How to Change Your Drinking a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol 2nd edition

372 Pages·2010·5.43 MB·English

by  Anderson

Table of Contents
FRONTMATTER
PREFACE by Alan Marlatt
INTRODUCTION by Patt Denning
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PART I: BETTER IS BETTER - THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF HARM
REDUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: Introducing Harm Reduction for Alcohol
CHAPTER TWO: How the HAMS Approach Works
PART II: HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN ALCOHOL HARM REDUCTION
PROGRAM - THE HAMS ELEMENTS
CHAPTER THREE: Weighing the Pros and Cons of Your Drinking
CHAPTER FOUR: Choosing Your Drinking Goal
CHAPTER FIVE: Risk Ranking
CHAPTER SIX: The Alcohol Harm Reduction Toolbox
CHAPTER SEVEN: Making Your Plan
CHAPTER EIGHT: Alcohol-Free Time
CHAPTER NINE: Coping With Life Without Relying on Booze
CHAPTER TEN: Alcohol and Outside Issues
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Having Fun Without Booze
CHAPTER TWELVE: You Are What You Believe
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Charting and Measuring
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Tweaking the Plan
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Damage Control: Dealing With Slips, Setbacks, and
Ricochets
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Patience, Practice, and Persistence
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Graduating, Staying, or Returning
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Reward, Praise, and Affirm Yourself!!
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Moving at Your Own Pace
PART III: EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT
ALCOHOL* *But you got told to go to AA and not to ask
CHAPTER TWENTY: Alcohol and the Brain
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: Alcohol and the Body
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: Preventing Alcohol Withdrawal
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: Alcohol Tolerance
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR: Hangover
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: Preventing Alcoholic Blackouts
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: Facts and Myths About Cross Addiction and
Cross Tolerance
PART IV: HARM REDUCTION IN CONTEXT
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN: Harm Reduction Information for Friends
and Family of Drinkers
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT: The HAMS Support Group
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE: Harm Reduction and the Stages of Change
Model
CHAPTER THIRTY: Alcohol, Individual, and Environment
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE: How the Meaning of the Word "Alcoholism"
Has Changed
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO: To the Health Care Professional
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: Drug and Alcohol Interactions
APPENDIX II: Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Charts
APPENDIX III: Naltrexone, and the Magic of Pharmacological Extinction
APPENDIX IV: How Effective Is AA and 12 Step Treatment?
APPENDIX V: Carbs, Sugar, and Alcohol Content of Various Drinks
FRONTMATTER

"HAMS is a person-to-person, grass roots effort to translate into ground-level
reality the often abstract claims made by what has become the major reform
movement in drug (less so alcohol) policy and (less often) treatment - harm
reduction. The truth is that people struggle over their lifetimes to reduce
problems associated with substance use and abuse; that few human beings
abstain completely and permanently (even among those claiming to do so under
the auspices of AA and rehab); yet nonetheless most make improvements in their
lives and substance use. NOTHING WE CAN DO by passing laws, trying to
herd every substance abuser into treatment, or admonishing high school students
never to drink or to take drugs can change this larger human reality. In fact, the
reverse is true, and the need to recognize the extent of substance use and abuse
in our society increases rapidly, and more people require realistic, harm
reduction oriented help. This is not a popular - even an acceptable - truism in the
United States, despite ample evidence every day that our larger political and
public health policies are meaningless, or worse, counterproductive.

"HAMS is for the large majority of substance users who have problems who
remain unserved by our current Alice In Wonderland approaches. The often
unacknowledged, majority."

--Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D.
Author of The Diseasing of America http://www.peele.net
http://www.stgregoryctr.com

********

"Harm reduction programs:
• meet people "where they are" with their drinking,
• don't label people as addicted, diseased or alcoholic,
• empower people to choose their own goals, which can be safer drinking,
reduced drinking or abstinence, and
• help people achieve the drinking goals they have chosen.

"How to Change Your Drinking presents 17 elements (not steps) from which
readers can choose to use in their program of harm reduction. The many
supporting chapters are short and reader-friendly but based on solid research.

"This handbook is pragmatic and excellent."

--David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology, SUNY, Potsdam.
Web site - Alcohol: Problems & Solutions http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj

********

"In the world of one-size-fits-all treatment programs for alcohol problems,
Kenneth Anderson's book is unique in offering a veritable smorgasbord of
choices--everything from safe drinking strategies to cognitive and behavior
therapies to naltrexone and The Sinclair Method and more. Mr. Anderson is to
be applauded for making a host of options available to people who have been
failed by more conventional treatment approaches. Because of its wide scope, I
believe that this book should be required reading for psychologists, nurses,
medical students, families, 'alcoholics' and substance abuse therapists, family
practitioners, and law enforcement officials."

--Roy Eskapa, Ph.D.
Author of The Cure for Alcoholism
http://thecureforalcoholism.com
********

"Ken Anderson's book is an excellent and refreshing resource for those wishing
to successfully modify their drinking and/or avoid the life-killing programs that
now pass for 'treatment' in the U.S. Not only does the material reflect the actual
research, but it also debunks the AA/12 Step myths that have dominated our
culture to the extent that intelligent people have nowhere to turn for help. I am
happy to recommend this book to anyone looking to educate and inform
themselves, spouses, family members and friends."

--Edward W. Wilson, Ph.D.
Program Director
Non 12-Step
http://www.non12step.com

********

"Finally! A comprehensive, user friendly, intelligent look at reducing the risks
associated with alcohol use from a Harm Reduction perspective. Every aspect,
including history, myths and facts, physical/emotional manifestations of alcohol
use, and of course, harm reduction theory and action steps toward minimizing
negative effects, recovery and beyond. Take your time…this ‘manual’ reads like
a work book and can be one of your most important references on this topic.
This has also become mandatory reading for all of our direct services staff and a
reference for participant discussion. Well worth adding it to your library."

--Raquel Algarin, Executive Director Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center
http://www.leshrc.org

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How To Change Your Drinking:

A Harm Reduction Guide To Alcohol

2nd Edition

by

Kenneth Anderson, MA

Executive Director - The HAMS Harm Reduction
Network
Copyright © 2010 - The HAMS Harm Reduction Network
PO Box 498
New York, NY 10012
http://hamsnetwork.org

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from The HAMS Harm Reduction Network. The only
exceptions are short excerpts which may be used by reviewers or scholars.
To the memory of Andi Emerson who inspired me with
the courage to go it on my own, and to Electra Weeks for
always being there