Alcohol Mastery Podcast

Is Drinking Jeopardizing Your Job or Business? The drinking golem is a sneaky bastard. It operates with patience and cunning over a long time. You won’t know it got you until it’s really got it’s claws dug in, by then it might be too late!

Has Your Efficiency Decreased Since Drinking? Setting goals in life is important in order to get anything done, to achieve things in your life. How are you going to be anyone if you have a problem with alcohol?

This is the twelfth post in the Johns Hopkins 20 Questions series of articles. In this post, I talk about the need for a good night’s sleep and how this is nearly impossible if you’ve been drinking. Many people use alcohol to drop off to sleep at night. The problem is that it won’t help you to have that restful night’s sleep that is crucial for your health!

(0.25) The site this week (0.42) Ups and downs for the week (2.05) Tip of the week Thursday Tally 9 Transcript This is Alcohol Mastery, my name’s Kevin O’Hara and welcome to the Thursday Tally 9. First of all, if you want to subscribe to the channel, get all the updates and get the new videos on your feed, just click the button over here! On the Website This Week On the website this week, I’ve done nothing. I’ve been ill all week; I’ve been lying down in front of the TV watching different programs, feeling sorry for myself with lemsips and loads of tissues and all that kind of stuff. Thank god it’s nearly over with. Ups and Downs So that’s obviously one of the downs of the week, feeling like shit. But I lost 6 pounds so things kind of balance out. Another up was being off the alcohol for another week, so 9 weeks. I don’t know why I keep saying this because I’ve no intentions of ever going back on to the drink again. It sort of pisses me off when people still call themselves alcoholics when they’ve given up and they’ve no intentions [of going back on it again.] I’m not trying to put the AA down or anything, or people that go to the AA, but to go there every week and say I’m an alcoholic. I’m not an alcoholic, I don’t drink any more. It’s like me not smoking anymore and saying I’m a smoker. I’m not a smoker, I’m an ex-smoker, I’m and ex-alcoholic or whatever you wanna call it, I don’t drink anymore, so that’s the way I choose to look at it. Maybe that’s not for everyone, but just to get that piece out there. You know, I think it’s a head-fuck to start calling yourself something that you’re not. It keeps you there, it sort of keeps you on the edge, you know you’re one drink away from going back on it again. No! Tip of the Week My tip of the week this week is that you’re gonna have good days and bad days. So, don’t sweat it, don’t worry. I have far more good days now than I ever did when I was drinking that’s for sure. The days when I had hangovers, the hangovers were getting longer, they were certainly bad days. I had a few bad days during the week because I was ill. I sat down and watched a few television programs, drank lemsips. Before I’d have got a bottle of scotch, lemons, honey, and just made an excuse to be pissed. And it would have dragged on the illness more than the couple of days that I was ill. Now I just go out for a walk. If I’m feeling really shitty, I go out for a walk. I go down to the beach, or there’s a local forest… I walk through the forest, whatever, it’s just to move. A smile is a great thing when you’re having a bad day. For me its to watch a funny movie, watch a bit of Eddie Murphy, one of the old Eddie Murphy films, or whatever. Whatever kicks your bucket or floats your boat. The Three Stooges, I can’t help not but laugh when I stick on a DVD of the old Three Stooges. It’s whatever works for yourself. That’s just life! There’s no need to go back on the drink! So, that’s the Thursday Tally 9. Thanks for coming. Click on the link down below and go to the website. I put the subscribe button in again so you can subscribe to the channel. Hopefully next week I’ll have a bit more about me and I’ll put up another few videos. My name’s Kevin O’Hara, this is alcoholmastery.com, Onwards and Upwards! Download a copy of the Video Transcript The Thursday Tally 9 Transcript Previous Tallies Tally 6 Tally 7 Tally 8

(0.27) Introduction (0.45) 1. Heart Attack (1.15) 2. Cirrhosis of the Liver (1.42) 3. Coma (1.55) 4. Anemia (2.32) 5. Diabetes (3.11) 6. Gout (3.31) 7. High Blood Pressure (4.22) 8. Kidney Disease (4.59) 9. Korsakoff's Psychosis (5.27) 10. Er...

