From The New York Times Health section, Benedict Carey shares his thoughts;

[Categorized under - Psychology - New Year's Resolutions - Regret - Mental Health]

The New Year’s Cocktail: Regret With a Dash of Bitters

“The ideal New Year’s Eve party would come with a psychological voucher, redeemable the next day for a post-mortem session with friends. A chance to relish the night’s humiliations, take bets on who went home with whom, and nominate the guest most in need of therapy, present company included.”

Love it… a psychological voucher, lmao. Could any of us relate a “psychological voucher” to a “nudge from a judge?”

Post-mortem? With friends? Oh, I’m rather certain there are those who were at parties last night where they knew no one, made asses of themselves, came to with a hangover this morning and thought, “Oh hell, what did I do now?” Or…

Have yet to come to but when they do they’ll discover someone they don’t know lying next to them in whatever sleeping arrangement they wound up in and think “Oh hell, what did I do now?”

“Granted, it may be hard to make the case that one of those is the person capsized on the couch, recovering from last year’s last party. But give it a few days. Ghost-busting is possible, but best done without a hangover.”

Liz Lewis has ten cures for hangovers at Healthbolt. There’s one neither she nor Forbes mentions, including moderation (what’s moderation?). It only applies to folks like us, me and you;

Sobriety = abstinence = no hangover.

Post from: Blisstree

Best Done Without A Hangover?

When it comes to alkies, wow, do we have a seemingly never-ending supply of “stuff” to talk about relating to mental health! If you visit The Big Book Index or The Big Book Concordance under “M” you’ll see what I mean. Take a look at “Mental” and “Mind.” I’d waste a lot of space here re-printing the number of pages to be read. So I’ll narrow my focus (I hear ya’…)

Something Happens!

“We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.”

Centers In His Mind!

“These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.”

No Excuses Really Make Sense!

“If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic’s drinking bout creates.”

Fallacious Reasoning…

“They sound like the philosophy of the man who, having a headache, beats himself on the head with a hammer so that he can’t feel the ache. If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritable and refuse to talk.”

No Idea Why

“Once in a while he may tell the truth. And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took the first drink than you have.”

“Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot.”

The Fact

“The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.”

Post from: Blisstree

Fallacious Reasoning

Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator

“The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is pleased to provide this on-line resource for locating drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs. The Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator lists:

* Private and public facilities that are licensed, certified, or otherwise approved for inclusion by their State substance abuse agency

* Treatment facilities administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Indian Health Service and the Department of Defense.”

[For more information about the Locator and to find out how to get listed in the Locator, click through to their Frequently Asked Questions.]

Post from: Blisstree

Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator