We all know about the archetypal story of alcoholism – someone loses their job, gets divorced, faces the death of a loved one or some other tragic life event. That person then gets depressed, moody, withdrawn and starts to drink. The addiction grows and soon they’re a raging alcoholic. Of course, this is not the only way someone becomes addicted, but it’s so common that it speaks volumes – and everyone’s heard the story before!

Scientists now believe that hormone imbalances can cause or trigger addiction, and especially stress hormones like Cortisol that are released from chronic stress and major stressors in life. We also know that nutrition can help bring our hormones back into balance, even when we’re stressed. The body knows how to recover and heal itself, if we will only feed and nourish it with what it needs to function properly.

Here are some top nutrition tips to help heal the nervous system, balance hormones and help speed up recovery from an addiction.

1. Omega-3 Fats

Omega-3 Fatty acids are crucial to good brain health and nervous system function. They’re also crucial to hormonal balance as well. Research shows that the ideal ratio of Omega-3 fats to Omega-6 fats is a One to One ratio (1:1). The problem is that the average American has a ratio of between 1:15 and 1:45! This means we’re incredibly out of balance – and this imbalance of essential fatty acids means our brains our imbalanced.

You see, every cell in the body build its cell wall out of fat. It’s called a lipid bi-layer (double layer of fat) that surrounds the cells and participates in cellular communication. When we eat the wrong kinds of fat, not only do we get inflammation, but we also get imbalances in cellular communication, neurotransmitter receptor sites and hormones!

You can get more Omega-3 fats from fresh, raw walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, and other nuts as well as wild fish like salmon (but they must be wild – farm raised fish are often fed corn and contain very little, if any, Omega-3 fats). Avoid heavily processed foods that contain trans fats or high levels of Omega-6 fats.

2. Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and veggies are crucial to good brain health, cellular communication and healthy neurotransmitter activity. Many of our neurotransmitter receptor sites can get damaged by environmental toxins and free radical damage. Fruits and vegetables contain tens of thousands of phytonutrients, antioxidants and plant chemicals that reduce free radical damage as well as enzymes that can neutralize and eliminate toxins and repair cell receptors. Many of these nutrients can also block cell receptor sites that can be harmful.

3. Vitamin D

Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin at all – it’s a hormone! And we now know that Vitamin D actually helps modulate over 20% of the human genome. It’s crucial for good immune health, healthy bones, and a healthy brain and nervous system. Studies have found that low vitamin D levels can increase the risk of depression and other psychological conditions as well as severe chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

The newest research shows that consuming 4,000 to 6,000 IU of Vitamin D every day is bets for adults, and 2,000 IU a day for infants and young children. You can supplement through a Vitamin D capsule or liquid supplement. You cannot overdose on Vitamin D at these low levels – your body will produce 50,000 IU of Vitamin D on a sunny summer day if you’re out in a bathing suit at the beach without cloud cover.

This article written by Tom Corson-Knowles, founder of Authentic Health Coaching. Tom blogs regularly about the foundation of good nutrition including fruit and vegetable supplementation and much more. You can get Dr. Candace Corson’s Top 5 Nutrition Tips report for free at www.AuthenticHealthCoach.com

The staff and counselors here have been so understanding, they gave me a chance to prove myself; they gave me room to find myself and helped me to find happiness in my heart. Without them this new future of mine would have never been possible.

I have always had an “addictive” personality, whether it was cigarettes, pot, cocaine and then ultimately the substance that almost gave me a death sentence, heroin. Before I came to an alcohol abuse treatment I literally did not care about anything. I was lost and I really wasn’t even there so to speak.

No matter how bad I got, no matter how lost I was no one ever considered me a lost cause and no one ever gave up on me. I can’t imagine what I put my friends and family through and they are some of the most amazing and strong people I know. They believed in me, even when I had completely given up hope.

My family and friends are a blessing, they knew I could do it and they wouldn’t let me give in to my substance abuse addiction even when I wanted to. Eventually I believed them, despite myself, I believed them. I started taking responsibility for the things I had done. I started confessing to my family and telling them about everything I had ever done. To my utter shock and disbelief they didn’t hate me, they didn’t disown me, they were relived. They were relived that I had grown to a point that I could admit what I did, own it, apologize and take responsibility.