Welcome to the Thursday Tally 8. This week's tip is not to worry if you forget that you’re a non-drinker, we all do it, and a story about an 18 year old and 6 months worth of tequilla. Also running 20 minutes for the first time in years, not losing any weight, and the weather's been crap. Plus a rundown of the rest of the week's news!

This is the eleventh question of 20 in the Johns Hopkins series of videos to see if you are an alcoholic... After a hard day's work, the pint craving was a huge one for me. It's not easy to get over a habit but it's possible, a few weeks is all it takes!

(0.18) Not the shift workers (0.36) Stereotypical behaviour? (1.13) My never again mornings (1.44) My experience Do You Want a Drink the Next Morning is the tenth question of 20 in the Johns Hopkins series of videos to see if you are an alcoholic… Having a Drink the Next Morning Defined Drinking the next morning, in this context, means waking up in the morning and having a drink, it doesn't relate to people who are on the night shift and who may want a couple of drinks before going to bed. The Drunk Stereotype It's one of the stereotypes of alcoholic behaviour. The guy wakes up from a restless sleep, sits on the side of the bed in his jocks and vest. He clasps his hands around his head as he tries to come around, to shake off the alcoholic fuzz from his brain before he can face the morning, before he can even find his feet. He stands, goes to the bathroom, wobbles unsteadily down the stairs to the kitchen cabinet where he keeps his supply, his hand trembling as he pours himself a wake-up drink from a nearly-empty bottle. Drinking in the morning is a sign that you are dependent on alcohol to face the day. It puts you and others in danger if you have to go to work, and quite often, as I know from personal experience, drinking in the morning can lead to drinking for the rest of the day. Never Again Mornings I’ve not had this one much. I never refused a drink at any time of the day when it was called by one of my mates. Although I do remember being bitterly disappointed on those occasions when my mobile would ring and it’d be one of my buddies with a call for a few morning pints. I’d be away working, maybe two or three hundred miles away, and I’d feel cheated for the rest of the day. The morning after the night before was always a terrible time for me. I would feel like I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up. The last thing I wanted to do was drink again. I was always one of those people who would say "never again" until the symptoms started wearing off, and then I'd happily start all over again. But there were times, if the hangover wasn't too bad, that I'd meet up with friends on a Sunday morning for an "early house" about 9 am. By the time 12 or 1 o’clock came we were all drunk again. "I pray thee let me and my fellow have a hair of the dog that bit us last night". Proverb New Year’s Day – Fresh Start on Stale Fumes One New Year’s Day, a friend and I sat nursing pints of Guinness at a bar in Ennis. It was about 11 o’clock, and we’d been so disgustingly drunk the night before. I remember staring at the pint and thinking 'I really can't do this'. It took about 40 minutes before I could manage the first one, I almost needed a spoon to get it down. The second one took about 30 minutes. Then we were back on track, about 20 minutes for each pint for the rest of the afternoon... I gave up the drink on the 2nd January and lasted almost 11 months. This was the tenth post in the series of articles on the Johns Hopkins 20 questions which was designed for you to self-test and discover if you might have an alcohol problem. If you answer yes to this question and yes to some of the others in the test, you need to take a look at your drinking habits. You can find the master article here:  20 Questions of Johns Hopkins   Leave a message below if I can offer any help at all in your fight with alcohol. Until next time… Onwards and Upwards… Kev Download the Transcript For Drink the Next Morning Do You Want a Drink the Next Morning Transcript Watch Other Videos in the Series: Have You Gotten Into Financial Difficulties Because Of Your Drinking? Do You Turn To Lower Companions and an Inferior Environment When Drinking? Does Drinking Make You Care Less For Your Families Welfare?

Has Your Ambition Decreased Since Drinking is the ninth question of 20 in the Johns Hopkins series of videos to find out if you are an alcoholic… Ambition, Persistence, Drowning in a Pint of Guinness! Drink tends to lower ambition because while you’re drinking you can’t do anything else. I used to lose days out of my life because of drink. How the hell could I achieve anything when I couldn’t keep track of my own time? Ambitions take time to achieve, they also take persistence. A drunk is in short supply of both. The alcoholic belittles his own ambitions because he realizes that to reach them takes much effort and a strong mental attitude. He’ll go through hell and high water to get another drink but that’s where he will stop. My life with drink was going nowhere only down. At the end of it all, I would have asked myself what I had done with my life and would not have had an answer. Drink? “A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won't be so hard in the end to lie down and rest.” Pearl Bailey How Ambition Can Remain While Hopes of Success Erode My ambition never decreased, just the distance I could reach. I would pare them down, cutting the corners off of my ambitions, telling myself that I'd be happy to settle for less and less. I'd make up all sorts of excuses, saying that life is not all about having things or getting things, it’s not really about learning and growing, wouldn't it be better just to relax my way through life, and sure isn't drinking a good way to get through life's troubles. I was denying the fact that drinking was causing all a life's troubles. The Reverse – The Increase of Ambition Since Stopping Drinking! Look at things the other way round. My ambition has increased tenfold since I've stopped drinking. I'm no longer making excuses for myself, I’ve returned to pushing at everything I do, I have the desire and the persistence to achieve anything I want, and I feel younger than I've felt in a long time because of it. What Has Running Ever Done For Me? An example of losing my ambition is with running. I ran for twenty minutes this morning, up from 15 minutes last Friday, and a huge leap from the 1.5 minutes that I could manage only a few short weeks ago. Last year, although I still had the ambition to get fit, I'd moved to this country to change my life after all, I had ruled out ever running again. I couldn't run. Alcohol was causing my joint to seize up. As soon as I lost any weight, I’d have a binge weekend, or maybe even a full week, and I’d be back to square one, only this time a bit more of my pride and self-worth had been chipped away. So instead of admitting that my alcohol abuse had to stop, I knew it in the back of my mind by the way, I lied to myself – time and time again! I told myself that I hated running, it was no good for anyone. Instead, to get the same sort of workout, I would walk for 3 hours five or six days a week. That's between 15 and 20 kilometres a day. It took a huge chunk out of my day, 3 hours running, taking a shower and getting something to eat, I’d start at 6am and wouldn’t start work until around 11am. But, I needed to do it! I didn't know it at the time, but it changed my way of thinking and put me onto a different track in my life. That's for another day though. The point is that I allowed drink to pare down the ambition to regularly run. My 80 year old uncle still runs, but I made any excuse why I couldn’t. Even to the extent of walking until my feet ached. This was the ninth post in the series of articles on the Johns Hopkins 20 questions which was designed for you to self-test and discover if you might have an alcohol problem. If you answer yes to this question and yes to some of the others in the test, you need to take a look at your drinking habits.

