withdrawal symptoms for some people can be very unpleasant and in some cases, even fatal. Some of the side effects can include vomiting, hallucinations, shakes and fits.
Al-Anon Groups help the friends and families anonymously – they work in the same way as Alcoholics Anonymous. They do not offer advice but do share strength hope and experience amongst their members.
Al-Anon Family Groups provide support to anyone whose life is, or has been, affected by someone else’s drinking. Al-Anon (the sister organisation of Alcoholics Anonymous) believe alcoholism affects the whole family, not just the drinker. They are an international organisation with over 800 support groups in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Al-Anon is a fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics who share their experience in order to solve their common problems.
Addictions UK suggests to family members and friends of alcoholics that they might well gain help and assistance from this organisation. It is not for all – but many people find support and fellowship here. There are meetings throughout England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland.
Al-Anon’s Confidential Helpline:
Tel: 020 7403 0888
Fax: 020 7378 9910
Al-Anon is available 10 am – 10 pm, 365 days a year
Al-Anon can also be contacted at: enquiries@al-anonuk.org.uk
For meetings in the United Kingdom or throughout the world Al-non have provided some excellent links on their website.
Click here for Al-Anon Family Groups Meetings in the UK
Al-Anon Family Groups hold regular meetings where members share their own experience of living with alcoholism. Al-Anon does not offer advice or counselling, but members give each other understanding, strength and hope.
For the Addictions UK 24/7 carers helpline:
Tel: 0845 4567 030.
I cannot express how important it is to find an agency that can do home detox for alcohol safely and that has treatment attached to it. For years I have had loads of medication – but never linked with treatment. Addictions UK provided me with a doctor and nursing care quickly and efficiently and sorted out treatment the next day.
In the addictions UK web page AUK printed the following:
The Benefits of our Home-based Detox
After Home-based Detox
Detox is not a cure! It is the start of a progress toward continuing recovery, focussed on avoiding the first drink or drug use which brings renewed addiction. With that aim we offer:
This is all good stuff! I recommend it to others in my position.
Ethical, accredited interventionists can accelerate addicts into treatment –maverick ones can harm the whole family. So leading players have signed up to become board-registered interventionists with an agreed Code of Ethics. Deirdre Boyd reports on the birth of AIS International.
Structured ‘interventions’ – organised by families or employers of an addict, with a professional specialist – are estimated to get addicts, however reluctant, into treatment in over 92% of cases. In the rare instances that the addict does not do so, the family is guided to the help it needs to move out of distress and out of addictive cycles.
In the UK, at least tens of thousands of families and addicts need such help – but they do not get it. And the rehabs which can offer the treatment they need are only half-full, threatening their survival.
We not only need more interventionists, we need ones who are ethical, trained and qualified. Too often, desperate people google for help and believe that the names which crop up first in their search are treatment centres or independent brokers (a deliberate illusion) when, in reality, some merely take their money, give the name of a facility which pays them the greatest commission no matter whether it is best or not for the patient, then take the money for the treatment also, handing a portion to the facility.
There are stories of a young girl wandering round South Africa for a week vulnerable after first-stage treatment because the internet broker did not organise anything. And other stories
Most of the time, Intervention is something that a family considers only when a crisis occurs. Our loved one ends up in jail, overdoses, or causes major wreckage and THEN the family decides that it is time to do an intervention. An addiction intervention is a carefully controlled process where a trained professional sets up a meeting to mediate a controlled confrontation with the addict. The direct result of this meeting is that the addict immediately enters treatment.
Families often try to facilitate this process themselves and it turns into a screaming match where everyone feels attacked and it ends up causing more damage the family system. Another problem with families doing an intervention themselves is that
Picture a summers evening, warm & peaceful. You’re sitting in a pub garden and in front of you is a pint of golden liquid with a pure white froth on the top, perspiration beads run down the cold glass on a warm evening. You raise it to your lips, take a long drink and when you put the glass back down, smile and let out a sigh of satisfaction.
Enjoy that? Of course you did, everyone drinks for the same reason, they like the effect it produces.
Now picture a person, woman or a man, it makes no difference, sitting on the end of their bed at 5:30 in the morning. The bedroom stinks of the rancid smell of stale booze and sweat, sometimes worse than that. They have the dregs of a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bucket in the other. They raise the bottle to their mouth trying not to split their lips because they are shaking so violently, manage to get some in their mouth and immediately retch and vomit so hard in the bucket, their eyes stream with tears and they choke for breath.
Still enjoying it?
That is what alcoholism looks like, hardly a photo shoot from a glossy magazine is it?
Change the bottle for a syringe, line of cocaine, pack of tablets the picture is similar, the end results the same.
Why do they do it?
