HOW TO QUIT ALCOHOL 3
Alcohol is a problem that CAN be overcome. Others have done it and you can do it also. Carefully read the following information and do exactly what it says. It can mean the beginning of a new way of life for you.
FIRST, you must accept the fact that you do have a problem. If you are just toying with the whole idea and have no real conviction that you MUST quit, then you are not likely to accomplish much. You must feel strongly that you HAVE to quit, for your own sake and for the sake of your loved ones, whether they be near or far off. You realize that you dare not wait longer. There may not be another opportunity as the one you now have before you. You have to do it now.
SECOND, you must accept the fact that you can not do it by yourself. Only in the strength of God can it be done. And you can only receive that strength through earnest prayer for help. Get on your knees alone—all by yourself—and cry to God over the whole thing. Tell Him everything you've done wrong and ask Him to forgive you. And mean it. Tell Him that you are going to dedicate to Him the rest of your life. And mean it. Tell Him you are willing to sacrifice anything that such a dedication requires. And mean it. Then ask Him for strength to break from this terrible habit. Ask Him to help you do it by yourself or provide you with friends that will help you do it.
THIRD, accept the fact that you are not going to stay close to God unless you read His Written Word every day, and every day send up your prayers for forgiveness and for help. Each day is a new one. And you must start it with God. There are no short-cuts for they only lead to detours. You must start every day with God and then walk with Him all day long.
FOURTH, accept the fact that continued prayer for help must be mixed with continued praise. Thankfulness is powerful. BELIEVE God. Believe that He is there; believe that He will help. And believe it all day long, and at night too. —And you will have that help when you need it. Believe that He will forgive you and accept you again —even when you make mistakes. And believe that He loves you deeply, more deeply than you have every thought possible. Keep thinking about that fact. He has tried to help you for years but your stubborn ways have hindered Him. Let Him give you the help now that He wants to give you. And thank Him continually for it. Thank Him even when things look black and you seem to have no one on your side.
FIFTH, you must make some changes in your life. You will have to get more exercise in the open air, and more rest at night. You will have to put away the things that tend to separate you from God. If television and radio and the music and magazines you are used to are pulling you away from God, then throw them out. You may find that you have to make some new friends and avoid some old ones. They don't care for your new way of life and want your company in doing things you are no longer interested in doing. The best solution is to find new friends. Go to church regularly. That's where you are more likely to find better ones.
SIXTH, you may find it necessary to go on an initial cleansing program. This will help expel the alcohol from your system more quickly. As with nicotine, the more quickly alcohol is out of your body, the more quickly the old cravings will subside. And such a program will also help you over the initial tremors. As you know, one must stop these dangerous practices all at once; they cannot be put away simply by gradually cutting down. This is where the following information may be helpful.
In order to carry out this program, you will need some one to help you. The baths mentioned below will help expel impurities from your body and help overcome the alcohol habit. Continue them on in the years that follow. An HERBAL TEA should be prepared from the following powdered herbs: Equal parts of Skullcap, Catnip, and Blue Vervain with no sweetening. Combine them, and place 2 tablespoons in a quart of water that has been brought to a boil and then turned off. (Two quarts should last a day and a half, and can be kept refrigerated until used up.) An eight-ounce glass of tea should be taken every two hours, except when sleeping at night.
FIRST DAY: Glass of water at 7 a.m. 8 oz., tea at 8. This is a relaxant tea and will help you sleep. The idea here is the more sleep during withdrawal the less problem with the withdrawal symptoms. And it works. Stay in bed and rest. Sleep all you can. Every two hours another glass of tea should be brought to you. At 6 p.m. each evening, take a hot and cold shower.
SECOND DAY: Same as the first day, but that evening you can have a glass of tomato juice with a teaspoon of cayenne in it. (The stomach is used to the bite of alcohol and the red pepper helps take its place just now. Don't use black pepper.)
THIRD DAY: Same as preceding days, but now you can add a meal in the evening of sliced tomato, or if you prefer, stay with the tomato juice and cayenne.