I had grown up.

Since that happened I have been so happy, like I have a new life and I know I will never make the mistakes I made before. I have such integrity and pride in myself and my life that I will never do anything to jeopardize those things again.

Today is one of the greatest days of my life; today my father said to me “I’m so proud of you son”. My whole life all I wanted was to make my father proud and to be a good son. I wanted to be happy and be true to my family and myself.

I am not going to lie, it was hard, from the time I made the decision to do the program, do it for myself and do it right I had to tell myself every day that I could do it, that I was tougher than drugs and that I was stronger than this addiction that had plagued me for years.

I can do anything I want to do, the pieces are all falling into place and I am happier than I have ever been. I didn’t think I could do it and I proved myself wrong and you know what? I am proud of myself!

Thank you thank you thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you!

Costing society more than $185 billion dollars every year alcoholism doesn’t usually start out as a full blown addiction. Here is the sequence of phases that paint the picture of an individual falling into the trap of addiction:

1. Simple Experimentation – The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that 47% of high school students use alcohol. The reasons usually center around the fact that alcohol use seems to be a solution to some type of a problem. No matter the problem alcohol use begins with simple experimentation.

2. Reliance On Alcohol – Once the individual has used alcohol several times, the substance can “seem” to provide a solution for whatever problem they are trying to solve by using it. Now it has value to the individual and the reliance begins.

3. The Need For Alcohol To Function – After an individual starts to use alcohol more and more frequently they begin to develop an alcohol addiction. This is where they experience mental and physical withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking. They start to alienate those around them, and create problems in their life in an effort to continue drinking.

4. Full Alcoholism – This is the final phase of alcohol addiction. It is where the individual mentally and physically needs alcohol to function. Other parts of life have been alienated to a great degree and the individual usually struggles with many personal and professional issues as a result. At this point the individual usually ends up in prison, or dead without some type of professional help for alcoholism.

When addiction to alcohol becomes a major problem in one’s life the individual often seeks treatment. Statistics indicate that a higher percentage of people get help for alcohol than illicit or prescription drugs however a major percentage of people are still struggling without help.

In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that alcohol abuse accounts for 23% of all treatment admissions in the country. This is an average of 5 million people getting treatment for abusing alcohol per year.

Unfortunately there are another 12 million people who need to get help for alcoholism and are not enrolling in treatment.

There are many reasons why getting treatment for alcoholism is absolutely necessary.

1. To Undo The Damage Alcohol Does To The Body – In some cases is it not enough that alcohol causes some cancers, birth defects and damage to the liver and other organs to deter people from abusing it. But the longer an individual abuses alcohol the more they leave themselves open to having major health problems and will shorten their life span. The Center for Disease Control Reports that there were over 23,000 alcohol related deaths in one year not including accidents and homicides.

2. To Repair Relationships – The top rehabilitation centers in the country will tell you how much damage alcohol abuse does to family member’s and loved one’s of the addict. Divorces, domestic abuse, child abuse and mistreatment can all step from alcohol addiction. Treatment can help to repair these relationships and start to make up the damage caused to loved ones.

3. To Avoiding Hurting Others – Mother’s Against Drunk Driving reports that one in three people will be in an alcohol related crash in their lifetime. In addition, the group states that over 10,000 people will die in an alcohol related crash during a one year period. Alcoholism can cause the user to hurt both himself and others while under the influence. In addition, nearly 60 to 70% of domestic abuse is a result of alcoholism.

4. To Handle Legal Difficulty – According to recent DUI statistics over 1 million people are arrested for driving under the influence every year. Many of these are under the influence of alcohol. Treatment will not only help to stop alcoholism but can help to handle legal difficulties associated with alcohol abuse.

5. Because It’s The Right Thing To Do – Admitting one has a problem with alcohol isn’t always easy but the only way to overcome alcoholism is to reach out for help. Many successful drug and alcohol treatment programs exist that can completely stop alcohol addiction.

