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Copied from the post Crutches to Quit Smoking
The casual suggestion of celebrating successfully not smoking for a given time period with an alcoholic beverage of any kind really does not belong at a site dealing with treating a drug addiction. Are there people who may celebrate this way here at Freedom? Sure there are--I suspect that a lot of our members drink occasionally. But there are some members and readers here who don't drink to celebrate either by personal choice or, because they can no longer drink to celebrate without having to drink all of the time whether there is anything to celebrate or not. These are people who are recovering alcoholics and who hopefully know their own limitations. I suspect that some of these people may be put off by the suggestion of using alcohol to celebrate quitting smoking. Also, there are likely members and readers here who while they may not be alcoholic themselves, they may have family members and friends who are and who may think that buying wine to share with these people is not an appropriate method of celebrating breaking free from the nicotine addiction.
As it says above:
Freedom is a quit smoking education and support site. We try to get the message out that life goes on without smoking--things you could do before can still be done after quitting. Things that could not be done before, such as safe or controlled drinking for a recovering alcoholic cannot be done now either. So as a general rule of thumb now, we are asking members to minimize the amount of time they are posting about drinking at this site. We have ample strings to cover alcohol issues. We will continue to bring them up as holidays come up, and around weekends where drinking situations are often encountered more frequently. But we ask that people who are regular users of alcohol not to raise the issue over and over again.
All posting members need to stay cognizant of this concept. It is not saying that issues involving drinking cannot be discussed. Again, if a person finds him or herself in a social drinking situation and it creates smoking thoughts, or if a person is nervous about how to get through a party or gathering where he or she will be drinking, it is totally legitimate to raise these concerns and for others to explain how they deal with such circumstances. Suggesting or encouraging the use of alcohol though to others who you do not know their full histories on is a risky proposition.
As we discuss in the thread The Freedom Classroom
Every person posting at Freedom has an awesome responsibility because every word you are writing is capable of influencing hundreds or even thousands of people. Considering what we are trying to influence them to do, which is to quit smoking and to save their lives, it is easy to see how why we feel that this is indeed an awesome responsibility.
So everyone be aware and stay cognizant to the fact any advice written on this board is being read by hundreds to thousands of people. Make sure that any specific suggestions that you are sharing is sound advice for all people. Offering celebratory drinks to all people is an unwarranted suggestion in the event the people who you may be making the offer to are people in recovery from alcohol.
It is similar to our members getting offered a cigar to celebrate the birth of a baby or other special occasions. While the act may seem acceptable to some people in some social circles, I think most of our members and readers would feel that this act would be uncomfortable to say the least, and in poor taste if the offer was being made by a person who knew you had quit smoking, and that you had made it clear to that person that you realize that you are a nicotine addict and cannot smoke without relapsing.
Be prepared that such offers may occur from others. Offers for drinks will likely happen at times even if you are a person who is in recovery from alcohol. Understand that if you are a person in recovery that the reason that you have maintained your sobriety up to this point is that you have worked out some sort of response to deal with such offers and the bottom line is that it is your responsibility to stick to your commitment not to drink.
The same concept holds true for all of our members regarding smoking. I hope most of our members and readers never find themselves feeling that there is a right time to pass along a cigar or any tobacco product to another person to celebrate any event. All members and readers must be aware though that offers of tobacco products to you can occur over time. Once again, it is the personal responsibility of each member and reader to sustain his or her own quit even at such times by remembering that in spite of the nature of these offers that the only way to sustain your own quit and truly have something to celebrate is to stick to your own personal commitment to never take another puff.
