• ‘We are seeing a lot of professionals coming in, particularly from London. They are in workplaces where you really wouldn’t want them to be’
• 1 in 15 doctors develop an addiction at some point
• 24% of lawyers will battle alcohol during their careers

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 2:21 PM on 14th November 2011

Rising numbers of doctors, dentists, vets and lawyers are becoming ‘functioning alcoholics’, experts warn.

Addiction specialists have given them that label because they do not fit the typical image of down-and-out street drinkers.

There has been a surge in demand from professionals seeking rehab treatment abroad to avoid being recognised in nearby hospitals or clinics, it is claimed.

Alistair Mordey, who runs a substance abuse clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said that demand for treatment from doctors was growing at twice the rate of any other occupation.

He added: ‘We are seeing a lot of professionals coming in, particularly from London. They are in workplaces where you really wouldn’t want them to be.’

 

The British Medical Association has estimated that one in 15 doctors will develop an addiction problem at some point and they are three times more likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver than the general population.

Research has also suggested that up to 24 per cent of lawyers will suffer from alcoholism during their careers.

At an international conference in Ireland this weekend calls were made to help the growing number of professionals battling alcoholism. 

Rory O’Connor, the UK co-ordinator of health support programmes for dentists and veterinary surgeons, told the Observer that Britain was turning a blind eye to a huge problem.

He pointed to the shame and stigma attached to addiction and said many professionals struggle to seek help as they see their role as helping others.

He told the paper: ‘There are serious issues regarding health professionals accessing appropriate help for mental health issues and there are serious issues in the treatment that is out there for them.’

He also said it was ‘not wise’ to have people practising while impaired through addiction.

 

The New Zealand media need to leave All Black Zac Guildford and his family alone to aid his recovery from alcohol addiction, the head of the New Zealand Drug Foundation says.

The Crusaders winger allegedly stormed into a Cook Islands’ bar on Friday night, naked and drunk, and punched two men. The incident follows another in August, when Guildford broke All Black team rules by hitting the town after the All Blacks’ Bledisloe Cup victory against Australia at Eden Park.

In September, the 22-year-old held a press conference promising to address what he admitted were alcohol issues.

Today, New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said Guildford needed professional help, rather than to be hounded by the media.

“The nature of addiction is an interesting one. Those of us in our sector understand addiction as a disease, as a health issue. And it seems [the media] see it as a moral failing and are quite happy to blast not just [Guildford] but anyone high profile who has problems and any of their indiscretions are blasted on the front page. That’s the last thing anyone with alcohol or drug problem really needs. It’s not going to help him in his recovery.

”Addiction is known as a chronic health condition. He needs trained people. The complicated thing with the nature of this is that people relapse just like diabetics and other people with similar illnesses.

”It’s obvious from his behaviour that he has tried to get help and yet finds himself still drinking and getting in trouble. But that is just the nature of it.

”What he needs is professionals to help him out and probably for the New Zealand media to lay off him and his family.”

Mr Bell said Guildford will need to have a long term plan with trained professionals, but the road will not be any easy one.

”There are a whole lot of things that challenge people who have a drinking problem. Just walking into a supermarket and having big piles of alcohol heavily discounted in your face is one thing. The culture we have around alcohol in New Zealand society is pretty in your face.

”Specifically for professional sportsman, they win the World Cup and they celebrate with champagne.

”He’s absolutely in a culture, generally in New Zealand society but specifically within rugby, where alcohol plays a key role. I would guess that if you are someone with the disease of alcohol dependency that is also going to make your recovery extremely difficult.”

Mr Bell said there is not a cure for alcohol addiction, rather it is something that needs to be managed.

”You don’t put the disease behind you – you always have it. And for a lot of people the only way to manage their addiction is to stop using. It might well be that sports stars who have found themselves in trouble in the past and the reason they are not in trouble now is probably because they’ve stopped.”

The chairman of Guildford’s boy-hood rugby club also called for the public and media to give the winger some space.

