In the 1950s, NA was not yet well understood by society, so it had difficulty finding places to meet, initially going to people’s homes. In some cases, such as New York State, it was against the law for drug addicts to meet for any reason, which, in essence, made NA an illegal organization. The organization nearly went out of existence, holding no meetings for four months in 1959, until Jimmy Kinnon and others restarted NA, with the idea of dedicating themselves to the original principles of the group.

In the 1960s, meetings began again and started to grow. The White Booklet was written in 1962 and formed the basis for NA literature that would come next. Narcotics Anonymous really began to grow, however, in the 1970s, moving from 20 regular weekly meetings in 1970 to 200 meetings in 1976, some which took place in Germany, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Inida, Japan, and the UK, among other nations. By the 1980s, there were 1,100 different meetings across the world. By 2007, there were over 25,065 groups holding over 43,900 weekly meetings in a 126 countries, and, today, there are about 50,000 weekly meetings internationally in around 130 countries.

In the 21st Century, Narcotics Anonymous is known as a fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs are a major problem, and is based on the twelve steps as adapted from AA, and is now the second largest 12 step organization. The requirement for membership is a desire to stop using, and members meet on a regular basis with the intention of helping each other remain abstinent of all mood or mind altering substances, which includes alcohol and marijuana. Membership is free, without any dues or fees.

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History of Narcotics Anonymous

Most people who take a drink on a regular basis — a couple of glasses of wine at the end of the day or a few beers with pizza — rarely give it much thought. The American culture is saturated with advertising for alcohol and information that suggests that even a couple of glasses of alcohol a day is not necessarily a bad thing for your health. But what happens when those glasses of wine become four glasses, or six? What happens if you find yourself drinking alone, where you’re drinking purely for the effect and not for social reasons? When does alcohol use turn into alcohol abuse?

To figure out whether or not you have a problem, you might begin with a definition of alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse may be thought of as a pattern of drinking which includes one or more of these situations over the period of one year: 1) Drinking in situations considered physically dangerous, such as operating a heavy machine or while driving a car; 2) failing to fulfill major responsibilities at work, school, or home; 3) recurring legal problems related to alcohol, such as being arrested for drunk driving or for assaulting someone while drunk; and 4), continuing to drink regardless of how the effects of alcohol causes or worsens problems in an ongoing relationship.

You may wish to note that there is a difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Not everyone who abuses alcohol or has a drinking problem is an alcoholic — there are, in fact, various degrees of alcohol problems. Yours might be a minor problem or a major one, depending upon how badly it affects the rest of your life and the people around you. Regardless, if you do have one or more of the above signs, it suggests that you need to re-examine your relationship with alcohol.

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What is Alcohol Abuse?

Step One: The user must recognize a problem exists. It’s often difficult, especially when inside an addiction, to have any perspective on the illness; the user must realize the problem before recovery can begin. To gain some perspective, the user should talk to people about how his or her meth habit has affected their lives in an attempt to appreciate how the drug has affected his or her personality and relationships.

Step Two: The user must seek out professional help, to find a doctor or threapist to discuss the problem and to formulate a treatment plan. The plan usually means participating in a drug rehabilitation program.

Step Three, then, is to enter a treatment program for meth addiction. One of the more effective treatment models is something called cognitive-behavior therapy. This method allows addicts to recognize the triggers that cause them to use drugs in the first place, and to learn how to develop coping mechanisms that are non-destructive and positive. This type of therapy emphasizes goal-setting and confidence-building.

Step Four: The user in recovery must sever ties with other drug addicts. To be successful, it’s necessary to be surrounded with people who are drug-free and who support a commitment to quit using meth. It may also be a good idea to meet with recovering addicts, people who understand the journey that’s being undertaken, in settings such as Narcotics Anonymous.

Step Five: The user should prepare for withdrawals. The main effects of stopping meth are psychological and can last for as long as six months. The most common symptoms include depression, anxiety, rage, and intense cravings for food. These feelings will fade eventually, and that should be kept at the fore-front of the user’s mind, with the knowledge that freedom from meth addiction for the rest of one’s life is worth a very difficult half year.

Step six: The user should strive to stay in recovery, but make a commitment to keep trying, even if there is a relapse. Meth is so addictive psychologically that relapses are common. Users, then, should attempt to recognize the reason for the relapse and treat that as a learning experience.

While addiction doesn’t have a cure, it is possible to stop the abuse; users in recovery should be constantly aware that there is a risk of falling into old patterns of behavior that will trigger the addiction again. With determination, though, the user should know it’s possible to overcome meth addiction.

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Overcoming Meth Addiction

Alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, may be defined by four specific symptoms: a strong need or urge to drink, not being able to stop drinking once you’ve begun, withdrawal symptoms once you do stop drinking (including nausea, sweating, anxiety, shakiness), and the need to drink greater amounts in order to get drunk or high. This disease is often considered chronic, and the craving for alcohol may be as strong as the need for water or food, which means an alcoholic may well sacrifice health and family to obtain what he or she needs. If you’ve been there, you know all this; you also know that after going through detox and recovery, that there is an additional thought that will come to mind — the idea that you can drink again, but this time, in moderation.

