Determined and direct, Terri helps clients identify their feelings and express them in healthy ways. If they’re feeling raw and angry, she doesn’t run away. Instead, she meets them where they’re at.

“I give clients permission to be angry at whoever or whatever they need to be angry at, and I don’t judge them for it,” she says. “I acknowledge their pain and their truth and encourage them to scream, throw rocks – whatever it takes for them to be at peace with their feelings rather than trying to medicate them with drugs or alcohol.”

An important goal of treatment at Right Step is rebuilding clients’ self-esteem and reducing the shame often associated with addiction. If clients are convinced they don’t matter, that no one cares, Terri cares even more.

“Nobody cares what you know until they know that you care,” Terri says. “Our clients need to know they are not defective; they have a disease. I believe they can overcome any adversity, any amount of trauma or abuse or neglect, if the right person crosses their path and gives them unconditional love. I want to be that person that shows them that, no matter what, they are worthy.”

An Advocate and Role Model

Terri is a strong advocate for people struggling with addiction, in part because she has been where they are now. Originally from San Diego, Terri left at age 18 when her addiction led her to Texas. She saved every penny she had to “work on the inside, not the outside” and went to a drug treatment program in Texas.

“I believe that recovery is possible for anyone and that treatment works,” says Terri, who has a long family history of addiction. “Even if the people around you stay sick, you can choose to get well.”

Inspired by her own experience, Terri went to school to investigate why she developed a drug addiction in the first place. She attended the University of Houston Addiction Studies/Counseling Program, became a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, and spent the next 20 years working in and managing residential and outpatient treatment programs.

“The more I learned about addiction, the more I realized I have to be involved in treating it,” Terri says. “Addiction is an ugly disease that makes people do ugly things, and impacts generations to come.”

A Place to Recharge and Recover

Long before she joined Right Step in 2007, Terri would travel to Wimberley to rest and recharge her batteries. The charm and serenity inspired her to buy a home in the area. One day while she was out walking her dog, she saw a sign that read “Right Step.” She had always respected the program and its staff and knew that this would be the right place for her to make a difference.

“There’s something healing about the Texas Hill Country,” Terri says. “Alumni from all over the state drive out just to sit here on the rocking chairs. It’s a great place for spiritual growth.”

Right Step Hill Country clients have the benefit of being part of the broader Right Step network. With facilities throughout Texas, clients can transfer from inpatient to outpatient, or vice versa, and change programs as the need arises – all without any interruption in treatment. The staff at each program shares clinical information so that each client receives seamless care.

Above and Beyond

When recruiting new staff, Terri’s most important requirement is “they have to care.” The Right Step team includes people with diverse skills. By design, some are in recovery, some are not. That way, the team has the skills and background to reach everybody.

The entire Right Step team has a “whatever it takes” approach. They go above and beyond for each client, spending time getting to know each as an individual and crafting a treatment program that meets their specific needs. In addition to traditional, evidence-based therapies, clients are encouraged to try a wide variety of approaches until they find what works for them.

“All of the different therapies work, but they don’t all work the same for different people,” Terri explains. “Whether it’s individual therapy, ropes, music therapy or art, we step outside the box to reach clients in whatever way we can.”

Terri is tireless in her calling to help people recover from addiction. When she isn’t swimming in local watering holes or digging rocks for her Broken Arrow Rock Shop, she’s at her home away from home: Right Step.

“Seeing the light go on in clients’ eyes when they realize they can do this and they deserve it – that’s what wakes me up every morning and keeps me here until midnight, if needed.”

At Right Step, Terri is known for her passion and intensity. She has a powerful message for anyone struggling with addiction:

“It can get better; you don’t have to fight it alone. We will fight with you,” she says. “We’ll give you a space to learn and grow and figure out how to love yourself again. Your fears, your anger – all of it is welcome here.”

Adult Alcohol Abuse Standards

Alcohol abuse is the generally accepted term for any pattern of alcohol consumption that seriously disrupts the life of an affected individual. Types of disruptions caused by such an abusive pattern of alcohol use include an inability to meet home-, school- or work-related obligations, intoxicated driving, recurring family arguments regarding alcohol intake, and involvement in alcohol-related arrests or legal proceedings. Unlike alcoholics, alcohol abusers don’t have a physical dependence on alcohol use. However, they may participate frequently in clearly harmful drinking behaviors like binge drinking, a pattern of heavy consumption that gets a drinker legally intoxicated within a two-hour time period.

Alcoholism is a severe type of alcohol abuse. Alcoholics have developed a physical and perhaps emotional reliance on alcohol. Reactions in the body that indicate dependence include the development of a tolerance to alcohol’s mind-altering effects and symptoms of withdrawal when alcohol use stops or decreases abruptly. Additional signs of alcoholism include persistent cravings for alcohol, a reorientation of one’s daily routine toward alcohol use and recovery from alcohol’s effects, abandonment of life responsibilities as a result of alcohol use, a repeated failure to control alcohol intake, and a related failure to successfully stop drinking.

Teen Alcohol Abuse Standards

The standard definitions for alcohol abuse and alcoholism come from research conducted on adult drinkers. In many respects, these definitions also apply to teen drinkers. However, according to the study review published in 2010 in Pediatrics, certain key differences exist between adults and teens.

One such difference arises in the application of the accepted definition for binge drinking. Typically, an adult male consumes five or more drinks during a two-hour binge in order to meet legal standards for alcohol intoxication (a blood alcohol content of 0.08 g/dL). The average adult female consumes four or more drinks to reach legal drunkenness during the same period of time.

However, most teen drinkers get drunk in a two-hour period on considerably less alcohol. Teenage girls (and all preteen drinkers) can reach legal drunkenness with as little as three drinks; teen boys age 14 or 15 can get legally drunk in two hours on as little as four drinks. Only older teen boys typically need to drink as much alcohol as adults to meet current standards for binge drinking.

Other important differences appear in standard definitions for alcoholism. For example, teenagers who engage in drinking patterns that would likely lead to alcoholism in adults may simply not have drinking histories that are long enough to produce adolescent alcoholism. Heavy teen drinkers who stop or abruptly reduce their alcohol intake also don’t typically go through alcohol withdrawal. In addition, because of certain biological factors involved in adolescent growth and development, researchers experience considerable difficulty when trying to apply standards for alcohol tolerance to teenagers.

Detecting Alcohol Problems in Teens

In light of their findings, the authors of the Pediatrics review make several recommendations regarding the application of alcohol abuse and alcoholism standards to teenagers. In regard to binge drinking, they recommend using age-specific definitions that accurately reflect the intoxication and abuse risks for teenage girls and younger teenage boys.

On broader questions related to both alcohol abuse and alcoholism, they point to the usefulness of a concept called “alcohol misuse.” Essentially, this concept applies to any pattern of alcohol use that is currently causing personal, social or family harm, or has a strong likelihood of causing such harm at a later point in time. If this concept replaced adult-centered definitions for alcohol abuse and alcoholism, it could greatly improve the ability to detect serious alcohol-related problems in teenagers, whether or not those problems meet current standards for abuse or dependence.

Vicki serving ice cream to a client during an event.

Over 17 years ago, Vicki Piper made a decision that changed the rest of her life: She went to rehab. She met with a therapist; she worked the 12 Steps. Today, her recovery remains one of her top priorities as well as one of her most treasured accomplishments.

Finding the Answers Within

Vicki is finding the answers in her own life but she doesn’t pretend to have all the answers for her clients.

“The answers lie within them,” she says. “My role is to help clients identify solutions to their problems and take responsibility for their own happiness so they can get what they want and need out of life.”

When working with her clients, Vicki is honest and direct. She needs to be because, as she explains, addicts “have a disease that tells them they don’t have a disease.” At the same time, she’s caring and supportive, meeting clients where they’re at and bringing them up from there.

Although everyone must find their own path to sobriety, Vicki is a strong supporter of the 12-Step program. As she puts it, “There are many ways to get to Dallas, but most of us have found going straight down 45 works best.” Same goes for the 12 Steps. There are many ways to get sober, but the 12-Step program is one of the most effective.

In addition to 12-Step work, Vicki takes a cognitive-behavioral approach. Through structure and accountability, clients are able to change their thoughts and thereby change their behaviors.

“Our behaviors are driven by our thoughts, which are driven by prior life experiences,” she says. “In treatment, instead of numbing or escaping from feelings, or making choices that perpetuate unhealthy behaviors, clients learn to tolerate difficult emotions.”

Addiction: The ‘Great Destroyer’

When people go to rehab they are often frightened and nervous. They don’t know what to expect. And even though their lives have become unmanageable, the unknown seems more intimidating than maintaining the status quo.