Paora Ammunson, who also a speaker for Papawai Marae said the former Greytown Junior Rugby Club player has faced “the kind of fame, personal tragedy and intense public scrutiny that most of us will never know”.

”Zac was a seventeen-year-old schoolboy when he first represented NZ at age grade rugby, two years later we were burying his father Robert, by the time he was nineteen he had been named in the All Black squad,” Mr Ammunson said.

”Zac is still a young man, with a long life ahead of him and a large, supportive family behind him.

”I look forward to seeing him in years to come back home in Wairarapa, sitting alongside us on the paepae of our marae and helping out down at the rugby club.”

If you or someone you know has an alcohol or drug problem, you can contact the free Government Alcohol Drug Helpline on 0800 787 797.

By Paul Harper | Email Paul

I REFER to “Wise to ban the SM festival” (The Star, Nov 10).

Just because the LGBT community is accepted by Western society, it does not mean that it is a Western culture.

In the past, the LGBT community faced criticism from the Western society, too.

But recently, the West has become more open-minded and less prejudiced.

Yes, celebrating LGBT may be something unusual in our culture, but are we always going to be so conservative and obstinate? Is it not a reason to rejoice that we’re evolving as a society?

In the above article, the writer states: “It is not that we’re discriminating against the LGBT community, but to reduce their number.”

By “reducing their number” are we not implying the idea that they’re unacceptable and unwelcome?

Also, the writer suggests that “if a person follows his religious teaching, he would be a good person and would help towards creating a good society”.

This implies that being LGBT is “bad” and they can’t “help in creating a good society”. I beg to differ.

There are undeniably countless politicians, artists, and scientists that are gay, yet that did not stop their amazing contributions to society.

I believe most Malaysians pride ourselves in being able to live and accept people who are different from us, no matter what their views on religion or what their life beliefs may be.

LGBTs are merely people who share different opinions, but does that make them wrong?

Does that make them “psychologically sexually disoriented” as suggested by the article “LGBT only reaching out for acceptance”? (The Star, Nov 12)

The writer even went as far as to compare LGBT as having smoking problems, alcoholism, prostitution, and drug addiction.

The LGBTs are not people who need help, they are not a “problem” in society.

Most LGBTs are born the way they are.

“Psychological help” would be in vain as they are not psychologically disoriented in the first place.

Many may argue that being LGBT is against the norm, that God does not create us that way. Yet may I point out that God created us all differently.

YEE SUE KI,
Penang.

Albert Grossman, who had put together Peter, Paul and Mary as a folk-singing trio, once suggested to Judy Collins that she become part of a trio too. She would sing with two other women, Judy Henske and Jo Mapes. “We can call you the Brown-Eyed Girls,” he said.

The problem with that idea is apparent both on the cover and in the title of Ms. Collins’s lilting new memoir of a great musical career, five decades old and still going strong: she has the most transfixing, otherworldly blue high-beams ever seen above an acoustic guitar. She has eyes so blue that her onetime lover Stephen Stills once put them in a song title. Some combination of her eyes and voice once prompted Richard Fariña, the poet, songwriter and hell raiser who was her great friend, to write about her with the words “If amethysts could sing. …” Anybody who has ever heard Ms. Collins — and it’s hard to imagine anyone who has not — knows exactly what he meant.

As she writes in “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes” (a play on Mr. Stills’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” which became a hit for Crosby, Stills and Nash), Ms. Collins decided against wearing brown contact lenses and singing with two partners. She had a strong sense of her own identity, even during the troubled and tumultuous times that her book describes.

Although Ms. Collins has written other books about aspects of her life (among them creativity, dedication to art and a family struggle with addiction), this one is the omnibus, with the big story and the boldface names. It is written graciously and poignantly, with a big blue eye toward posterity. “My life has taken me from innocence to rage and back again,” she writes. “Those precious early years seem oddly clearer to me now, at 70. The people I knew and loved and the drama of that diamond-bright time move closer as they slip farther away.”