(0.14) The website this week (0.38) Next week on the website (0.47) Ups and downs (1.23) Tip of the week (1.53) Breaking/establishing a habit This is Alcohol Mastery, my name’s Kevin O’Hara and welcome to the Thursday Tally #7. On The Site This Week On the website this week, we did 3 more questions from the Johns Hopkins 20 questions series. The first question was have you got into financial difficulties because or your drinking. The second question was do you turn to lower companions and an inferior environment while you’re drinking. And the third question was does your families welfare suffer. Next Week on Alcohol Mastery Next week we’ve got three more questions from the Johns Hopkins and I’m also doing an article on the top 100 health risks from drinking alcohol. Ups and Downs My ups and downs for the week, well… again more ups than downs. Seven weeks off the drink, so that’s brilliant. I’ve lost 4 pounds, another 4 pounds, so I’m really heading down towards my goal. I ran ten minutes for the first time. My downs, I had a couple of bad days with one of the questions from the Johns Hopkins, the one about family welfare. And that sort of made me think a lot about what I’d done in the past, and made me quite depressed for a couple of days, so that was one of the downs. Tip of the Week My tip for the week this week is just not to take on more than you can deal with. This has been one of my big problems all throughout my life, I’d take on something, try to break a habit or something like that, I’d start doing really well at it, and then I’d take on more stuff. So I’d take on something else and something else. Then I’d get distracted, I’d get disheartened by the whole thing, I’d feel like it was sucking the life out of me and I’d give up. Breaking Habits It takes about a month to break any habit, some people a little bit more, and some people a bit less. You’re on a big bell curve, at the beginning it’s gonna be very difficult, you know it’s a very steep ascent for the first few days, and eventually it gets easier and easier. And it’s exactly the same as establishing a habit in your life. Once you get past the top of it, you get around the top of this bell curve you get to the plateau. That normally occurs about a month and a half, and once you get to that plateau, the habit is going to be as established as it’s going to be. I’ve been putting this into practice a lot since the New Year. In my old job, I was a forester, so I never had a shower in the morning, I’d always wait until I got home in the evening, I’d be soaking wet and there was no point in showering before I went into the forest. Now, I’ve tried to establish a new routine where I get up in the morning, I drink a pint of water before I do anything, then I do exercises, normally 3 days a week I go out for a run. I come back, I do a 5 minute meditation, I go and have a shower and I eat a good breakfast. And I’ve been doing that for 7 weeks and it’s really established itself as a routine in my life. If I get up and I don’t do it now, it makes me feel really off. So that’s the Thursday tally number 7. Subscribe to the channel if you’re watching this on YouTube, it’s AlcoholMasteryTV. Click the link down below and come to the website. If I can offer you any help at all, please let me know. My name’s Kevin O’Hara and this is alcoholmastery.com. Onwards and Upwards! Download a Copy of the Video Transcript of the Thurday Tally #7 Thursday Tally#7 Transcript Previous Tallies Tally 4 Tally 5 Tally 6

Does drinking make you care less for your families welfare is the eighth question of 20 in the Johns Hopkins series of videos to see if you are an alcoholic… This is a very deep subject and one that I’m not going to attempt to cover in any depth here! It’s not a question that I’m ready to delve into myself, so I’m going to make this one short! I think most people care about their families, even the ones who don’t seem care. It’s a touchy subject, but it’s one that any drinker has to face! From My Experience Your family’s welfare is suffering if (among other things): You’re neglecting family responsibilities because of your drinking. You’re drinking in front of your kids (I mean proper drinking, not a glass of wine at the dinner table… drinking a glass of wine, going back for another, and another, finishing the bottle, opening another!) Your kids see you when you’re drunk. Your kids are lying to others to protect you. The emotional levels in the home are constantly shifting because of alcohol. There is a lack of basic family stability because of your drinking. Your kids sometimes act like grown-ups when you drink? One of the Leading Causes of a Dysfunctional Family Alcoholism is a disease of the family. They will often hide the alcoholic in order to preserve family dignity Modern therapists are seeing that it is as important to treat the families of the addict as the addict themselves. Many children of addicts grow up with a distorted view of the world and their role in it. They have learned a twisted view of the world from the alcoholic parent (switch to drug addict, gambler, or any other form of addiction). If they don’t treat the family members, the problems with drink will be passed down through the generations. My Experience I regret ever drinking in front of my kid. I wish I could take back all the times he’s seen me drunk, all the times he’s seen me drinking. I can’t! All I can do is never to drink again, show him by my actions that there is another way to live life. One that doesn’t involve drinking! This was the eighth post in the series of articles on the Johns Hopkins 20 questions which was designed for you to self-test and discover if you might have an alcohol problem. If you answer yes to this question and yes to some of the others in the test, you need to take a look at your drinking habits. You can find the master article here: Johns Hopkins 20   Leave a message below if I can offer any help at all in your fight with alcohol. Until next time… Onwards and Upwards… Kev Download the Transcript Does Drinking Make You Care Less For Your Families Welfare Transcript Watch Other Videos in the Series: Have You Ever Felt Remorse After Drinking? Have You Gotten Into Financial Difficulties Because Of Your Drinking? Do You Turn To Lower Companions and an Inferior Environment When Drinking?