“Addiction is a great destroyer, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” Vicki explains. “No one ends up in rehab that is experiencing life to its fullest, or that is happy with where their life is at and where it’s going.”

To make the process as comfortable as possible, Vicki’s first priority is to make sure clients know they’re safe. Her message is simple: “I don’t care where you go or how you do it as long as you reach out for help. If you just reach out, there’s a hand that will grasp yours and show you you’re not alone.”

After clients recognize how far off track addiction has taken them, the team at Right Step helps them identify the root causes of their drug use so they can regain their balance and rebuild their sense of self-worth. Among other things, clients can expect to learn about the disease of addiction, strategies for handling relapse triggers, life skills and how to have fun sober.

Clients receive treatment in Right Step’s adult residential program for about 30 days. Rather than taking it easy or simply checking the days off a calendar, Vicki encourages them to make the most of every day by grasping every concept they can and picking counselors’ brains for new recovery skills and tools.

For clients who are resistant to or unsure about the 12-Step program, Vicki asks that they trust the process. Just being open is enough to experience dramatic changes.

“Within the first couple weeks of treatment, the fog starts to lift. Clients are learning about their disease and being met with acceptance,” Vicki says. “So many times, if clients are willing, open and honest, they can make tremendous strides. The only barriers are those they place on themselves.”

The Right Step Difference

Working at Right Step was literally an answer to Vicki’s prayers. Born and raised in Texas, she had heard great things about the program for years prior to joining the team.

“People choose Right Step because they feel safe and heard here,” Vicki says. “They know the treatment team understands and genuinely cares about them.”

Right Step was named one of the best places to work in Houston and, as Vicki came to find out, it’s because of the people who work there.

“I work with people for whom this is not a job but a life mission,” she says. “They are all of like mind – client-oriented, caring, compassionate, trustworthy and honorable. But more than that they truly are like a family. The care we have for each other is the same care we have for our clients.”

Eleven years later, Vicki still shares wholeheartedly in Right Step’s mission of giving people their lives back.

“How many people get paid to see miracles? Every day we see people get out of the bondage of addiction, get their lives together and move forward,” Vicki says. “My Higher Power opened the door to my coming here and has been keeper of that door since.”

A Lifetime Journey

Vicki knows firsthand that recovery is a long-term process that evolves over time. Even after 17 years in recovery, Vicki takes life moment by moment, one day at a time. She has fully embraced the 12-Step principle of surrender, saying, “I can’t, He can. I’m going to let Him.”

In her free time, she takes care of herself in the same way she teaches her clients. She relaxes, meditates, attends 12-Step meetings and immerses herself in nature in the Texas hill country.

“You can’t keep one foot in recovery and the other in a ditch and manage to stay sober,” Vicki says. “Recovery requires a full commitment – one day at a time, but also as a journey for life.”

Synthetic Marijuana

One of the most damaging, and most prevalent, of the designer drugs has been synthetic marijuana. For a while, these products were sold legally under the brand names Spice and K2. They were being sold mostly in gas station shops, where they were packaged to appeal to young people, even going so far as to use cartoon characters. These drugs were being labeled as harmless products like potpourri and incense. Those using them, however, knew better. K2 and Spice were designed to be smoked and to impart a high to the user.

Synthetic marijuana products are made with a variety of herbal ingredients, mostly benign. Those dried herbal ingredients are then sprayed with a synthetic substance that is designed to mimic the active compounds in marijuana. THC is the main chemical compound in marijuana that causes users to feel a high. Makers of synthetic drugs created various versions of THC to use on their products. They were not illegal because those specific compounds had not been outlawed.

When health care providers and policy makers finally caught on to what was happening with synthetic marijuana, laws were passed to outlaw them. Totally eliminating these products proved to be challenging because when one was banned, a new, slightly altered version was created to take its place.

Texas Laws and Synthetic Drug Use

In 2012, the Texas legislature outlawed Spice and K2 by adding them to the controlled substances list for the state. Unfortunately, the makers and sellers of synthetic drugs are making more changes to get around the laws. Newly created substances, packaged in different ways with new names are cropping up around the state, wreaking havoc. A teen from Cypress was recently left brain damaged after using products called Kush and Klimax. In spite of the harm caused, law enforcement cannot press charges, as those products are not on the list of illegal substances.

The manufacturers of synthetic drugs have been successful in getting around the laws. The Texas Prevention Impact Index recently reported that use of these drugs is on the rise in the state. Perhaps most disturbing is that the biggest rise is among middle school students. Among 12^th graders, synthetic marijuana is the second most used drug behind real marijuana. Nearly 10 percent of all high school students have used a synthetic drug in the last 30 days.

In an attempt to halt the rise in synthetic drug use, state Senator Joan Huffman filed Senate Bill 263. The new bill identifies the latest compounds being used to create these new drugs. The bill also provides law enforcement with more flexibility to go after the newest creations, even before they have been synthesized. The idea is that the bill will fill the loophole that has so far allowed drug manufacturers to keep making new substances and get around the current laws banning synthetic drugs.

The bill also includes provisions to help consumers and parents better understand the seriousness of using these drugs. The packaging for these substances will have to be labeled with the phrase, “not for human consumption.”

Synthetic Drugs in Houston

A company based in Houston may be responsible for the harm caused by synthetic drugs around the country. The deaths of teens in North Dakota and Minnesota have been blamed on the substances sold online by the Houston company. The owner of the website purchased the drugs from Canada, China and Europe and sold them online. As with other instances of synthetic drugs, the substances sold by the company were different enough from illegal compounds to be allowed under the law, as long as they were not being knowingly sold as drugs. Thanks to the crusading parents of the dead teens, investigations led to the Houston-based company and those responsible are likely going to jail.

As makers and sellers of synthetic drugs continue to get around laws, more young people will use these harmful substances and die from them. The much needed changes in the laws combined with rigorous investigations should help to curb the use of synthetic drugs in Texas and the rest of the country.

A documentary that delves into the growing rise of alcohol abuse among American women and their paths of recovery

STUDIO MOVIE GRILL ~ Lewisville
I35 & Corporate Drive

Thursday, June 20th

Doors Open: 6:30 pm
Show starts: 7:00 pm

Click Here to Purchase Tickets

Lipstick and Liquor Documentary Trailer

Questions?
Diane@DianeMarketing.com
972-670-7078

~ Panel Discussion Following Film ~
Dr. Casey Green, MD ~ Right Step
Kathy O’Keefe ~ Winning the Fight
Cheryl Rayl, MS, LPC-S ~ Grace Counseling & WatchDog
Becky Vance ~ The Partnership at Drugfree.Org

Texas Drunk Driving Statistics

According to the Century Council, a non-profit dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking, 1,213 people in Texas died in drunk driving accidents in 2011. Of those, 175 involved someone under the age of 21 driving while under the influence. Nearly three-quarters of the impaired drivers in these accidents had a high blood alcohol concentration (BAC), registering at 0.15 or higher. The vast majority (84 percent) of these were repeat offenders.

The fatalities are high, but the number of drunk drivers pulled over in Texas is significantly higher. Over 85,000 Texans were arrested for drunk driving in 2011. There were 660 teens under the age of 18 arrested for driving while intoxicated. More than 100,000 people were arrested for drunkenness in the state in 2011, and of those, 2,594 were under the age of 18.

Texas Drunk Driving Laws

The Texas Department of Transportation states that a person is hurt or killed every 20 minutes in the state because of drinking and driving. According to Texas law, being intoxicated while driving means having a BAC of 0.08 or higher. Regardless of the BAC, a person can be considered intoxicated and driving under the influence if he or she is impaired in any way. A typical drinker can achieve that level of drunkenness from having two or three drinks in an hour. For women and young people, drinking just one or two drinks in an hour can lead to a BAC of 0.08.

A first offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI) can lead to the loss of a driver’s license for up to a year, a fine of $2,000, up to 180 days in jail, and a possible fee for keeping a license. For the second and third offenses, these punishments increase and can go up to $10,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. Someone who is driving under the influence with a child in the car may also be charged with child endangerment.

Saving Lives

The MADD organization is one of the biggest advocates for change in Texas when it comes to drunk driving. Its members are currently supporting two bills in the state legislature that it believes will help save lives. One bill would allow for sobriety checkpoints (which are not currently legal in the state). The other bill would require first-time DWI offenders to have an interlock device installed in their car. This is a device that locks the ignition until the driver can prove sobriety. Currently, these are often installed for second and third offenders.