Cue the music in your head, especially if you found any guilty pleasure in Sheila Weller’s “Girls Like Us,” a 2008 book about Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. Ms. Collins writes of her early years in Colorado with a blind father who had a Denver radio show (the song “My Father” comes to mind) and then her late teens in the mountains, running a rustic lodge with her first husband, Peter Taylor, and occasionally seeing a cowboy or two. (Think of the lovestruck familiarity with which she sings “Someday Soon.”)

It was her husband, she says, who suggested that she try for a singing career, even though that would take her far from home and from their young son, Clark. Long years on the folk-singing circuit would eventually cost her custody of Clark after a bitter fight. Ms. Collins progressed from Denver to Chicago, where she saw the singer Bob Gibson and his banjo “charm the birds out of the trees” and took his advice to lighten up. Josh White, with whom she also performed in the late 1950s, had words of wisdom when Ms. Collins worried about an incipient drinking problem: “The travel will probably kill you before the whiskey does!”

Ms. Collins is a contemporary of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk and other folk luminaries. That means her book can take its place among others about the early 1960s in New York, from David Hajdu’s “Positively Fourth Street” to Mr. Dylan’s “Chronicles: Volume One.” (That time and place will attract even more interest if the Coen brothers make a film about it, as they are said to be doing.)

As “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes” indicates, being soused did not keep her from being a reasonably keen observer of her contemporaries, even if she describes one of her love affairs as having lasted one night, two weeks or a month; in retrospect she finds it hard to tell. Her involvements with women, she says, “did confirm that I was really attracted to men.”

She enjoyed the rare status of somebody who could get a song played on the radio in those days. So she became a magnet for writers, and she describes her relationships with many of them, from Joni Mitchell (chilly — and cue “Both Sides Now”) to Leonard Cohen (“Suzanne” and so many others). “I have always been grateful that I did not fall in love with Leonard in the way that I fell in love with his songs,” she writes. “I could have, certainly.”

This book also describes Ms. Collins’s wildly counterproductive experience with Sullivanian therapy and how it contributed to the lyrics to “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” a song about a standoff that only she and Mr. Stills understand; her struggles toward sobriety; the death of Clark, who had his own addiction problems; and her enduring marriage to Louis Nelson, whom she married in 1978 and has been a mainstay in her life ever since. Along the way there are the Oscar-nominated documentary, “Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman,” that she produced about her music teacher, Antonia Brico; her testimony at the trial of the Chicago Seven (she began to sing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” and the judge ordered her gagged, with an actual hand over her mouth); and her painful break with Elektra Records after a long and successful run there. Ms. Collins is not shy about opposing injustices. And Elektra’s treatment of her, she says, was one.

Although much of the book’s attention is devoted to music, she also finds time to describe an eating disorder that led her to weigh herself — frequently — both with and without her earrings. And the list of those she thanks at the end of the book includes Coco Chanel. Ms. Collins has developed a ravishing visual identity to rival her aural one over those 50-odd years. Who knows where the time went? And who knows what Coco Chanel has to do with it?

