ALCOHOLISM IN CANADA AND A SIMPLE WAY TO QUIT

Alcoholism in Canada

This is a sensitive subject. Even defining alcoholism is a sensitive subject. A simple test (the Bender-Thompson Alcoholic Detector Test (BTADT) is the young lady to the left. If you see double you are an alcoholic. This is a controversial test because of its unfailing accuracy and simplicity. The medical community is loath to use it as many of them fail it. It actually measures neural damage to the occipital lobes caused by alcohol. The damage is irreversible.

Here are some facts: (source Gerald Thomas Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse 2004 "Alcohol related Harms and Control Policy in Canada"

77% of the population in Canada 15 and older drinks
the average consumption of alcohol is approximately 100 litres per year representing 6.9L of pure alcohol
80% of the consumption is beer the rest is wine and spirits
29% of men and 12% of women engaged in high risk drinking defined as five or more drinks on 12 or more occasions per year.
Alcohol sales in Canada exceeds 15.4 billion dollars a year.
On average each Canadian pays $133 a year on alcohol taxes to Federal and Provincial coffers.
The price of beer is 52% taxes and spirits 82% taxes
The total direct and indirect costs for alcohol abuse is $263 per Canadian annually.
Impaired driving is the most common criminal offence in Canada accounting for (2002) 12% of ALL criminal charges
On average law enforcement detects only 1% of impaired drivers. (holy crap!) and only 66,682 people are charged each year.
1200 people are killed on the roads annually due to impaired drivers

I then researched the Alcoholics Anonymous site for any useful info. Frankly I was a bit surprised by the bullshit they were slinging about how the individual could not control his urges and absolutely had to depend on God and their 12 step program for salvation. These people apparently do have some success in their methods so one needs to respect that.

I noticed that people were being cagey when defining just what an alcoholic was and there were subjective references to negative effects on health and personality but the definition seemed difficult to pin down. In fact there seemed to be a huge reluctance on the part of most people defining the problem to actually come up with some numbers.

There is a huge amount of money associated with alcohol and nearly everyone in Canada (77%+) drinks. The bullshit detector went off when I couldn't find an operationally defined definition for an alcoholic. With so many people drinking I suspect even those making up the definitions didn't want to cast too wide a net and ..include themselves! And nearly all had a positive comment on the health benefits of drinking while admitting that too much alcohol has the opposite results.

My situation is that I am 60 and have been retired for six years. I was a normal Canadian and from my teenage, university and adulthood years drank beer, wine and spirits. I and lots of my friends regularly managed to hit the "high risk drinking" definition of 5 or more drinks on a single occasion 12 or more times a year. Then at age 58 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and my life style had resulted in a morbidly obese condition and a weight of 368 pounds on a 5'11" frame. My blood pressure was 155/90The same day as the diagnosis I decided to make some life style decisions. One of them was to eliminate alcohol completely from my system. Another was to eliminate sugars, sugar pop and high fat/salt foods. The logic I used was that I had my fair share of these items and they would kill me! I used no special diet or exercise plan or suffered any desires for alcohol or the bad food. In fact once the decision on the life style change was made it was very easy to maintain. Now I am down to 295 which is a loss of 73 pounds making me still fat as a pig but I am continuing to loose weight and I feel 100% better. My blood pressure is now 117/70. In a year or two more I will have the weight problem back to normal. What is the message here? (the message is that if a moron like me can do it without diets,coaches,drugs etc. then so can you if you are fat as a moose like me).

We have a complete page on obesity and I outline the roots of the problem and how I dropped 73 pounds and counting. You can check it out here. It's one of our better topics on the website and I hope you find it useful.

My opinion is that alcohol is NOT good for you and that anyone who drinks say ten or more drinks a week has a drinking problem. Lets call them ALCOHOLICS! You end up paying a hideous amount of taxes to the man and it ruins your body and your life. Your skin shows it too -ever look at the skin of a heavy drinker?

So cut the bullshit associated with the consumption of alcohol and after you have had your share just quit! It is working for me. I don't miss it a bit. But then I did have my share and it was killing me! Just think how much money is associated with alcohol and how many people want the situation to stay exactly as it is. That gets reflected in turn in all facets of society from the media to people's attitudes. Quitting drinking would cause financial losses for millions of people. It would also save hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of dollars of damages caused by alcohol. The choice is yours.

If you know somebody that might find this information helpful please refer the page to them. You could save their life and they will owe you one! I have no intention of becoming a personal diet/alcoholic coach or trying to make some money out of my discovery but I would like to offer the information to those that can use it. I had to discover it myself and it took about 58 years to get to that point before the light went on! Being morbidly obese and drinking too much is simply not a fun way to live the few years that we get on the planet. You feel better, look better and enjoy life better closer to your normal weight range. Its easier to buy clothes, physical activity is more fun, and having a brain clear of alcohol makes you amazingly sharp witted and happy. It even raises the IQ a few points. So do it! Right now!!

Researching Alcoholism is good idea. Tons of books have been written on the subject with many good ideas. Ultimately a lifestyle change is the way to go. Here are some: