It’s all about making choices. If you feel alcohol has taken too many things away from you and that it’s time to ask for help, there are resources easily accessible on campus and off.
Making an appointment with a counselor at the Wellness Center on the Central Connecticut State University campus is a good first step. Student Wellness Services can be reached by calling 860-832-1925, or by emailing WS@ccsu.edu.
Counseling can be useful at any point in recovery, and can help provide motivation to stick with a program, if nothing else. Work with a mental health professional to decipher the things alcohol gives you and the things it takes away. A counselor, therapist, or psychologist can help you work through problematic patterns in your life regarding alcohol use.
“If you focus on the things alcohol takes away from you then you’re only getting half the picture so the person may end up saying it really wasn’t worth it because we only talked about the negative,” said, Dr. Jonathan Pohl, Coordinator, Wellness Education.
While the process of recovery can vary from one individual to the next, Dr. Pohl provided these general guidelines about the recovery process.
He said the education process is important, and that it can be a time to look at what is going on in your life, how it matches up with alcohol use disorder, and to think about what that means.
Did you lose your job? Did your friends and family stop speaking to you? Were there legal ramifications to something you did? Those are flags that you need help.
“With alcohol use disorder we’re going to see an impact on their relationships, on their capacity to do their work, on their capacity to do schoolwork, whereas typically with social drinking you don’t see those negative consequences coming in,” said Dr. Pohl, on the differences between social drinking and alcohol use disorder, which is considered a form of mental illness.
Alcohol use disorder can also manifest itself through physical symptoms, he said. A significant indication that social drinking has escalated into addiction is a physical withdrawal from alcohol when drinking stops. According to Dr. Pohl, when a person’s body needs alcohol to function, that is an important indicator that drinking has evolved into alcohol use disorder.
For some people, other physical symptoms might include blacking out from intoxication and repeatedly getting sick from alcohol consumption.
Often times there is comorbidity, meaning that a person suffering from alcohol use disorder might also be experiencing other forms of mental illness including anxiety or depression. Sometimes people drink as a way to self-medicate for other forms of mental illness, but that’s a strategy that is bound to misfire. A professional would treat both at once. Counseling is a responsible first step and it requires the participation of the patient, who should help develop a plan, ideally the help of his or her counselor, Pohl said.
Medication to treat anxiety and depression can be a useful tool for some, but it should always be taken with the guidance of a medical profession to ensure the dose is appropriate and that there are no unintended side effects. Also, over the course of time, if the course of medicine and talk therapy has proven to be effective, a medical professional can provide guidance when it comes to reducing the dosage, or eliminating it entirely if it’s no longer necessary.
While there is often comorbidity it isn’t necessarily a question of “the chicken or the egg,” and which came first, Pohl said. Sometimes, a person may be using alcohol to cope with anxiety and depression. Other times it may be that a person has always had a problem with alcohol, then, when they get into a college environment, drinking gets in the way of their work and triggers anxiety and depression. Every individual is different and that is why it is important that someone looking for help see a counselor, he said.
Those who are comfortable with group counseling can take advantage of that on the CCSU campus. The counseling group, WECARE, meets on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in the Women’s Center. It is strictly for CCSU students and is similar to an Alcoholics Anonymous support group meeting.
Pohl said students who are underage should not fear getting in trouble with the school when seeking help for their addiction. Anything said in counseling sessions is confidential, with only a few exceptions such as, if the counselor were to consider the patient a threat to him or herself, or to others.
It is important that individuals in the process of recovery make family and friends aware that they have stopped drinking. Having a friend that knows you aren’t drinking can help motivate a person to abstain from drinking and make an active choice to not drink.
According to Dr. Pohl, there can be a genetic disposition to alcohol use disorder, including a genetic disposition for alcohol abuse, specifically, and another for addiction in general. Both can increase the likelihood an individual may develop a dependency on alcohol, so a family history of alcohol or drug abuse is something to consider.
Other factors that increase the likelihood of alcohol dependency are the age at which a person begins drinking alcohol. One out of two individuals who began drinking at or before age 13 will be dependent on alcohol at some point in their life, Pohl said.
A student struggling with an addiction to alcohol should talk with family and friends, and consult a mental health professional on campus. Those in your support system can help develop a suitable plan to help with recovery. There are programs in Connecticut that offer intensive outpatient treatment, including UCONN Health and Wheeler Clinic. However, a student should discuss options with parents. Sometimes, taking a semester off and going to a program out of state can help with the process of recovery.
After an individual has gotten sober there are numerous meetings available to aid in motivation to stay sober. One of the best known and commonly used is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In CT, Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) also hold meetings across the state. According to the SOS webpage, the organization released a short documentary about the organization called, “No God At the Bottom of a Glass.” The level of participation is up to the individual and meetings are anonymous.
For more information about AA, visit CT-aa.org, and for SOS, sossobriety.org.