November 13, 2011

Bulletin board: Nov. 14, 2011

Offering more than 100 features and documentaries at venues in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, NewFest unspools some impressive winners — and some that are decidedly less successful.“August” is a sly, sexy little film about the perils and pleasures of sex with an ex. Troy (Murray Bartlett) returns to LA from Spain and reconnects with Jonathan (Daniel Dugan) at a café. Jonathan, it seems, has quit smoking — and has a smoking hot boyfriend, Raul (Adrian Gonzalez). But that doesn’t stop Troy from seducing Jonathan. The exes meet up to make out and make excuses to spend time together. Will this love triangle turn into a threesome?Writer/ director Eldar Rapaport astutely addresses issues of timing in relationships, telling this story with a prismatic approach, using overlapping time frames and different points of view. The effect is as magnetic as the characters. Bartlett is pretty fucking irresistible as Troy, while Dugan makes Jonathan a very pliable coconspirator.In a recent interview, Rapaport explained the film stemmed loosely from his personal experiences.“I’ve been on both sides of this fence, thinking about the mythological ex — the one person that you had a relationship with that had a tremendous effect on your life,” he said. “You put them on a pedestal, and every time you meet a person you compare them to the mythological ex. And usually they are not good enough. If I look back at the event that occurred to me — the café scene — I was Troy there, but years later, I was Jonathan. I beefed up the role of Raul and how it all connected — that’s the fiction.”(Jul. 22, 5 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.; Jul. 23, 7 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.) Another find is the modest, absorbing drama “The Wise Kids,” which concerns a trio of churchgoing high school seniors in Charleston, South Carolina, five months before college. Brea (Molly Kunz) is having doubts about her faith, while her friend Laura (Allison Torrem) is intensely devoted to God. In between them is Tim (Tyler Ross), who is quite spiritual and also gay.The film follows these teens as they navigate the ripples and waves that disrupt their lives — from disappointments and betrayals to moments of tenderness and celebration. While Brea struggles with her faith, Tim has a passionate encounter with the closeted church music director, Austin (writer/ director Stephen Cone). These experiences lead to some awkward, uncomfortable moments that Cone presents with tremendous grace.“The Wise Kids” may lay on the religion a bit thick at first, but Cone does this to create a palpable sense of time and place. Viewers sink into the rhythms of these characters’ quietly compelling lives — a task made easier by the pitch perfect performances.(Jul. 23, 3 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

NewFest also provides audiences with a sneak peek at two noteworthy films due for general release soon. Matthew Bate’s “Shut Up, Little Man! An Audio Misadventure” (forthcoming in September) is an amusing documentary that chronicles the alcohol-fueled arguments of Peter and Raymond. Described as “a bitchy queen and a homophobe,” respectively, they are the noisy neighbors of Mitchell D. and Eddie Lee. Mitchell and Eddie actively recorded — and circulated — some of their neighbor’s amazing exchanges, and this film, by turns hilarious and scary, adds interviews, reenactments, and archival footage to flesh out the madness. “Shut Up, Little Man!” is a must see, especially for fans of cult recordings.

(Jul. 24, 3:30 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

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“Tomboy” (due in theaters in November) is Celine Sciamma’s absorbing character study about Laure (Zoé Héran), a young girl who passes herself off as a boy. The film, in French with English subtitles, shrewdly assesses how gender identities are formed and developed. Moving to a new home, Laure reinvents herself as Michaël, befriending Lisa (Jeanne Disson) as well as the neighborhood boys, who are impressed by the athletic prowess they see. Laure allows Lisa to put makeup on Michaël and kiss him.

Laure’s mother (Sophie Cattani) is pleased at her daughter’s female friendship — and her wearing makeup — but is unaware of Laure’s deception. However, Jeanne, Laure’s sister (Malonn Lévana), is in on the secret, playing along with her “brother” until an incident involving one of the other kids threatens the freedom Michaël affords Laure.

“Tomboy” employs a refreshingly natural, observational approach to the drama and showcases a remarkable performance by Héran. The film will resonate with anyone who grew up thinking about the allure of being the opposite gender.

(Jul. 22, 3 p.m.; Jul. 24, 7 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

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“Wish Me Away,” a documentary about Chely Wright, the out lesbian country music singer, is an inspiring and empowering story that offers moving insight into her struggle to come out. Even non-country music fans will appreciate Wright’s honesty and her artistry.

(Jul. 22, 7:30 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

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Some films unspooling at NewFest are more ambitious than good. On the non-fiction slate, “Hit So Hard,” a sex, drugs, and rock and roll documentary about Hole drummer Patti Schemel, plays like an overlong episode of VH-1’s “Behind the Music.” The film traces Schemel’s career in the band, along with her lesbianism, the alcoholism and drug addiction that led to her decline, and her recovery.

The interviews and footage of bandmates Courtney Love and Melissa Auf der Maur offer some compelling moments, but a little goes a very long way.

Director and co-writer P. David Ebersole’s decision to focus on other female drummers as well fails to illuminate Schemel’s story, and the film as a whole could use some editing.

