HEAVY DRINKER OR ALCOHOLIC?

     According to a report in THE NEW YORK TIMES of a survey of 138,100 adults by researchers at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, not everyone who is a heavy drinker is an alcoholic.  The report differentiated between those who are considered to be drinking excessively but are not physically or mentally addicted to alcohol, the definition of "alcoholism, and those who are addicted.

     The study found that 29% of the population of the United States meets the definition for excessive drinking.  That definition is four or more drinks at one time or eight or more during a week for women and five or more drinks in one sitting or 15 or more drinks during a week for men.

     If you are an alcoholic, it is highly likely you will need rehab and a substance-abuse counselor along with a support program to stay free of alcohol.  Hypnosis can be added support to get an alcoholic through rehabilitation and into a program,  A hypnotherapist can help you go from addiction to alcohol to an enthusiastic desire to attend meetings like Alcohol Anonymous.

    If you are a heavy drinker and want to stop drinking completely, hypnosis can be a great tool to achieve that goal.  Hypnosis can be useful along with other appropriate professionals to be alcohol free and BE WELL. 

TEEN USE OF TOBACCO, MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL

        A 2012 study based on annual surveys of between 45,000 and 50,000 high school students in around 400 secondary schools found that 17.1% of U. S. teens had reported smoking tobacco within thirty days of the survey.  This was good new as the study by researchers at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, funded through research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health showed the number down from 18.7% a year earlier.  The teens reported their use of marijuana was about the same. While 22.6% of high school seniors reported smoking marijuana in the past thirty days in 2011, 22.9% reported  using marijuana in the previous thirty days in 2012.  Alcohol use was reported about the same levels.  More than 40% of high school seniors reported drinking alcohol in the thirty days before the survey.

    If you have a child who is using tobacco, marijuana or alcohol and wants to stop, hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool.  Help them stop smoking and using alcohol .  Hypnosis helps!

Hypnotherapy for Cell-phone Addiction

    Look around you when you are sitting at a traffic light, walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant  It is likely you will see almost as many cell-phones in use as you do people.  A recent study found that one in every three teen-agers and almost one in every five baby boomers checks his or her cell phone at least once every fifteen minutes.

    Larry Rosen, PhD and past chair of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, has written a book on this problem called iDISORDER: UNDERSTANDING OUR OBSESSION WITH TECHNOLOGY AND OVERCOMING ITS HOLD ON US.  He identifies this obsession as being a compulsion rather than an addiction.  The difference is in why the user feels the need to check the phone so often.  Addicts are triggered physiologically because the behavior releases the pleasure chemical, dopamine, into the brain.  Compulsive use is triggered because the use relieves anxiety.  The cell-phone users become anxious that they might be missing something like breaking news or someone trying to reach them or using the phone reassures them they haven't lost the phone.

    The compulsion to constantly check the phone can cause serious problems both personally and professionally. People who are around cell-phone compulsives can feel diminished.  A person who is constantly looking at his phone is sending the message that the person he is with is not as important. This harm relationships and it can harm job performance.  A person who keeps her phone on her bedside table may not rest as well if she is constantly checking for incoming messages.

    Get a feel for how often you are checking your phone.  Then begin to stretch out the time between checks.  If you were checking every fifteen minutes, push the time to twenty,  Put the phone completely away while driving or with other people.  Place the ringer on silent or turn the phone upside down so you can't see messages coming in.  If you feel that cell-phone compulsion has become a problem in your life, hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool to find new ways to relieve anxiety, control phone use and BE WELL.

JUNK FOOD ADDICTION AND HYPNOTHERAPY

    Are you a junk food junkie?  In working with weight loss clients for over twenty years, I have found that many overweight and obese people feel that their unhealthy eating habits are caused by actual addiction.  They often believe that an addiction to junk food was the basis of their weight issue

    A research study by Paul Kenney, PhD, an associate professor in the department of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter Florida, confirmed my clients' suspicions.  Kenney's research involved an animal food behavior study which was published in "Nature Neuroscience".  In the study, rats were given as much food as they wanted with access to both healthy foods and high-calorie foods.  Very quickly the rats, showed a decided preference to the junk food snacks and began to gain weight and even become obese.

    The rats showed decreased levels of a dopamine receptor which provides a feeling of reward.  The same decreased levels are reported in people addicted to drugs from nicotine to cocaine.

     Hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool in dealing with junk food cravings.  If you are concerned about unhealthy eating or junk food addiction, see a qualified hypnotherapist.  And BE WELL,

BLOOD SUGAR, TESTOSTERONE AND HYPNOTHERAPY

     If you are a man who has low testosterone, be aware that blood sugar levels are linked to testosterone.  In this country, one out of every four men over the age of 30 has been identified as having low levels of testosterone.  And obviously because the United States population is aging, it is likely this number will rise significantly.  Among the symptoms of low testosterone are: weight gain, muscle loss, erectile dysfunction, osteoporosis and bone fracture, decreased physical performance, insomnia, depression and heart disease.

     A paper presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society, in June, 2009, in Washington DC found that testosterone is linked to blood sugar levels.  In the study, three groups of men were given a sugary solution to drink and then had their testosterone levels tested.  Forty-two of the men had normal blood sugar, twenty-three were pre-diabetic and nine men had type 2 diabetes.  For all three groups, after drinking the sugary solution, blood levels of testosterone dropped by as much as 25 percent.  These readings remained low even after two hours.  In addition, it was found that 15 percent of the men with normal testosterone levels dropped so low after the sugary solution drink that they had levels low enough to require taking a hormone supplement.