(0.20) The language (0.45) Why do people go to bars? (1.27) Low companions and dodgy environments (2.18) Use your judgement Do You Turn To Lower Companions and an Inferior Environment When Drinking is the seventh of 20 questions in the Johns Hopkins are you an alcoholic series… Turning to lower companions and an inferior Environment when drinking!!!! The language of this one sounds like it could have been spoken in Churchillian accents at some London gentleman’s club in the 19th century. It’s very haughty and down the nose stuff. But when I started thinking about it, I felt the uncomfortable twang of a few familiar chords being struck! Why do people turn to lower companions and an inferior environment when drinking? (Or why do drinkers go to places where alcohol is consumed in large quantities and where they can drink with like-minded drinkers!) Companionship I would say that the main reason for seeking out like-minded drinkers is for companionship. If you’re sober and you’re trying to have a conversation with a person who is slowly getting drunk it can be very tedious, boring, and uncomfortable. A bloke with a few pints on him will chew the ear off anyone who happens along, drinker or non-drinker. But better to converse with a drinker…the conversation seems to flow better! Birds of a feather flock together! Understanding Carl Jung said “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Everyone needs understanding. Most of the time it’s the understanding that we share the problems of life…including alcoholism. You understand in others what you see in yourself and you can feel comfortable. The discussion at a bar top will give any other conversation in the world a run for its money. For the most part, these are not stupid people. The chat topic might range from the quality of the beer on tap at this bar or the one down the street, or just ‘putting the world to rights’… Does it make any difference? Who ever said conversation had to have anything to do with communication? A dialogue to end the scruffiness of the day! “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Carl Jung Approval When you’re with people who’re in the same mind-set as you, you’re giving each other tacit approval. You’re with friends. You share a common bond. It is unfortunate in life that those who need approval the most don’t get enough of it while those who need it the least always seem to get the lions share… Bars also allow drinkers to hide from disapproval. For most problem drinkers, it’s the disapproval of others that often sets them down upon the road to sobriety. My Low Companions and Dodgy Environments I used to love the atmosphere of my local. I’d walk in after a hard day’s work and be greeted by a smiling bargirl holding an empty pint glass, her hand hovering over the Guinness pump, “Hey Kev, Pint?” A greeting, a nod, and I’d take my place at the bar while I waited for the dark liquid to draw! There were about six or seven of us who’d meet up after work for a couple of hours. We all sat at the end of the bar, in our own little corner, each arriving to the same friendly greeting, the same round of “how’s it going?” or “what’s the story?”. It was like a real life ‘cheers’. The bar was somewhere where we all found companionship, understanding, approval, space, laughter, and friendship. When I think about it now, I can only smile. If it wasn’t for the drink it would have been great. I’m glad it’s gone; it was a real pull for me. I had to move away from it all to stand any chance of kicking the habit. I quit drinking for eleven months and it was torture to go there, and torture to stay away. I wonder what it would have been like if we bunch had met up under different circumstances, in a different place, without alcohol? Judge for Yourself