FOURTH DAY: The usual pattern, except as follows: In the morning, a small meal of fresh fruit or soaked dried fruit. At noon a medium-sized salad—but not too much.
FIFTH DAY: Eat normally. The program is over.
The above four-day program was developed by an herbalist, now in her eighties, who has used it successfully with many people. She has seen it work repeatedly for both those coming off of alcohol and those trying to quit tobacco.
During the initial withdrawal and immediately thereafter, sleep is essential. One method of obtaining this is by the use of prolonged baths (with the temperature maintained at around 92° to 94° . Quiet surroundings during this time are absolutely essential. The diet should not include coffee, spices and condiments—and they should be permanently stopped. It is now known that these only whet the appetite for a return to alcohol. Fruit, vegetables and grains are needed along with water to replace body losses.
SEVENTH, the following recently discovered nutritional information may prove of great value in helping you to eliminate this problem:
MAGNESIUM, a trace mineral, is now known to greatly reduce the withdrawal symptoms called delirium tremens or the D.T.'s. This was discovered by Dr. Edmund G. Flink, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the West Virginia University Medical School in 1967. The severity of withdrawal symptoms is almost identical to the lack of magnesium in the body.
NIACIN (B3) is now considered by many researchers to be the most important single vitamin in overcoming the alcohol habit. Dr. Russell F. Smith of Michigan says, "B3 far surpasses other therapeutic agents commonly used in the treatment of alcoholics. " A dose of 12 grams of niacin each day, and onward for several years thereafter, has been suggested.
OTHER VITAMINS are also considered important. Here are several that are used in megavitamin therapy, in addition to niacin: Vitamin C, Pyridoxine (B6), B1, B12, and Vitamin E. The entire B Complex works together and increased amounts of all the B vitamins should also be supplied. It should be mentioned here that massive B3 therapy depletes the amount of Vitamin C in the body, so more Vitamin C is needed when on a megavitamin program. (An average dose of 1000 mg. of Vitamin C daily is frequently used.)
CERTAIN FOODS that are NOT helpful should NOT be used—now or later. Studies have revealed that poor food (such as hot dogs, spaghetti, meat balls, sweet rolls and soft drinks) and/or narcotics (such as coffee, tea, cigarettes or hard drugs), and/or irritating foods (such as spices, condiments, and the sauces, catsups and gravies rich in them) all increase the craving for alcohol in the individual who is using it or who is trying to stop using it.
A HYPOGLYCEMIC DIET is very helpful in many instances. This is a diet that is high in fruit and protein, quite low in carbohydrates (such as potatoes, bread and cereal), and absolutely no coffee or cigarettes. For some reason, people who regularly drink alcohol become overly sensitive to the things that the alcoholic beverage was derived from. Dr. Theron G. Randolph summarizes the problem: "Sensitivity to corn, malt, wheat, rye, grape and potato were encountered [in alcoholics] in that order of frequency. It is well known that alcoholic beverages consumed in this country are derived from foods in approximately the same order."
BUT MORE IMPORTANT than all else is a personal surrender to Jesus Christ and a strict obedience, by faith in Him, to all Ten of the Commandments. God will help you. Write me and I will send you Bible studies that will help you in your daily walk with your Lord. Ask for "Stopping the Habit" tracts. There is no charge.
QUOTATIONS TO THINK ABOUT
"In this country 16 percent of all murders and a larger proportion of other serious crimes of violence are committed by persons under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol is also an important cause of social disorder and disease, which leads either directly or indirectly to delinquency, ill health, and death. Counting all the deaths in which alcohol is a factor gives a rate of 10.2 per hundred thousand of the population, which stands alcohol as a major cause of death. . From 2,000,000 to 2,400,000 persons are arrested for drunkenness each year in this country . . As a preventable measure we need to build up a conscience (against alcohol) among all groups of the population. Proper education in school, church, and home to the real effect of alcohol would constitute a potent preventative measure. Young people. . can be made to look upon it as a dangerous practice that may lead where expected, to tragic addiction, with serious moral, social, and physical consequences. .