One of the important aspects of treatment we like to focus on here at AlcoholTreatment.org is length of stay. We can’t stress enough how important length of rehabilitation is. The longer a person works on his or her recovery while in a rehab program the better chance of success there is. These short-term programs that last 1-2 weeks have a very low success rate and never really have good results. Our philosophy is if you are going to invest money in a good program make sure it is long term. Usually the cost of a long-term alcohol rehab program is $10,000-$40,000. These programs generally are around 4-12 months long, which includes an aftercare program as well.

This is a substantial investment for an alcohol treatment center, but there are many options on how to finance this cost. Some treatment centers offer financing interest free. Some facilities have scholarships, and can even take insurance. The bottom line is the cost of treatment can vary but the most important thing is to find the best type of program that offers that highest success rate. From there figure out how to pay for the rehab, because you are talking about saving a persons life!

3) The third reason why a person who is struggling with alcohol abuse never quits and is they are scared of the detox and withdraw symptoms caused by quitting. If a severe alcoholic just quits “cold turkey” the body can go through severe medical withdraw symptoms, so bad that a seizure or other severe medical difficulties can occur. The best way to address this problem is ensure that you bring the alcoholic to a medical detox. The medical detox will taper the person slowly off the alcohol with prescribed medications that will provide a gentle and safe way to quit.

2) The second reason an alcoholic wont quit is they don’t know how to deal with problems in life or they have low self-esteem/depression. As humans we all have problems and issues that we deal with in everyday life but for many alcoholics they don’t have those coping skills many of us have. Depression and failures can cause a person to sink so low they don’t know what else to do except medicate with alcohol. Ensuring the addicted individual finds the right alcohol rehab is essential. Our counselors can help locate a facility that will provide cognitive counseling and life skills therapy.

1) The first and most common reason a person never quits his or her alcohol addiction is they don’t think they have a problem. Most alcoholics are what we call “functioning alcoholics.” Functioning alcoholics are moms, dads, brothers, sisters, college graduates, business owners, successful individuals that are able to function in society while consuming lots of alcohol. Unfortunately it is only a matter of time before the success runs out and the hardships of addiction take over. This is the hardest scenario to deal with. What we try to encourage families to do is all the research and legwork regarding treatment for alcoholism before. Once the alcoholic hits rock bottom you don’t have to wait around and lose your opportunity, instead the alcoholic is brought immediately to rehab.

The first thing to understand about alcohol addiction is that it’s not all mental. There are extreme physical cravings for alcohol, which sometimes require an alcohol detox. When a person drinks alcohol, it goes through a process called metabolization. This is how the body breaks down the alcohol into metabolites. These alcohol metabolites travel through the blood stream and most exit the body either through the sweat or urine, but some don’t make it out of the body and began to accumulate in the tissues and organs of the body. After time these alcohol metabolites not only start damaging the organs like the liver and kidneys but they also start to have an adverse effect on the brain. While the alcohol metabolites are stored in the tissues they can also release back into the bloodstream at any moment and cause intense cravings. This physical restimulation of the alcohol is one of the number one reasons for relapse.

Many alcoholics will experience this craving for the alcohol and never know what’s happening. Many programs in the US offer a type of cellular cleanse which helps remove these alcohol metabolites from the body to eliminate cravings for alcohol. The most popular of these treatment modalities is called a biophysical treatment. To find out more about a biophysical alcohol rehab, call one of our counselors today.

Long-term alcohol rehabilitation facilities have anywhere from a 30-80 percent success rate. Many of these programs offer something called holistic or biophysical treatment. Holistic and biophysical treatment programs use a natural detoxification process that is very effective in cleansing the body. Once a person is cleansed and feels healthy, counseling is applied and life skills therapy to teach a person how to make life changes to effectively handle the addiction.

Remember, when looking for alcohol treatment, find something that is individualized and not group based. Look at how long the rehab program is and make sure the offer a health based program and counseling. If you need any help at all locating a facility, please give us a call or email one of our counselors.

Elder alcohol abusers with health problems may be the best candidates for faith based alcohol treatment. Many patients who are actively and successfully participating in a christian or faith based programs usually says that they are offered additional benefits with those groups and that most importantly it allows them to draw strength from their faith.