(Jul. 27, 6:50 p.m.; BAM-Rose Cinema, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Pl.)

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Misfires for the gay male audience include J.T. Tepnapa’s “Judas Kiss,” a college-set romantic drama. Zack (Charlie David) is a scruffy, chain-smoking, washed up filmmaker who returns to his alma mater to judge a film festival he won 15 years earlier. When he meets a handsome young student named Danny Reyes (Richard Harmon), Zack realizes he has entered a parallel universe and has been given a chance to change his past — and his future.

“Judas Kiss” aims to be a metaphysical love story, but the makers of this clichéd drama about correcting past mistakes should go back to the drawing board. The script is silly, the acting is stiffer than the cardboard characters, and the “big reveal” is unsurprising.

(Jul. 24, 10:15 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.; Jul. 26, 9:30 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

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“The Green,” is Steven Williford’s overstuffed American indie film about a teacher accused of molesting a student. The film features the charismatic Cheyenne Jackson in a major role, but he is not given enough to do. Few viewers will have the patience for the suspension of disbelief demanded by this film.

Unfortunately, “Absent,” a stunning Argentine film about a fateful student-teacher relationship, is missing from the line-up. Why NewFest passed on this film — which won a top prize in Berlin — is a mystery.

(Jul. 24, 6 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

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Another disappointing NewFest entry is “Buffering,” a British sex comedy from directors Darren Flaxstone and Christian Martin that is more sugary than raunchy — not necessarily a good thing here. Two cute broke blokes turn to making a porn website. “Buffering” gropes the familiar bedroom fetishes — dildos, leather, spanking— and answers a not-so-burning question: Is the super hunky next-door neighbor gay? This undistinguished film exists simply as an excuse to get the handsome cast in the buff.

If the festival programmers were interested in something truly risky — not to mention frisky — they should have showcased Todd Verow’s excellent “Leave Blank,” about an escort and his client filming their graphic sexual encounters in a New York hotel room.

(Jul. 22, 7:30 p.m.; SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St.)

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Everything old is also new in “Eating Out: Drama Camp,” Q. Allan Brocka’s fourth entry in this gaysploitation series. The “lying to get laid” plotlines are starting to wear thin now. Here, Benji (Aaron Milo), a gay character at Dick Dickey’s Drama Camp, pretends to be straight, claiming it to be “the ultimate acting exercise.” He wants to win the heart of his crush, Zack (Chris Salvatore). Zack, of course, is conflicted because he is in a relationship with Casey (Daniel Skelton).

Harebrained schemes, few of them funny, ensue. Shakespeare it’s not, but the Bard’s “Taming of the Shrew” is re-purposed as same-sex romance here anyway.

There are some — though not nearly enough — amusing one-liners, a sensitive treatment of a trans character, Lily (Harmony Santana from “Gun Hill Road”), and a brief but energetic turn by cult icon Mink Stole. “Eating Out: Drama Camp,” however, is largely a string of dumb scenarios aimed at getting its characters naked. Count a rollicking musical number from Salvatore as one of this film’s saving graces.

(Jul. 24, 6p.m.; Jul. 28, 4 p.m.; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.)

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Bisexuals deserve better than “3,” “Run Lola Run” director Tom Tykwer’s pretentious meditation on biological determinism. Posing the usual questions about bisexuality and sexual fluidity, “3” is centered on the couple Simon (Sebastian Schipper), undergoing testicular cancer surgery that is disquietingly graphic, and Hanna (Sophie Rois), who is off sleeping with Adam (Devid Striesow).

Halfway through the film Adam and Simon meet at a swim club, and Adam rouses Simon’s penis to sexual climax. Suddenly, the straight Simon is pining for Adam, unaware that his new lover is also seeing Hanna. “3” eventually culminates in Hanna and Simon’s inevitable discovery of each other’s affair, which unsurprisingly happens when Hanna learns she’s pregnant.

