Just thought I'd share....

[Auvergne]

Hi All,

I've been on a Dual Diagnosis course today (namely re service users experiencing both mental health issues and substance misuse issues) and a couple of statements have stayed with me. Apparently it is now possible to maintain and support a chronic alcohol dependancy on £12 per week! Moreover, 84% of A&E weekend cases are as a result of alchohol misuse, our poor nurses,bless them. We were asked to think about why we drink - what the benefits are.... I can only put my drinking down to habit. Apparently men process their drink a lot faster and rid it from their bodies far more quicklly than women. With women the alchohol takes a lot longer to rid from their bodies due to higher fat levels in the body, therefore the effects are more damaging. I understand a recent study suggests the younger women start to drink excessively, the higher the rate of dementia in later life. Where are we going to be in years to come with our binge drinking culture? The mail today states being laid back and outgoing makes you less likely to develop Alzheimers? Also it is reported that stress plays a huge part in developing dementia - professors, doctors and highly educated people make up a large proportion of suffers. With specialised Memory Services in their infancy within the NHS I'm wondering if they know something we don't?

 

[ValA.]

A glass (or two, or more) of wine is so pleasant, though, in the evening! I have to avoid alcohol at the moment, and don't find it a problem - but once I have one glass of wine then it's difficult to stop having another and another. I'd like to know how I can only spend

 

[Auvergne]

Yes, Val A, certainly is so sad.

Another interesting point mentioned was about cocaine. Now, its usual that the media portrays cocaine users as city slickers, loads of money, snorting through

 

[Auvergne]

A glass (or two, or more) of wine is so pleasant, though, in the evening! I have to avoid alcohol at the moment, and don't find it a problem - but once I have one glass of wine then it's difficult to stop having another and another. I'd like to know how I can only spend

 

[RogerP]

I dont think these public information videos do a whole lot of good.

I'm 42 and remember having a film in Biology class (probably 30 years ago now) about smoking and its effects.

The film had little or no meaning to us 12 year olds its was just something we had to sit and watch one rainy afternoon.

Most kids cannot relate their actions now to what may happen in years to come , unless its something they experience in real life.

Get them into the hospitals and rehab centres seeing people in a mess and suffering thats more effective.

It sort of worked for me , as memeber of my school choir we went into hospitals many times to perform and seeing real people in beds suffering was more profound.

Stopped me smoking at 14/15 more than any video or poster.

 

[Clockwork_374390647]

Some caravanning drinkers face an even wider variety of health dangers.

1. Hearing loss. (They get louder and louder and louder with a few drinks in them and have difficulty hearing those on their pitch whereas caravanners for far and wide hear everything they say, clearly.)

2. Injuries from caravanning equipment. (I'm sure that a caravanner is going to brain some noisy tipsy site lush with a frying pan or awning pole.)

 

[ValA.]

Sadly, when I posted my message about my friend being a chronic alcoholic, (on the 20th January) I didn't know that he had actually died the day before. He had apparently collapsed again, and suffered massive internal bleeding on the 19th January - apparently just a few hours after I had spoken to him. He wasn't found for some days - which is even more sad, and I didn't get the letter informing me that he'd died until the morning of his funeral which took place in Southampton on Monday this week.

As I hadn't heard from him, I'd been ringing and emailing several times, and only this weekend had decided that I ought to do what I did before, which was to ask the police in Southampton if he'd been admitted to hospital again - I just said that I was worried about him and that he was considered to be a very vulnerable person. I have to say that they were very good last time, and rang me back within minutes to tell me that he'd been admitted to Southampton General, and even gave me the Ward details, and the name of his consultant.

I'm just posting this because I think I feel guilty that I didn't do more, that he died alone and no-one cared enough to call to see him until his landlord was told that he hadn't been seen, and that I, who was probably his best friend, wasn't able to attend the funeral - nor was his 90 year old mother.

I just feel sad that what was such a promising life, can end in such sad circumstances.

 

[Auvergne]

You have nothing to reproach yourself for, remember that. People who choose to end their lives suddenly or gradually do just that - choose. The guilt and the blame do not lie at your feet Val A., having been in hospital so many times, however vulnerable, he would have been advised of the risk of continuing his lifestyle and he chose to do just that. Yes it is terribly sad, genuinely. For you to say you considered yourself his best friend and it appears your friendship was conducted at a distance, moreover his mother wasn't able to attend the funeral, suggests that things had gone wrong historically in his life.

I am sure people did care but he chose not to engage with their care or support for his own reasons and we have to accept that. Don't carry the burden of guilt on your shoulders, it really is not for you to carry.

Val.

 

[ValA.]

Thanks Val - I've spoken to his mother a couple of times since Monday, and she says she just didn't realise how ill he was. He was a man who never answered the phone, or his doorbell, but rang you back or emailed at his convenience, which was usually when he was least affected by drink. He had really cut off all friendship links, except by email or telephone - so Yes, you're right it would have been very difficult to do more. I did spend a lot of time talking to him on the phone, particularly in the last few days, as he was talking about leaving Southampton and coming back to Yorkshire.

He never got on with his mother, who was a very controlling woman, which was really the source of a lot of his problems earlier in his life - and that lead, initially, to him drinking too much. She told me on Monday that his father was a chronic alcoholic too - the reason for their marriage break-up. He had never met his father, nor attempted to get in touch with him.

I was in contact with his Social Worker - so I'm surprised that they didn't let me know, but I suppose as just a friend rather than a relative confidentiality issues would have come into it.

I apologise for writing this post, but it does help to 'get it off your chest' and puts things into perspective. Thanks for your reply!

 

[captain1]

Hi Val A

I was very moved by your post and at least you cared and phoned the police you didnt need to do that. At least you tryed no more you could reasable do if your in yorkshire and he was in southampton so dont apologise for feeling as you. If it is to be there is nothing we can do about it. I do hope you will start to feel better soon. Let it out you cant do more than you did.

john