Published: Apr. 28, 2024
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Certified addiction specialist Steve Carleton with Porch Light Health talks about identifying and treating alcohol addiction.
It’s alcohol awareness month. And according to the National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism, there is an estimated more than 178,000 alcohol-related deaths each year, making it a leading preventable cause of death in the US. Joining us today is certified addiction specialist Steve Carleton with Porch Light Health. We always love having you on. Thanks so much for stopping by. Great to be with you. I think one of the biggest questions is, how do you tell if you have a problem? What are your tell-tale signs?
Yeah, great. Great question. So what we know about substance use disorder in general, regardless of what substance, including alcohol, it’s a loss of control is the biggest thing. Sure. So you’re not able to control how much and how often you drink. You set out to have one or two, and now you’re drinking 10. Cravings are involved with that. Okay. The other big one is just consequences in your life. You’re not showing up in the way you want to show up. Socially with your family, with your friends, at work, high-risk behavior. So you’re doing things that you would not normally do if you were not intoxicated. And then lastly is the physiological stuff. So you need more of the substance to get the same effect or tolerance, and then you experience withdrawal. So when you take the substance away, you get ill, you get sick. Right.
I remember you talked about that. Do you feel physically sick if you stop drinking? And then that’s a big sign. I think that the numbers are really interesting about the fact that they’re comparable to opioid deaths as well. And people don’t always are paying attention to that. Yeah.
We’re talking 10% of the population, 18 and over, has an alcohol use disorder. It’s not a small number. We’re talking 25 or more million people in the US. It’s a big number.
Why do you think this is one that’s just not addressed as much or is acknowledged as much?
You know what’s interesting, numbers-wise, too, 25 million people are struggling with this. Only 10% of those 25 million seek help and I can help with it. It’s become so common socially. It’s acceptable.
Yeah. You just have your restaurant and you’re out and about. It’s just a normal thing that’s incorporated into our lives. It sounds like there’s actually the numbers of drinks and stuff that are considered. If you cross that number, maybe there’s something going on. Can you walk me through that?
Yeah, absolutely. So binge drinking. When we think about binge drinking, that’s when people are consuming four or five drinks within a two-hour period. So that’s something to look out for. Binge drinking is a sign that there might be a problem. The other interesting thing when you’re thinking about alcohol is that it’s a spectrum. So it’s not just severe problems. There’s mild and moderate problems, too. And what does that look like? People typically wait until it’s a severe problem to seek help. And there’s lots of intermediate steps that you could take cutting back in that mild to moderate that people just aren’t considering.
What is your first step for somebody at home who may be saying, okay, I’d like to reach out for help?
So reach out. Like the first step. Just actually say something. The first step in this problem is just having an awareness that I am having a problem and acknowledging that, and starting to talk to people. So, the opposite of addiction is connection. Addiction happens in secret. Addiction happens in the shadows. When you start to talk to people about it, all of a sudden, it’s not as scary to approach, and it opens more doors.
Well, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate your time and the insight as well. We also want to let you know that there is help out there. This is the number and the text message line for the Colorado Crisis Services. There is also 988 that you see on your screen. There is also the Substance Abuse and Mental Health National Helpline that you can always reach out to as well, along with several treatment options that are available in Colorado as well.