"The United States Crime Commission once reported that 50 percent of the prison inmates in the United States were induced to commit crimes by alcoholism. The 1930 report of the United States Department of Justice asserted that alcohol is responsible for 80 percent of those antisocial tendencies necessitating the maintenance of jails and corrective institutions. .
"Alcoholism is fourth in the list of reasons why people are sent to hospitals for mental diseases in this country, and it is rapidly becoming one of the major causes of death in America. "—"Journal of the American Medical Association. "
Judge William McKay, Superior Court, Los Angeles County:
"During 1949, I presided over one of the civil departments of the Superior Court of Los Angeles. Day after day, an endless stream appeared before me. In 75% of the cases that were brought before me, liquor had played an important part in the disturbance that had made necessary an action for divorce."
Judge Stanley N. Barnes, Criminal Court, Los Angeles County:
"In 80% of the cases coming into my court, liquor is involved in the crime. In nine times out of ten, alcohol is the reason for a person getting into trouble the second time."
Judge Matthew Hill, Justice of Washington State Supreme Court:
"Alcohol played a role in at least 90% of those hardened delinquency cases in which youths of sixteen or seventeen were turned over to us by the juvenile court. And in nearly every instance a youngster's drinking had been started because he saw liquor being used at home and sometimes was allowed to have a cocktail. "
Bob Mathias, two-time Olympic decathlon champion and California sports star:
"I do not use alcoholic beverages. During my stay in London with the best athletes of the world, I found that all of them definitely did not believe in alcohol. This seems to prove that athletics and alcohol do not mix. "
Sonja Heini, world-famous figure skater: "Cigarettes and alcohol were things which had to be avoided, then as now. They tear down immediately all accumulated training."
Dr. Andrew C. Ivy, distinguished professor of Physiology and head of the Department of Clinical Science, University of Illinois, is the authority for the statement that "alcohol is the cause of alcoholism." He continues, "If alcohol is not the cause, the term 'alcoholism' should be discarded as a misnomer." He thus refutes those who would have the public believe that alcohol is not the cause of alcoholism. Furthermore, if alcohol is not the cause, why will an abstainer never suffer from acute or chronic alcoholism?
"The guest who has to be drugged with alcohol to make him interesting is hardly worth inviting in the first place. "—Dr. Roy L. Smith.
"In the Prohibition days when there were no liquor taxes to support the Government, surpluses occurred in Federal finances in 11 of the 13 years. "Since Repeal, in spite of the fact that we have had liquor taxes, there has been a deficit in each of the 25 years except three. "—"Pertinent Paragraphs," Volume VII (13), No. 1, 1958.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Proverbs 20: 1.
Abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:22.
Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother's falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall. 1 Corinthians 8: 13.
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and that temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:17.
"No Christian home ever starts serving liquor on its dining table without abandoning some conviction. "—Dr. Roy L. Smith.
"Alcohol: that 'cup that cheers' can wash away the sparkle and laughter of Christmas Cheer. "—Traffic Safety—October 1957.
Sweden abolished liquor rationing in October 1955. According to U.S. News & World Report, a year later drunkenness had increased 125%. Per capita consumption of liquor went from 5 quarts to 7 quarts per person. Weakened regulations tend to increase the use of alcohol.
The FBI reports: "59% of the arrests across the nation were due to drunkenness and liquor law violations. "
The California State Department of Corrections reports: "It is costing the State of California $26 million annually to care for its 16,000 prisoners, 80% of whom committed their offenses under the influence of alcohol. "
A California State Assemblyman reports: "600, 000 alcoholics are costing the State of California $300,000,000.00 a year. But the State received only $20,893,492 in total taxes on alcoholic beverages for the year ending June 30, 1955."
"It costs the American people $20 for every $1 received from the liquor business. "—Roger Babson, Economist and Statistician.
Dr. Andrew C. Ivy, vice president of University of Illinois, answers the question—"Is alcohol a food?" He says
"A food is a substance which nourishes the body in four ways: 1. It supplies energy or calories when burned or oxidized. 2. It provides materials for building and upkeep of body tissues. 3. It furnishes means by which body processes are regulated. 4. It provides material, which may be stored as glycogen, fat or protein, or normal body structure, and is non-toxic in nutritionally significant amounts.