     This study shows that sugar consumption is a major factor in lowering testosterone levels.  This helps to explain why hypoganadism (testosterone levels low enought to require taking the hormone) is continuing to rise.  The obvious solution to help lessen your risk for all the major medical issues listed above is to eliminate sugar from your diet.  This can be a real challenge for someone who has a strong habit for snacking on sugar or feels like they are a "sugar addict".  Hypnotherapy can be a very valuable tool in changing bad habits that are no longer working. If you value your health and your sex life, contact a hypnotherapist to get rid of the sugar in your diet.

HPNOTHERAPY FOR MARIJAUNA USE WITH TEENS

     A report by the Partnership at Drugfree.org was released yesterday on a survey that more teens are smoking marijuana.  Nearly one in ten teens surveyed reported smoking pot 20 or more times a month.  That rate went from five percent in 2008 to nine percent in 2011.  That means about 1.5 million teens are smoking marijuana frequently.

      The report also reported on the use of harder drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine.  The use of those has stabilized according to the report.  Abuse of prescription medicine is still high but may be easing among high school students.  The big drug use growth was definitely in the four percent increase in  past-month usage of marijuana.

      Hypnotherapy can be a valuable tool to help teenagers quit smoking marijuana.  Like all substance abuse issues, the user must want to stop.  If you or your child is ready to stop smoking marijuana, explore hypnotherapy as a way of making that change.

SUGAR ADDICTION

      Recent animals studies indicate that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.  It is consumed by Americans in large amounts and people suffer withdrawal symptoms when they try to restrict their use of sugar.  This is a problem because of sugars affect on health.  Consuming sugar in large amounts can affect insulin and other hormones and can be linked to diabetes.  Sugar-intake can also be linked to dementia, osteoperosis, suppressed immune system, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides which increase the risk of heart disease, obesity and cancer.

     The average American consumes about 142 pounds of sugar in a year.  Much of that is "added" sugar which is added to processed foods or added in preparation of food at home.  Contained in almost all processed foods, another big source of added sugar people consume is in regular soft drinks.  Even foods we consider healthful like fruit drinks and yogurt are often sweetened with added sugar.

     Although almost all of us enjoy a sweet treat occasionally, sugar addiction causes cravings, causes consumption to increase over time and causes withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, depression and irritability.  If you are concerned about increased consumption of sugar or about possible health affects caused by sugar, it's time to change.  Hypnotherapy can be a great tool in releasing addictive cravings for sugar.

SUGAR ADDICTION

      Recent animals studies indicate that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.  It is consumed by Americans in large amounts and people suffer withdrawal symptoms when they try to restrict their use of sugar.  This is a problem because of sugars affect on health.  Consuming sugar in large amounts can affect insulin and other hormones and can be linked to diabetes.  Sugar-intake can also be linked to dementia, osteoperosis, suppressed immune system, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides which increase the risk of heart disease, obesity and cancer.

     The average American consumes about 142 pounds of sugar in a year.  Much of that is "added" sugar which is added to processed foods or added in preparation of food at home.  Contained in almost all processed foods, another big source of added sugar people consume is in regular soft drinks.  Even foods we consider healthful like fruit drinks and yogurt are often sweetened with added sugar.

     Although almost all of us enjoy a sweet treat occasionally, sugar addiction causes cravings, causes consumption to increase over time and causes withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, depression and irritability.  If you are concerned about increased consumption of sugar or about possible health affects caused by sugar, it's time to change.  Hypnotherapy can be a great tool in releasing addictive cravings for sugar.

Video Gaming and Addiction

     If you have a child in your life who plays video games, you may be concerned if that child seems out of balance - spending too much time and energy in gaming while other areas of life are neglected.  Yours is a legitimate concern. There are 45 million children between the ages of 8 and 18 in the United States and 88 percent of them play video games. A study done by researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University and director of research at the nonprofit National Institute on Media and the Family reported that 8.5 percent of American youths age 8 to 18 who play video games show multiple signs of behavioral addiction.  In addition, four times as many boys as girls were considered pathological gamers.

     Gentile adapted diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling into a series of questions about video game use, which became part of a 2007 Harris Poll of 1,178 children and teens.  If the gamers reported at least six of the eleven symtoms the gamers were deemed pathological.   Several symptoms were identified.  They included:  spending increasing amounts of time and money on video games to feel the same level of excitement, escaping problems by playing video games, lying about the length of playing time, irritability or restlessness when game play is scaled back, skipping chores or homework to spend more time playing games, stealing games or money to play more and escaping problems through playing video games.

   Gentile found that children considered pathological gamers had trouble paying attention in class, did worse in school and reported feeling "addicted".   In addition, they were found to be twice as likely to report ADD (attention-deficit disorder) or ADHD (attention-deficit  hyperactivity disorder)

     Not everyone agrees with Gentile's findings.  Michael Brody of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry believes, "I think kids use this just the way kids watch television, the way kids now use their cellphones.  They do it to relieve their anxiety and depression. It's all a matter of balance."

     The key word here is "balance".  According to The American Academy of Pediatrics, all screen time, including computer and video games but also television should not exceed one to two hours  day of "quality programming."  If a child you love is exhibiting the smptoms described above or is struggling, without success, to cut back gaming time, that child may need help through therapy to lead a more balanced life.