Both of the bills are stopped at the moment in committees, but representatives of MADD are pushing hard for them to be passed. In addition to being concerned about the fact that Texas is the worst state for drunk driving, MADD is worried about the way in which public figures are forgiven for drunk driving incidents. A state representative recently injured a cyclist when she drove drunk, and was applauded for apologizing on the floor of the state capitol. A Cowboys defensive lineman was quickly forgiven by the public after killing a teammate in a drunk driving accident. It is this attitude that MADD believes fosters a public perception that drunk driving is not a big deal.

While the rates of drunk driving in Texas soar above those in other states, MADD and other concerned citizens continue to fight for more safety measures. They hope that changes in the laws will lead to changes in public attitudes and in the statistics themselves.

Mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is based on two main principles: a cognitive or intellectual awareness of the motivations behind human behavior and the use of specific techniques designed to modify behaviors over the long term. In CBT for depression, anxiety or a variety of other psychiatric conditions, a participant learns how to identify thoughts, emotional reactions or general frames of mind that lead to involvement in unhealthy behaviors in response to stress. He or she then learns how to gradually replace those unhealthy or detrimental responses with thoughts and emotions that support a centered life outlook and boost resilience in the face of stressful events. Depending on the patient’s needs and circumstances, the average course of cognitive behavioral therapy includes anywhere from 10 to 20 individual sessions.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy combines basic aspects of CBT with a meditative procedure called mindfulness. During mindfulness meditation, a participant learns to focus on his or her breathing for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and avoid focusing on specific thoughts or feelings that arise during the meditation session. Gradually, this purposeful focus on the process of breathing gives the participant a new, relatively detached perspective on any given thought or feeling that passes through the mind. In the framework of MCBT, mindfulness helps a patient disrupt any tendency to brood on unhealthy or detrimental emotions. Brooding is a known psychological factor in the development of chronically depressed or anxious states of mind.

A number of studies have demonstrated the usefulness of mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of major depression in adults. For example, the results of a study published in 2007 in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy indicate that MCBT can help severely depressed individuals recover fully or nearly fully, even when those individuals don’t respond well to other forms of treatment. The results of a second study, published in 2011 by researchers from the University of Exeter, indicate that some people with major depression respond better to MCBT than they respond to either traditional psychotherapy or antidepressant medications.

 MCBT in Teens

In the study conducted by the Catholic University of Leuven, a team of researchers taught MCBT-based techniques to a group of 200 children between the ages of 13 and 20. Prior to learning these techniques, the students took questionnaires that allowed the researchers to identify significant symptoms of stress-related depression, as well as symptoms of anxiety. After examining the results of these questionnaires, the researchers concluded that 21 percent of the participating students had clear depression symptoms. Immediately after mindfulness training, the rate of depression symptoms in the study participants dropped to 15 percent. In a follow-up assessment conducted six months later, the depression rate remained at a relatively low 16 percent.

In order to gauge the importance of their findings, the research team also assessed depression and anxiety symptoms in a second group of 200 children who did not receive mindfulness training. Initially, 24 percent of these children had clear symptoms of depression. In a second assessment conducted at the same time as the exit assessment for the children who received mindfulness training, the depression rate in this group rose to 27 percent. In a follow-up assessment conducted six months later, the depression rate in this group rose again to 31 percent.

Treating Teen Depression with MCBT

The researchers from Catholic University of Leuven believe that their study demonstrates the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapeutic techniques as a treatment for emerging depression symptoms in teenagers. They also believe that mindfulness-based interventions can potentially prevent existing symptoms of teenage depression from becoming entrenched and turning into full-blown major depression (or some other depressive disorder) at a later point in time.

Stress and Drug Addiction – The Psychology

The psychology behind stress-related drug-seeking behavior is much more clearly understood than the neurology. Most drugs of abuse cause some sort of euphoria or profound relaxation in the user, and this direct effect of drugs often makes them superficially effective for stress relief. The individual might go for a drink with some colleagues after work, for example, and use it as an opportunity to unwind after a long day. Similarly, he might go out to a club over the weekend and take ecstasy as a “reward” for his week of work. The more this association between stress relief and substances builds up in the mind of the user, the more they become psychologically dependent on the drug.

You don’t need to take many mental leaps to understand the psychological link between stress and drug addiction. Drugs are seen as a solution to the problem of stress, but the fact that stress is inevitable means that addiction is extremely likely for anybody using a substance for the purpose of stress relief. Even if the individual stops taking drugs for an extended period of time, a particularly notable source of stress could be enough to drive them back to old habits.