(0.25) Putting yourself in difficulty (0.56) The cost of drinking (1.35) Other ways alcohol will cause problems (2.16) My financial problems Spending Money on Alcohol The most obvious way that you can put yourself into financial difficulties because of your drinking is by spending more money on alcohol than you can afford. Your alcohol cost will depend on where you buy it, the quantity and quality of what you buy, and whether you drink at home or in a bar. As an example, a $50 per week alcohol spend adds up to over $2500 every year! Not everyone will be put into financial hot water because they spend a lot on alcohol, and being an alcoholic doesn’t necessarily mean you are poor. There are plenty of people in the middle and upper sections of our society that have drink problems… they just tend to hide it better. Alcoholism and Your Job One of the bigger risks of being an alcoholic is losing your job because of your behaviour. No work means no money! No money means you can’t pay the bills, buy clothes, buy food, pay for education, etc. And losing your job because you’re failing to do it properly might make it impossible to find another one. Even if you don’t lose your job, you can lose money by taking days from work because of drinking, losing out on a day’s wages. Other Causes of Financial Difficulties Because of Your Drinking If you are responsible damaging property while you are drunk, you could end up having to for the repair, fines , or compensation. If you injure someone or yourself whilst drunk you may land yourself with hospital or doctors’ bills, or worse. Alcoholics, and children of alcoholics, generally have lower education expectations. This means you will be lower in the employment market and unable to get higher paying jobs. There’s also a strong connection between problem drinking and gambling. It’s a lot easier to take gambling risks when you’ve been drinking. It is also said that gamblers increase their drinking when they’re winning, which in turn anchors alcohol and gambling in the brain, meaning alcohol eventually becomes associated with any gambling. The Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions conducted a study in 2001, which looked at the occurrence of alcohol and gambling in the US. It  found that “Compulsive gamblers are much more likely to be alcoholic or alcohol dependent than the average person.” John W Welte, Ph.D., a senior scientist and one of the study’s lead researchers said “If you have an alcohol problem, the odds of also having a gambling problem are 23 times higher, compared to individuals who do not have an alcohol problem. That's a really huge odds ratio.” Drinking Because of Financial Problems Many people turn to drink and drugs when they start having financial problems. It’s not uncommon for ex-alcoholics to relapse when money starts getting tight. The ones who are most at risk of ‘drowning’ their financial worries are older males with less education. My Financial Costs The cost of alcohol was never a big issue for me…the work days lost through drinking were… I always earned decent money, so even when I was drinking in bars in Ireland, merely buying drink was never a problem. But I did lose a lot of work days because of my alcohol problem. I worked in forestry which took me all over the country. I would travel to the first work-site, finish my days work and check in to a hotel or B&B. Then I’d make my way into the local town or village to get a bite to eat, unless there I could get food in the hotel. Most towns had a choice of restaurant or pub where I could get some food. If it was only a small town or village, the most likely option would be the village pub. All it took was to get chatting to one of the locals, get a taste of the Guinness and I’d be off. And it didn’t take much arm twisting, believe me. I worked on my own most of the time, so I’d be glad of some company in the evenings. If I’d had a skin-full the night before,

Am I Drinking Too Much Alcohol? What You Will Learn In This Section:   How much alcohol is too much? What are the ‘safe’ limits? Do you have a drinking problem…? Are you an alcoholic? How do you behave around booze? What type of drinking do you do? Are you noticing any physical symptoms of drinking too much alcohol? Are you noticing any mental effects of too much alcohol?     How Much Alcohol is Too Much? What are the official sensible drinking guidelines?   3 – 4 units of alcohol per day for a man 2 – 3 units of alcohol per day for a woman Drink anymore and you’re drinking too much. You can’t carry them over, save them up for the weekend or a special occasion… if you don’t drink them today, they’re gone, you can’t have double tomorrow! Do You Know You're Alcohol Limits Video What Are The ‘Safe’ Limits? What about the Safe limits? What safe limits! That’s the biggest load of bollocks ever. It’s a poison! You become intoxicated when you drink it! Intoxication means you’ve been poisoned! No-one can tell you for certain that it’s ‘safe’ to drink any alcohol. The drinks industry in general will bend over backwards to ‘push’ their product as being cool and glamorous. Then they’ll shift the blame for overdrinking to you. ‘YOU’ must take responsibility for YOUR drinking, while all the same time making it as widely available as possible, at a low cost, and to an ever widening audience with a growing youth exposure through alcohol marketing and advertising (brightly colored lemonade type drinks with juvenile names like “alcoPOPs”) Why Are There No Safe Limits? Alcohol is a toxin A proportion of first time users become addicted after the first drink Not enough research has been done into the supposed health benefits Risks of injury and disease rises with alcohol consumption Do You Have a Drinking Problem…? If you have to ask the question, “Am I drinking too much alcohol” then you probably are. Why are you asking? Has someone pointed it out to you? Are you feeling some ill-effects from your consumption? Are you having problems in your day to day life because of drinking? Are You an Alcoholic? There are different degrees for alcohol related problems. Being a full blown alcoholic is one of them, and full blown alcoholism comes in many different stages. Even the term ‘alcoholic’ is not one which has a concrete definition. I wouldn’t class myself as being an alcoholic. I think I lost control of my drinking a long time ago, but only in certain situations. I would ‘go drinking’, not go out for a meal and a drink, just for the drink, and lots of it. Once I started, I found it hard to stop…or once I got it into my head that I was going drinking that day, not many people could talk me out of it. Use the Johns Hopkins test 20 questions as a starting point to find out if you have alcohol problems. How Do You Behave Around Booze? I think all drinkers have had one of those mornings when they’ve thought “Oh My God, what did I do or say last night!” The problems arise when serious and often life changing decisions are made whilst under the influence. These can include having unprotected sex, becoming aggressive and getting involved in vandalism or fighting, taking other drugs, or deciding you’re ok to drive the car after all. What Type of Drinking Do You Do? Is your sole aim to get drunk? Do you drink because you’re: Depressed? Stressed? Conforming? Buddying? Bored? A Macho hard-man? Hedonistic? Are You Noticing Any Physical Symptoms from Drinking Too Much Alcohol? Heavy drinking can affect all your major organs including your skin, brain, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines, and heart. The symptoms of damage caused by drinking are many and include: Weight loss Loss of stability Loss of co-ordination Insomnia High blood pressure Sexual dysfunction Building a tolerance