“3” is supposed to be about sexual ambivalence, but these characters will leave audiences ambivalent even about which man is the daddy or what relationship wins out in the end. The film gives Tykwer a chance to showcase his nifty visual style, featuring split screens and impressive locations, but these joys cannot compensate for the many problems with “3.”

(Jul. 26, 7 p.m.; Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave, at 37th St., Astoria.)

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Essentials:

NEWFEST

New York’s LGBT Film Festival

July 21-28

Venues citywide

newfest.org

Doctors are three times more likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver than the general population. Photograph: joefoxphoto / Alamy/Alamy

Experts are calling for urgent action to tackle the “significant challenge” of rising levels of alcoholism and substance abuse among professionals including doctors, dentists and lawyers.

At the first international conference of its kind, in Ireland this weekend, there were calls for the UK government to help the silent mass of professionals who were “functioning alcoholics”.

Rory O’Connor, the UK co-ordinator of health support programmes for dentists and veterinary surgeons, told the Observer that Britain was turning a blind eye to a huge problem. He said: “There are serious issues regarding health professionals accessing appropriate help for mental health issues and there are serious issues in the treatment that is out there for them.”

Research suggests 15-24% of lawyers will suffer from alcoholism during their careers, while the British Medical Association estimates that one in 15 healthcare professionals will develop an addiction problem. Doctors are three times more likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver than the general population.

One indicator of the growing problem is the rise in the popularity of “rehab tourism”. Reports from private healthcare companies indicate a growing number of “mental health tourists” – professionals seeking treatment abroad.

O’Connor said: “That is hardly surprising, as they can afford it. These are people functioning with varying degrees and levels of impairment and not likely to seek help among their peers. They can’t go to the hospital down the road where everyone will know them, can they? It’s one reason why they are such a hard-to-reach group.

“If you ask the man in the street what an alcoholic is, they’ll generally say a down and out, but 96% of people with addictions actually function quite well most of the time. They are captains of industry, medical directors, vets, dentists… and we need to tackle it and to look at the acceptance that has been going on in their regulatory bodies.”

He said the behavioural health conference, held at Toranfield House addiction centre in County Wicklow, was the first step in sending out a strong message that addiction needed to be tackled in the way smoking had been. “From an economic perspective, ignoring this issue is not a very wise thing to do, and from a public safety aspect it’s not wise to have people out there who are practising while impaired through addiction.”

O’Connor has established self-help support groups for UK health professionals including doctors, dentists, vets and pharmacists. “Health professionals are generally not good at seeking help for themselves, mainly because they see it very much as their role to help others. There is also immense shame, a stigma still attached to a perceived weakness like addiction.”

Going abroad for help was one way to avoid that stigma, said Keith Pollard, the managing director of Intuition Communication, which runs the information website treatmentabroad.com. He said that while other types of medical tourism were waning in the recession, demand for rehabilitation clinics abroad was on the rise.

“That area of the market is doing very well. The driver is a combination of less chance of your treatment becoming public knowledge and putting a distance between [you and] the drinking culture to aid your rehab,” he said.

Alastair Mordey, the programme director of the Cabin, a substance abuse clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said demand for treatment programmes for doctors was growing at twice the rate as that for other occupations.

Mordey said the numbers were shocking. “The picture is disturbing. We are seeing a lot of professionals coming in, particularly from London. In Britain absolutely there is a silent mass of professionals who are functioning, in terms of that they haven’t lost everything, but they are in workplaces where you really wouldn’t want them to be. Not only those who are responsible for health and human lives, but also bankers who are responsible for our economy.” He said that while it was not a conscious policy to tolerate addictions of professionals, many firms did.

“In healthcare, doctors and nurses are famous for a riotous social life. But in public health terms I don’t see why that can’t be tackled. Binge drinking could be brought down in the same way the UK tackled smoking.”

He said that rehab could be more difficult for better-educated people who found it harder to let themselves be helped by their peers. “Those professionals have the most to lose. In the UK and other countries like Australia and the US there is that Anglo-Saxon mentality – a work hard, play hard culture.”