Stress and Drug Addiction – The Neurology

To understand the impact of drug addiction, you need to understand how the body and brain ordinarily deal with stress. In response to a stressor, the brain releases two groups of chemicals, hormones and neurotransmitters (chemical “messengers” for the body and the brain, respectively). Your brain first releases a chemical named corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF), which then triggers the release of adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). This then stimulates the adrenal glands and leads to the production of cortisol, which counteracts the stress the body is experiencing. The presence of cortisol in the blood tells the brain that CRF and ACTH are no longer required, unless the stressor is a particularly serious one.

To see if the stress-response system operates differently in individuals addicted to drugs, Dr. Mary Kreek of Rockefeller University and her group of researchers used a drug that blocks the production of cortisol. In people not suffering from drug addiction, the absence of this chemical means that nothing stops the brain from producing CRF or ACTH and as a result, measured ACTH levels increase. However, for current heroin users, the drug had little effect on ACTH levels at all, leading to only a modest increase. If the drug is given during withdrawal from opiates, the level of ACTH increases to twice as much as in non-addicts, showing a much greater sensitivity to stress. It takes around three months of methadone maintenance to bring the body’s stress-response system back to normal. This means that the brain of an addict will respond much more sensitively to stress, making relapse much more likely in these situations.

The New Research

The psychological explanation for the link between stress and drug relapse offers a useful way to understand the issue, but biological models of how this happens open up the possibility of creating drugs to prevent it. This is the aim of Brown University’s research, which identifies several key pathways in the process of stress leading to a relapse. The researchers found that the kappa opioid receptors in the ventral tegmental area of the brain are activated by stress, which is implicated in the process of stress-induced relapse.

This means that an antagonist drug which works on these receptors could short-circuit the stress response and therefore reduce the likelihood of relapse. The experiment to test the effectiveness of this medication has been conducted in rats, and the initial results are positive. The study took once cocaine-addicted rats and placed them under stress to see if they attempted to use cocaine again. Those who received the antagonist didn’t relapse, but the ones who didn’t take the drug took cocaine under stress.

Implications for Addiction Treatment

If the drug is tested further and has positive outcomes in human trials, it could prevent stress-related relapse altogether. As one of the most common reasons for relapse, this could be an invaluable tool for rehab centers all across the country. It’s important to note that it wouldn’t be a “cure” in any sense of the word, but it would help users stay abstinent long enough for psychological treatment to have an effect. For that reason, this could become a landmark piece of research in substance abuse treatment.

Current research indicates that part of the problem with alcohol consumption in this age group revolves around an inability to properly estimate what constitutes a “drink” according to generally accepted standards. This inability also reduces the usefulness of certain studies on alcohol use, which rely on accurate reporting of alcohol consumption among study participants.

Alcohol Consumption Guidelines

In the U.S., scientists, doctors and public health officials use the term “drink” to refer to any amount of an alcoholic beverage that contains 0.6 oz of pure ethyl alcohol, also known as ethanol. It is this substance that produces intoxication and causes drinking-related brain and body damage, as well as the risks for abuse and addiction. Generally speaking, serving sizes of alcohol that contain 0.6 oz of ethanol are 12 oz of beer, 8 or 9 oz of malt liquor, 5 oz of wine and 1.5 oz of 80-proof distilled liquor. Specific amounts of ethanol contained in these serving sizes may vary according to the details of a given product’s manufacturing process, but the figures quoted here work well as general guidelines.

Using the standard definition for a drink, public health officials have established levels of moderate daily and weekly alcohol intake that present little health risk for the average healthy adult. Adult men can typically safely consume up to two drinks per day and 14 drinks per week. Consumption above either one of these levels can damage a man’s health and/or increase his risks for abuse or addiction. This means, for example, that a man can’t safely consume four drinks on a given day, even if he drinks less than 14 total drinks in the same week. Adult women can typically safely consume up to one drink per day and seven drinks per week. As is true with men, women must follow both of these consumption guidelines in or order to adequately protect their health.

Underestimated Consumption in Teens and Young Adults

In a study published in 2012 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, a group of researchers examined the ways in which a group of several hundred teens and young adults estimate their drink sizes, then compared those estimations to the standard drink size established by doctors and public health officials. The researchers also used a seven-question interview to gauge the general level of knowledge regarding drinking safety among the study’s participants.