Joel
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Imagine being at or near the peak of physical withdrawal and nicotine detox, where your brain begins working fast and hard at restoring natural neurotransmitter sensitivities now that nicotine's arrival has ended. Imagine your conscious dreams and desires of freedom doing a wonderful job at calming, suppressing and overcoming subconscious fears, craves and anxieties associated with arresting your world of chemical dependency, a world of "nicotine normal." Now imagine taking early recovery into a smoke and smoker filled environment and then commencing to drink large quantities of a mind altering and inhibition diminishing substance. What are the chances of your healing surviving? It's what these threads are all about. Although Freedom teaches that we need not give up anything when quitting, that rule must be applied using a bit of common sense. We also teach baby steps and little bites and those principles work extremely well in helping each of us work-up to fully engaging all aspects of life. Alcohol may play a role in half of all fatal vehicle collisions here in the U.S. but it likely plays a much greater role in the death toll stemming from nicotine relapse. Plan ahead! Break the event down into smaller doable bites. Have a coping plan ready. Have a back-up plan. Have an emergency plan. You have but one healling patient to protect and it is "you!" A host of expectations, emotions and new experiences to encounter but only one guiding principle determining whether the patient's healing lives or dies, no nicotine just one hour, challenge and day at a time, Never Take Another Puff, Dip or Chew! John (Gold x5)
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Smoking May Hinder Brain's Recovery from Alcoholism By Jeff Minerd, MedPage Today Staff Writer Reviewed by Rubeen K. Israni, M.D., Fellow, Renal-Electrolyte and Hypertension Division, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine March 16, 2006 MedPage Today Action Points Explain to recovering alcoholics that this study suggests quitting smoking may lead to faster brain recovery. Review SAN FRANCISCO - For alcoholics whose drinking brings on cognitive deficits, smoking seems to retard their cognitive recovery when they go on the wagon, a study here suggested. "It is pretty well established that long-term chronic drinking of the amount that alcoholics do leads to abnormalities of brain structure, chemistry, and blood flow as well as cognition," said Timothy Durazzo, Ph.D., of the San Francisco VA in an interview. Alcoholics may appear to be functioning normally, but cognitive tests will usually reveal abnormalities or "frank deficits," he added. So it stands to reason that diminished cognition should reverse itself when alcoholics stop drinking. But, Dr. Durazzo found, cognitive recovery can be retarded by cigarette smoking, at least during the first month of abstinence from alcohol. Smoking appears to interfere with metabolic brain recovery and cognitive improvement, Dr. Durazzo and colleagues reported in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. They evaluated 25 recovering alcoholics-14 smokers and 11 non-smokers. Using MRI, the investigators examined participants' brains for N-acetylaspartate, a marker of neuronal viability, and choline, a marker of cell membrane health. Measurements were made after seven and 35 days of abstinence. Concentrations of N-acetylaspartate in the parietal white matter of the non-smokers increased from an average of about 28 institutional units on day seven to 29 units on day 35, but concentrations significantly decreased in smokers from 28 to 26.5 units (P<.05). Similarly, choline concentrations in the non-smokers increased from an average of about 4.5 to 5.2 units (P<.05), but in non-smokers the average concentration stayed put at 4.7 units. The authors reported that increases in N-acetylaspartate and choline concentrations were positively correlated with improvement in various cognitive domains including executive function, visuospatial learning/skills, fine motor skills, auditory verbal learning and general intelligence. At one month of abstinence, the investigators also found "huge" differences between the smokers and non-smokers in performance on cognitive tests that measured such things as visual-spatial learning and memory, Dr. Durazzo said. However, these data are in another paper which has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, he added. Cigarette smoke contains many toxic compounds, such as carbon monoxide and free radicals, that may directly or indirectly compromise the central nervous system tissue, the authors said. The study's results suggest that for faster brain recovery, it may be beneficial for alcoholics in early abstinence to stop smoking as well, the authors said. "This may be a lot to ask from an alcoholic individual going through drastic brain chemical imbalances in early recovery," Dr. Durazzo said. On the other hand, "cigarettes and alcohol tend to go together," he said. "One may elicit cravings for the other. So if you are able to give up both at the same time, it may increase your chances of staying sober, because you don't have one substance serving as a trigger for use of the other." The results of this study should be considered preliminary and must be confirmed by larger and longer-term prospective studies, the authors concluded. Primary source: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research Source reference: Durazzo TC et al. Brain metabolite concentrations and neurocognition during short-term recovery from alcohol dependence: preliminary evidence of the effects of concurrent chronic cigarette smoking. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2006; 30(3):1-13. http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Addictions/tb/2877 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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