"Alcohol supplies only calories, and it causes intoxication when taken, as ordinary food is taken, namely, in amounts sufficient to produce enough calories to be nutritionally significant. So, alcohol is not a food and is not a good nutrient.
"If alcohol is a food, or a good nutrient we are not treating babies, children and dogs rightly. Also the authors of our textbooks on nutrition are seriously at fault because they do not even list alcohol in their tables of contents.”
The effects of alcohol are subtractive. Alcohol takes away, but it never adds or supplements. An exchange says: "Alcohol will remove the stains from summer clothes; which is correct. It will do even better than that. It will remove:
The summer clothes
The winter clothes
The spring clothes
The fall clothes
Not only from the back of the man who drinks, but from his wife and children as well.
"Alcohol will also subtract from you:
A good reputation,
A thriving business,
A man's best friends,
A happy look from children's faces,
Prosperity from a prosperous man,
A man from respectable society,
A man from the highway to heaven, and make a wildcat out of an otherwise inoffensive citizen.
"As a subtractor of things—alcohol has no equal. "
"Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now open to question. Three-fourths of mankind confirm the affirmative with their tongues, and I believe the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. "—Abraham Lincoln, 1842, Springfield, Illinois..
On the last day of Lincoln's life, the great emancipator said: "We have cleared up a colossal job. Slavery is abolished. After reconstruction the next great question will be the overthrow and suppression of the legalized liquor traffic."
That evening Mr. Booth stopped in a saloon, filled himself with liquor to nerve himself for his planned tragedy. That night Lincoln's bodyguard left the theater for a drink of liquor at the same saloon. While he was away Booth shot Lincoln. Those two drinks were the most costly drinks in American history. Liquor is the greatest enemy of mankind.
Sir Philip Snowdon of England said, "Alcohol does not produce wealth. It destroys wealth to manufacture pauperism, crime, lunacy, disease, poverty, and death."
William E. Gladstone, the great English commoner, said, while he was Premier of England, "Give me a sober people who do not waste their substance in drink, and I will find a ready means of raising the necessary revenue for the government."
Justice Grier of the U.S. Supreme Court, said in 1847, "If a loss of revenue should accrue to the United States from a diminished consumption of ardent spirits, she will be the gainer a thousand fold in the health, wealth and happiness of the people."
ROBS REASON—"The cerebral cortex is the most sensitive portion of the brain having to do with its highest possible function. It is in this area of the brain that relative values are compared thus enabling the individual to make decisions: It is the first portion of the brain affected by alcohol. "—Drug Addiction Committee, World Health Organization.
POISON—"Alcohol is the major cause of insanity and poisoning, for it causes more deaths than all of our most infectious diseases. "—Dr. Parran, Surgeon General. .
ALCOHOL—"Alcohol constitutes the country's greatest mental health problem. "—Dr. Karl Menninger, Menninger Clinic.
HARMS CELLS —"Alcohol never, under any condition, increases the vital energy of the body, but on the contrary, decreases it in a marked and uniform manner through the poisonous influence upon the living cells. Alcohol increases liability to infectious diseases, and prevents the development of immunity. " —Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Head of Battle Creek Sanitarium, Member Michigan State Board of Health.
MODERATION FALLACY—"As a brain surgeon I have yet to meet a moderate drinking colleague who would like to have me operate on his son after I 'have had a few.' No one does his best after drinking. He may think he does, but his judgment is defective . . moderation is a terrible fallacy, "—Richard E. Strain, M.D..
IMMUNE—"It takes some people longer than others to attain addiction, but no human being can be regarded as immune. "—Dr. Robert Fleming, Harvard Medical School.
