My Experience at Austin Recovery

  I have been volunteering at Austin Recovery, a local rehabilitation center, for the past few weeks. This was my first time seeing a recovery meeting. The only familiarity I had with a rehabilitation class was through a family friend, Steven. He was a client at a facility in Utah. Walking in, my classmate and I were greeted by the director. He gave us a tour of the small South Congress facility, introduced us to the staff, and gave a presentation for volunteers, although we weren't volunteers. The director told us to act like we were part of the program which we thought was very strange. Our first class was a little awkward, we were two of four females in the meeting. The meeting was an hour and the topic involved how a family is affected by the decisions of the clients. This meeting was the most impactful because I was able to see the honest perspectives adults suffering from addiction have. Steven, my family friend, passed away from alcoholism on February 10, 2016. For the longest time before and after he passed, I was so mad that he kept relapsing, refusing to go get help, and skipping class. With the perspectives of the clients, I was able to see the kind of mindset they had. They all knew they had a problem, that’s why they were getting help at the facility. But one man, in particular, explained his story to a point that brought tears to my eyes. He explained how he had been drinking since high school, and never thought it was a problem till he met his wife.When they met he got sober, they got married, and they had two kids. His work started to get stressful and so after 11 years of being sober he relapsed. His wife divorced him, he lost the right to see his kids and was fired from his job. He has been to rehab eight times and continues to go to prevent himself from turning to alcohol for his issues. This story is like many others I heard through the classes I went to at Austin Recovery. This experience has opened me up to realize that individuals that have an addiction, truly have a disease. I am aware of how hard it is to stop and the pain that comes along with the recovery process. But, I’m also able to see that there is a way to prevent and stop an addiction.

The Liver

We all heard that alcoholism can damage and even cause liver cancer. When one consumes alcohol in a short period of time, the liver struggles to process it. When alcohol reaches the liver it produces a toxic enzyme which damages cells in the liver. The liver needs water to function correctly,  when alcohol enters the body it dehydrates the liver which requires the liver to find water from other sources in your body. This can be damaging to organs around the liver. For a chronic drinker, this continuous strain on the liver can cause cirrhosis which is damage to the liver and sometimes even liver disease, which can result in death.

The Heart

Alcohol can increase chance of high blood pressure. Drinking too much can raise fat levels in the blood leading to heart attack or stroke. Risks with consuming large amounts of alcohol are cardiac arrhythmia and even cardiac death. Although there are many risks in consuming alcohol, studies show red wine can decrease chance of heart disease and improve overall health because of the amount of antioxidants in red wine. Antioxidants attach to free radicals and can prevent damage to other cells in the body.

The Brain

The consumption of alcohol can cause severe damage to our most vital organ, our brain.  Alcohol effects the central nervous system, or CNS. The CNS is composed of the nerve tissues that controls the activities of the body. Alcohol is a depressant to the CNS which means it is slowed down, causing a number of reactions including hazy thinking, altered speech, slowed reaction time, impaired vision, and much more. The memory of a long term drinker can be less accurate, with "slips" in a memory to permanent impairment that requires clinical care. These problems are brought on when neurons in the brain are damaged or even killed by the consumption of alcohol. These effects are based on a number of different factors including frequency of drinking, family history, age, genetic background, and more. The biological damage to the brain is not likely to happen with an occasional drinker, the problems begin to start with the frequent consumption of alcohol.

Austin Recovery Explanation video

bibliography:

• Alcohol. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from http://loveyourliver.com.au/alcohol/
• AustinRecovery. (2012). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URwZQtEyY20
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2016). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/alcohols-effects-body
• Science NetLinks. (2016). Alcohol and Your Brain. Retrieved December 06, 2016, from http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/alcohol-and-your-brain/