Ed, 34, a dentist who sought help at the Cabin, said his problems began as a medical student. “On Fridays everyone would be off down the pub. That drinking culture makes it so much easier to get into alcoholism once the stress of working life starts to take effect.

“I didn’t seek help myself until my wife threatened to pack her bags and go. Without a doubt it was very hard to seek help.”

FRIDAY, Nov. 11 (HealthDay News) — Helping others can reduce cravings for alcohol and drugs among teens undergoing substance abuse treatment, a new study suggests.

Such cravings are major causes of relapse after treatment, the Case Western Reserve University researchers noted.

The study included 93 male and 102 female juvenile offenders, aged 14 to 18, referred by courts for substance abuse treatment at a large facility in Ohio. Most of the teens were marijuana-dependent (92 percent) and many were alcohol-dependent (60 percent).

They were interviewed within the first 10 days of starting the 12-step treatment program and two months later when they were discharged from the program.

Helping others in the program improved four of seven substance abuse treatment outcomes. Two types of craving symptoms and narcissistic entitlement were reduced, while psychosocial functioning improved.

The study also found that teens who had spent more time in religious pursuits — such as prayer, worship and meditation — during their lifetime were more likely to help others during the treatment program.

The study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

“Our findings indicate that service participation in 12-step programs can reduce the craving symptoms experienced by adolescents in treatment for alcohol and or drug addiction,” study leader Maria Pagano, an associate professor of psychiatry, said in a university news release.

“Similarly, we found that substance-dependent adolescents with greater religious backgrounds participate more during treatment in 12-step programs of recovery, which leads to better health outcomes,” she added.

“Because most religions encourage altruistic behaviors, youths entering treatment with greater religious backgrounds may have an easier time engaging in service in 12-step programs of recovery,” Pagano suggested. “In turn, youth entering treatment with low or no religious background may require greater 12-step facilitation or a different approach to derive equal benefit from treatment.”

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics outlines how parents can protect their children from substance abuse.

Mumbai: It’s happened before. Shah Rukh Khan would drink himself silly to play Devdas in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film. But never before has an actor turned alcoholic while doing it for a role.

Randeep Hooda needs medical help to get over his ‘borderline alcoholism’ as he has developed a drinking problem.

So far a social drinker, the role of a drunken cop in Kunal Deshmukh’s Jannat 2 has turned his craving for perfection in his acting into a craving for drinks any time of the day.

IBNLive

Says Randeep, “It is alarming when you thirst for a drink at 11 am. I find it disgusting. Initially I was only trying to be true to my character. Now I find the craving has spilled into my real life.”

Randeep’s predicament reminds him of Meena Kumari in Guru Dutt’s Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. The character started drinking to please her husband and then couldn’t kick off the habit.

Laughs Randeep, “Ironically I am not acting tipsy or slurring over my words to play the cop in Jannat 2. I don’t want to play the drunken cop as a stereotype. Alcoholics don’t slur or stumble all over the place.”

Randeep realises he is in the alcoholic danger zone. “I need to discipline myself. I’ve started diverting my mind from drinks by working-out. The problem is, I am only halfway through the film.”

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Bars and restaurants can look forward to slightly higher sales of alcoholic beverages next year, according to a forecast by Technomic Inc.

“While the underlying recovery in bars and restaurants remains fragile, we’re starting to see consumers return to having a drink or two while they’re out,” David Henkes, vice president of Technomic, said in a statement.

The report forecasts that wine sales will have the strongest growth, with a 3.5% increase in 2012. Beer sales are expected to increase 2.2% and spirits 2.3%.

Overall, consumer spending on alcohol at restaurants and bars is projected to increase 2.4% in 2012.

The gains will be largely driven by higher prices, Technomic said, although a couple of categories in the field are predicted to become more popular, including craft beers and premium spirits.

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Beer gardens growing in Southern California, with a twist

Bud Light Platinum coming, says Anheuser-Busch as U.S. sales slip

— Rosanna Xia

Photo: The Wirtshaus beer garden in L.A. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times