DEADLY—"It has been my fate to live among drinking people: novelists, poets, playwrights and stars of stage and screen. I have seen two-score of them go to their doom, eleven as suicides. I say it is a frightful thing that so much of the talent and genius of America should have been distorted by alcoholic poisoning. . Most of them started with vision and courage, but in the end the example they give us is of sickness of mind and soul. "—Upton Sinclair (Pulitzer Prize Winner) in The Cup of Fury.
CELLS LOST—"It is safe to say that in many people, heavy drinking causes a gradual dropping out of brain cells. It is also logical to assume that the first cells to be affected would be those that are first anesthetized by alcohol, namely, those subserving the higher cerebral levels of will power and judgment. The brain reserve is gradually and insidiously whittled away until the stage is reached where any alcohol in the system will immediately paralyze the patient's will power and judgment.. Brain cells once lost are never replaced. "—Federick Lemere, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine, and the Shadel Hospital of Seattle.
YOU DIE—"Every time you take a drink you die a little. Up to now you may have thought of yourself as a moderate drinker, and therefore safe. But, for one thing, the idea that you are safe is a flat lie. . . Taking even the kindliest definition of 'moderation,' you are doing yourself progressive physical harm. . Although the body has great regenerative powers, the cells of the brain and nervous system, once destroyed, are lost forever and we know these are the cells affected, first and most potently, by ethyl alcohol. Habitual drinking will cause lasting impairment to brain, nervous system and liver. . More and more, physicians are revising their easy-going attitude toward 'moderate' imbibing. . Every time we over-imbibe, science believes, a certain amount of brain damage results. Even one drink affects the uppermost level of the brain, which is the center of restraint, inhibitions and judgment. ."— 'The Big Lie About Moderate Drinking, " Pageant Magazine.
DISASTER—"Habitual use of alcohol, even in moderation, tends to produce dependency on it as a drug, medically. . Alcohol diminishes the acuteness of sensory perception. It delays or weakens motor performance and physical coordination. . it is well known that alcohol, through its dulling effect on the higher brain centers, may set free underlying emotional drives, with, usually, disastrous consequences. Many varied crimes, indiscretions, and accidents are directly traceable to the influence of alcohol." —Robert V. Seliger, M.D., of Johns Hopkins and Chief Psychiatrist, The Neuropsychiatric Institute of Baltimore. .
SHRINKAGE—" A newly recognized type of excessive tippler, called the intermediate alcoholic, has started to appear on the national scene.
"Such imbibers have moved from the socialdrinking stage and are heading for "chronicity" in their bouts with the bottle.
"Doctor A. E. Bennett, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Berkeley, said there are approximately a million such borderline addicts in many of whom X-ray evidence of mental deterioration in the form of brain shrinkage is being observed. .
"This study clarifies the cause of mysterious brain shrinkage observed in approximately 500 persons who underwent autopsy after death in California, he reported.
"Because alcoholism is a disease of progressive brain damage, with uncontrolled drinking the chief symptom, the treatment goal is complete abstinence, he said. "—Science Digest.
LIQUOR SICK—"You can get along with a wooden leg, but you can't get along with a wooden head. It is the brain that counts. But in order that your brain may be kept clear, you must keep your body fit and well. That cannot be done if one drinks liquor."—Dr. Charles Mayo, Mayo Brother's Clinic.
RUINOUS—"There is no disease in the world for which alcohol is a cure. . It does undeniably cause thousands of cases of disease. . Its use is ruinous to the kidneys, liver, heart, and smaller blood vessels, and gives rise to that most common fatality, high blood pressure."—Dr. Howard A. Kelly, Surgeon, John Hopkins University.
DRUGS MIND—"Alcohol is from first to last a narcotic drug. Its chief action is upon the nervous system. . alcohol successively weakens the hierarchy of the brain, and therefore of the mind, in the order from above downwards, that is to say in the inverse order of their development."—The British Medical Association s Advisory Committee.
3.2 BEER—"Certainly 3.2% beer by weight is intoxicating. Beer contains alcohol in potentially habit-forming amounts; there is no harmless alcoholic beverage."—A. C Ivy, Ph.D., M.D., D.Sc., LL.D., Head Department, Clinical Science, University of Illinois.