(0.15) The website this week (0.41) Next week on the site (0.53) Ups and Downs for the Week (1.33) Tip of the week (2.14) My changes Thursday Tally #6 Transcript This is Alcohol Mastery, my name’s Kevin O’Hara, and welcome to the Thursday Tally #6. New on the Site This Week On the website this week, I did 3 more questions on the Johns Hopkins 20 questions, are you an alcoholic? The first one was to do with shyness, whether you drink because you’re shy of other people. The second one was to do with your reputation, whether you think that you’re losing a bit of your reputation because of your drinking. And the third one asks if you ever felt remorse after drinking. Next Week on the Site Next week I’m gonna do 3 more questions from the Johns Hopkins, I’ll also be asking if you’re drinking too much. I was supposed to do that last week, but I just got bogged down with stuff and just didn’t get it done, so apologies there. Ups and Downs My ups and down for the week. Well, on top of the list has got to be being off the drink for another week. I just feel great, I’m really starting to get into the spirit of this, I’m getting a new lease on life, without the alcohol, I don’t need it any more. I only lost a pound last week, but it’s in the right direction, and I’m starting to shed my body of all that alcohol fat. I ran for 8 minutes straight, so that’s a first for a long time. Downs, not many, a couple of brain farts as normal, a couple of little doubts in the back of the mind, but again they don’t last too long. Tip of the Week My tip for the week this week is not to use substitutes. Now, I’m not saying don’t replace alcohol, I’m saying don’t think in your mind that you’re replacing it. Don’t think well, I’ve had a week off the drink and to award myself I’m gonna eat ten mars bars. Don’t do that, it’s only gonna come back to you in the end. It’s all about breaking your associations. Before, most people when they drink they say “well, it helps me to relax”, “it gives me a bit of courage”, “it breaks down a few inhibitions that I’ve got”, “it helps me to deal with people socially”, there’s other ways, and alcohol never did that for you anyway. Up the Arse The big thing for me was always going to watch the Arsenal, playing on a Saturday or Sunday. I’d always use it as an excuse to have a load of pints, 8, 9, 10, as many as I could get in. Now I have a bottle of water and a pint of orange juice. And for the first few weeks I had the lads ribbing me, really taking the piss. Now it’s all boring to them, it’s all past news, and I really enjoy going to the matches again. So, I’ve totally taken that association of the football with the beer and turned it on its head, and that’s what you need to do. Leave a Comment So, that’s the Thursday Tally number 6. Leave a comment if you’re on the website, if you’re not, please subscribe if you’re on YouTube, the channel’s AlcoholMasteryTV. Like the video or leave a comment. My name’s Kevin O’Hara for alcoholmastery.com Download a copy of the Video Transcript TT#6 Transcript Previous Tallies Tally 3 Tally 4 Tally 5