However, can you ever drink alcohol after recovery? Certainly, people do drink after recovery, but even with just a single drink, this often leads to another drink, and another, until, once again, you’re in need of detox and rehab, another revolution of a terrible cycle. It’s a sequence that can destroy jobs, marriages, relationships and threaten your life and the lives of others.

The safest course of action for alcoholics is to not drink again. It may sound simple, but anyone who has been there knows, this is easier said than done. Intellectually, it makes sense to stop drinking, but the conditions of the disease make this a complicated proposition. This is one of the reasons why there’s so much help available for people who have this problem, enabling you to seek out support groups and search for treatment programs in your local community.

The thought that tells you it’s okay to drink after recovery is one that will lead to negative consequences over time. Not drinking is a conscious choice practiced every day, at times every hour and minute. Remember, though, that there are people who care about what happens to you, often people who have been there before — even if you haven’t met them yet.

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Can You Ever Drink Alcohol After Recovery?

1) Admit that you’re powerless over alcohol and that your life has become unmanageable, 2) Come to believe in a Power greater than yourself that can restore you to sanity; 3) Make a decision to turn your will and life over to the care of God as you understand him; 4) Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself; 5) Admit to God, to yourself, and to another human being, the exact nature of your wrongs; 6) Be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character; 7) Humbly ask God to remove your shortcomings; Make a list of all persons you have harmed and be willing to make amends to them all; 9) Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would injure them or others; 10) Continue to take a personal inventory of your life and when wrong promptly admit it; 11) Seek through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with God as you understand him, praying only for knowledge of his will for you and the power to carry that out; and, finally, 12) if you’ve had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps, carry the message to others, and to practice these principles in all your affairs.

The Twelve Steps do not work for every individual, although such programs using the steps provide a community of people who understand and can support each other as they struggle to overcome their addictions. At least four out of the twelve steps seem to have something to do with God or a higher power, as the individual understands that higher power, and that can be a stumbling block for some individuals, especially those who are not religious. For more information, consult a twelve-step program near you which is focused on the substance to which you feel you’re addicted, whether it’s alcohol, narcotics, or another drug.

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Twelve Steps to Drug and Alcohol Recovery

The effects of crack cocaine don’t simply produce a euphoria; addictive use of crack cocaine can lead to paranoia, depression, anxiety, and a variety of mood swings. A regular user of the drug may begin living in a paranoid state; in worst cases, users experience intense cravings for the drug which can’t be satisfied; and once a person has become dependent on the drug, he’s unable to function well without it. These negative effects, though, are simply the first things a person might experience. With long term effects, a person may find him or herself having problems with bodily functions, hallucinations, delirium, and depression. Long term use may also lead to heart attacks and fatal respiratory problems.

Stopping the use of crack cocaine is not easy because of the withdrawal effects. These include intense cravings, anxiety, irritability, hunger, and paranoia. These effects are some of the reasons crack cocaine addicts quit trying to quit and return to the pipe. For this reason, addicts need help in order to stop their drug abuse. The best way in which to do this would be for the addict to receive help from an addiction specialist, the first step of which would be medical detox, freeing them from the physiological addictions. The addiction specialist also helps with the psychological addictions, with the hope of allowing addicts to either stay clean or at least stay in recovery longer.

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Withdrawal Effects of Crack Cocaine

In full-blown alcoholism, the characteristics of the disease include a physical as well as mental reliance on the effects of alcohol to feel normal. Brain and body chemistry are different from their normal states, and the addiction is such that these states might show signs of returning to normal, although there will always remain the potential to move back into an alcoholic state with even a small amount. What makes the disease so confounding to both the drinker and their friends and families is that the mind can often convince the alcoholic that there is really nothing wrong.

Some of the most pervasive symptoms, then, have to do with how the mind of the alcoholic actually works. There is usually a persistent obsession with drinking, thinking about how and when the next drink will be available. Coupled with this is a denial that there is a problem. Drinking is common in contemporary society, the drinker will think, and there’s nothing wrong with being a participant in that society. At the same time, the thoughts of drinking will continue, and eventually most of a life will be consumed with thoughts of the activity of drinking, of the relief it might offer, as well as trying to sort out the various problems one has had due to one’s drinking.

Other behavioral symptoms might be easier to assess, but they’re usually up for all kinds of denial on the part of the potential alcoholic. They can be as obvious as taking 4-5 or more drinks every day, having conversations with friends and loved ones about their concern for one’s drinking, experiencing physical withdrawal after a night out, or having to deal with legal or personal troubles caused as a result of bouts of drinking.

Perhaps the most telling symptom, however, comes when one tries to curb their behavior. An inability to stop at one or two drinks, repeated attempts to stop or slow down, along with moments of drinking to the point of complete intoxication or even blackout, are all very telling indications. If there is a question or a concern, this in itself might be a sign, and it’s never too early to get help, but there is a too late.