On the issue of drink size, the authors of the study concluded that teens and young adults regularly underestimate the amount of alcohol they consume when they pour what they consider to be “one drink.” Younger teenagers, in particular, do a poor job of estimating their actual level of alcohol consumption. However, older teenagers and young adults also estimate poorly, and only come within 10 percent of a standard drink size for one out of every four drinks they pour. When it comes to general knowledge regarding drinking safety, the percentage of correct responses only reached or exceeded 50 percent on two out of the seven questions posed to the study participants.

The Need for Better Alcohol Education

The authors of the study believe their findings highlight the need for both improved and expanded education on alcohol-related issues for both teenagers and young adults. This belief is supported by the results of numerous modern studies that indicate that drinkers in this age group frequently engage in risky patterns of alcohol use, including binge drinking, a pattern of alcohol consumption that produces legal drunkenness within a period of two hours or less.

The authors of the study also emphasize the fact that underestimation of alcohol consumption by teens and young adults could potentially damage the validity of any type of study that relies on self-reported estimates of alcohol consumption. If the information gathered in these types of studies is skewed by inaccurate self-reporting, then the conclusions drawn by the authors of those studies will almost certainly misreport the relative dangers of any given level of alco

Call Them Instigators

Enzymes are created from instructions encoded by our DNA. They play their essential role by acting as catalysts or instigators for all sorts of chemical reactions; scientists refer to these reactions as the process of metabolism. Some metabolic reactions powered by enzymes involve anabolism, a process that joins relatively small chemical/biological molecules together and forms larger molecules. Other metabolic reactions powered by enzymes involve catabolism, a process that breaks down larger chemical/biological molecules into smaller molecules.

Enzymes are critical for the breakdown of potentially toxic substances such as medications, legal or illegal drugs and alcohol. Without enzyme activity, these substances would remain in the body. By breaking down (i.e., catabolizing) medications, drugs and alcohol, enzymes produce two critical benefits. First, they limit the peak levels of the effects of any substance in question, whether those effects center on a therapeutic treatment goal or a non-therapeutic form of mind/body alteration. Enzymes also limit the potential for an overdose, a situation that occurs when enough of a given substance accumulates in the body to overwhelm the normal function of the nervous system and create damaging or life-threatening changes in that system.

Enzymes for Cocaine Addiction

In order to set the preconditions for abuse and addiction, cocaine molecules must achieve their mind-altering effects before being broken apart by the process of enzyme catabolism. Under normal circumstances, they manage this goal rather easily by passing rapidly into the brain through a network of blood vessels called the blood-brain barrier, which acts as a filter between the main circulatory system and the structures of the brain and spinal cord. Once inside the brain, molecules of the drug make abuse- and addiction-supporting changes in nervous system function by altering the levels of several chemicals known collectively as neurotransmitters.

According to the results of a study published in 2012 in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, researchers from the University of Kentucky have both identified and custom-designed enzymes that can dramatically speed up the pace of cocaine catabolism. In fact, the study’s authors report that just one copy of one of their customized enzymes can break down thousands of individual cocaine molecules in the space of a single minute; when large numbers of these enzymes are introduced into the body, they can potentially break down cocaine fast enough and in amounts large enough to negate the drug’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and trigger its mind-altering effects.

Enzymes for Cocaine Overdose

A cocaine overdose occurs when a given individual takes too much of the drug and overloads his or her central nervous system. When compared to users of methamphetamine and a variety of other common drugs of abuse, cocaine users have an ongoing heightened risk for an overdose, regardless of their previous tolerance for the drug’s effects or the amount they take at any given time. This is true because of the unpredictable nature of cocaine’s impact on central nervous system function.

In 2010, researchers from Columbia University, the University of Michigan and the University of Kentucky reported the preliminary results of their attempts to modify an existing enzyme, called cocaine esterase or CocE, and create a new enzyme capable of rapidly breaking down cocaine and reversing the ongoing effects of a cocaine overdose. In its natural form, this enzyme—which comes from soil bacteria that breed in the root structure of the coca plant—breaks down cocaine much more quickly than the enzyme in the human body responsible for catabolizing cocaine. However, natural CocE is highly heat-sensitive and doesn’t live for long inside the body. The multi-university research team, which presented its findings to the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, managed to modify CocE enough to make it stable inside the body, and therefore useful for overdose treatment.

Future Trials

These promising results, in combination with previous studies, that show CocE can reverse cocaine-induced cardiovascular changes, seizures, convulsions and lethality in rodents suggest that CocE may be a good candidate for clinical treatment of cocaine toxicity in humans.