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Alcoholism symptoms

The reduction in fatalities through the years does show that all the efforts to make the public aware of the hazards drunk driving, or getting behind the wheel after a couple of drinks, is not an acceptable behavior, and has made an impact. All the ad campaigns, like ‘Friends don’t let Friends Drive Drunk’, or the new ‘Buzzed driving is Drunk Driving’ and the tougher laws, like the one in Arizona, which has the toughest in the United States, have had an effect with keeping drunk drivers off the road. But, having one person every 40 seconds killed by a drunk driver is still unacceptable.

Since public ad campaigns and stiffer laws have only reduced the amount of fatalities due to drunk drivers, it seems obvious that it’s now time to take drastic actions and it’s up to every individual to take a stance and do something about it. For example: bartenders really need to stop serving an individual after two drinks. Most bars, pubs and restaurants make there money by serving alcohol; stronger laws aimed at bartenders, bars and restaurants need to be created or in most incidences just enforced. Same goes with establishments selling alcohol, underage drinking is on the rise and so are the under age drunk drivers. Even stricter laws need to be enacted that will make it impossible for a first time drunk driver to ever get behind the wheel to drive. Individuals who don’t drink and drive, need to make it clear to their friends to also not drink and drive. These are extreme measures, but having one more person die unnecessarily, is one person to many.

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How Many People are Killed from Drunk Drivers

Case: Applicant works for a defense contractor. He was arrested in 1998 and in 2007 for driving while intoxicated. He pled guilty to both charges. He did not complete the sentencing requirements ordered by the state court in the second case. Applicant did not disclose the following on his security clearance application: his job terminated in 2006 by his former employer; the three non-judicial punishments he received in the U.S. Army resulting in his administrative discharge for a pattern of misconduct in 2004: and his two arrests. Applicant did not mitigate the alcohol consumption and personal conduct security concerns. Clearance is denied.

Case: Applicant began drinking alcohol in high school. In 2002 and in 2008, he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. He is currently serving probation. Even though abstinence from alcohol is a condition of his probation, he continues to use alcohol and denies that he has an alcohol problem. Applicant failed to mitigate security concerns arising from his alcohol consumption and criminal conduct. Clearance is denied.

Case: Applicant is 46 years old and employed as a Graphic Designer by a defense contractor. His long history of alcohol abuse and poor personal conduct, which includes three arrests and convictions for DUI; and, his use of marijuana while holding a security clearance, clearly demonstrates poor judgment, unreliability and untrustworthiness. There is insufficient evidence in mitigation. Clearance is denied.

Case: Applicant misused his former employer’s company van and was involved in an accident while drunk in 2007. He complied with all subsequent court and alcohol treatment requirements, and demonstrated rehabilitation and mitigation of resulting security concerns. Eligibility for access to classified information is granted.

Case: Applicant is 35 years old and employed as a Program Manager and Consultant for a defense contractor. His history of excessive alcohol abuse to the point of intoxication continued off and on from 2000 to 2005, and resulted in 3 alcohol related arrests and related misconduct. Since then, the Applicant has significantly reduced his drinking and has had no further encounters with law enforcement. There is sufficient evidence of rehabilitation. Clearance is granted.

The above examples of cases involving alcohol abuse demonstrates how easily one can loose their clearance, which affects pay, or how, with due-diligence, maintain their security clearance by keeping up with required treatments and a clean record.

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How Does Alcohol Abuse Affect My Security Clearance

For the nervous system, an alcohol abuser can suffer seizures or delirium tremens, otherwise known as the DTs, brain dementia, nerve damage and cerebellar degeneration, which is the area of the brain dealing with muscle coordination and balance; for gastrointestinaleffects, abusers of alcohol can expect to experience inflammation and irritation of the lining of the esophagus and stomach, an increased incidence of cancers of the mouth, larynx, pharynx and esophagus, liver damage like cirrhosis or alcoholic hepatitis, inflammation of the pancreas, which eventually will lead to pancreatic failure, chronic diarrhea and chronic pain.

Cardiovascular effects will be arrhythmia, cardiomyopathy, elevated fats in the bloodstream; metabolic effects from abusing alcohol will be low blood sugar and lower than normal levels of potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphate in the blood; with the endocrine system, abusers can expect a decrease in testosterone and testicular atrophy, which causes an increase in estrogen and thus the development of breast tissue in men; and finally the skin of an alcohol abuser will notice the effects of what called ‘Rosacea’ and spider angiomas, which is a collection of small blood vessels under the skin indicating liver failure from alcohol.

Some of these symptoms can be short term, while others will be long term. They can clear up in the first years of sobriety or sometimes alcohol abuse effects will never clear up. With all that could go terribly wrong concerning ones body and alcohol abuse, the most devastating effect is the possibility of losing loved ones or even killing someone while driving under the influence. Yet, most alcohol abuse effects have little or no power to make them stop drinking, even when laying in a hospital bed dying from one of the above diseases, they still want to drink more.

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Alcohol Abuse Effects