Quast

Part Four: Prevention

In my eyes, and in many of my colleagues eyes, prevention of chemical usage (drugs and alcohol) is the key to reducing alcoholism, and establishing order; what I mean by this is, one needs to stop the problem before it starts, and this problem of chemical usage, can be curtailed by educating our children at a young age of the consequences of using mood altering drugs, such as alcohol.

On the other hand one must look at the nature of the beast. Alcoholism is a disorder, a chemical one, and a disease it becomes. How can I say that, all research has indicated so, and so it must be treated as a disease, and looked at as a disease, just like cancer; one day you get it and the rest of your life you fight it, and you die young. I do not know any old alcoholics, as I mentioned before. But prevention can help; we need to inform our youth of the consequences. They do not see it at the age of nineteen years old; it is hard for them to see when their bodies are fresh and strong, but we must inform them, out of sight, does not mean it should be out of mind, it will have its toll on you, and its grip on you should one start drinking young, and unable to stop, thereafter.

A) Programs: We are not gods or islands, we need people willing to help, and the sooner an alcoholic finds this out (or heavy drinker), the sooner he can look for treatment (but first society, government, or the city has to say this is a problem and be willing to provide a treatment center. You cannot call yourself a Good Samaritan, and just walk on by). But too often treatment does not look at the bare facts either; they go through an orderly A to Z program, and it provides tools for the alcoholic to use, and still the alcoholic may go back to drinking, but the recovery rate at the institutions Ive worked at, is about 60% recovery; thus we can take 60% of the drunks off the streets and roads.

What I have found as a director of a medical clinic, is you got to offer the chemical abuser, or user, or alcoholic something better than what he has, why else would he stop using something that is doing something for him, I mean, alcohol is providing him with some kind of escape, it just happens to be a false one: then you get him into the program, and then you get him into prevention, and then after this, you get him into what is called Aftercare. But all this time he has that one thing you found out for him, which was better than alcohol; this makes him want to continue.

B) Prevention as Education: We teach our kids how to talk, walk, and eat. Funny we do not teach them how to drink, or how not to drink and use drugs, or teach them the effects of a lifetime of chemical use and abuse. We have a license to drive a car, but first we get Education in that area, yet we get no education on the effects of alcohol damage. And we get married, and we need a marriage license for that also, and our parents usually give us a few comments on this issue, but not on alcohol usage; and we go to specialty schools to learn special educational things to help us in the future, but we again do not get any education on one of the deadliest chemicals in the world, alcohol.

Yes, we need education in the use of alcohol, what damage it can do to us mentally, physically (or biologically), socially, and spiritually. This education can come in the form of movies for children, or mandatory movies for adults who have been sited for driving while drunk; it can be part of their curriculum of a school, college, showing the effects of alcoholism. And it should start at home with the parents. In Minnesota, all these Educational tools are already in place, along with Treatment clinics.

C) Choices under Education: I have told my clients in the past we have choices, and they come in three dimensions: rules, results and responsibilities. If we can get this message out to the youth of the Mantaro Valley, maybe they will chose another way to deal with bad choices in the past to be made now in the future; in my past education programs, this is what I point out. If you are standing in front of a train (as he does when he continues to drink beyond his limits), and he decides not to move, he has, like it or not, made a decision (and of course a bad one), in essence he has decided to get run over by the train; and so our youth needs to know, rethink, their choices, decisions before the train comes.

Closing Thoughts

What can I do without going to Treatment: I have written three books on this very subject, Alcoholism, its prevention, and Aftercare. And those whom are damaged the most in using alcohol are individuals with Depression, Manic behavior, Schizophrenia. Those predisposed to this genetic alteration within their systems, causing dependency. Those who drink daily and saturate their system with this poison also, Women, Alcoholics with liver damage, their living cells die, and you become the living dead. It also produces cancer in women quicker than men. Those with too much stress, thus causing overuse of alcohol, which turns into alcoholism. All these issues can be stopped by simply stop using, for the most part.

In Conclusion: we may want to try to fix this growing problem, perhaps crisis, but simply do not have the funds to do so, if this is the case, there might be a possibility in finding professionals in this field to teach volunteers, and to use community rooms to promote Educational classes on the effects of alcohol to the growing populations, thus curving the growing dilemma: with educational tools that will help fight against the alcoholic problems, although that alone will not solve the problem: a city with a serious problem needs a serious program, and that means its members have to dig into their pockets and create Treatment Centers, I do believe: plus we need to get into the schools to educate the students.

Another idea may be, find someone with a plot of land willing to donate it to an establishment of providing a continuum of care to the alcoholic, or abuser of alcohol, free of charge, and perhaps have these folks with other skilled labors build the establishment (as might be the case in some of the towns of the Mantaro Valley region of Peru).

Afterwards: who will be the ones in the Mantaro Valley to carry forward the banner of progress, for freedom from addicted, the broken families that lay ahead because of addiction; who will do the educating and planting enriching values, for we now have only martyrs, thousands that have come and died for the lack of it. Indifference to drug and alcohol abuse, will not make the issue disappear, and will not enrich the Valley, its unchanging atmosphere in Government for the disadvantaged, the forgotten flesh cannot go on living on bread alone, it needs the help of its educated leaders. I sense the poor and downtrodden are hungry for recovery, if only they can find a helpful hand.

Data collected from several sources, the INEI Reports (National Institute of Statistics, Huancayo). From other journals, and independent reports, found on the internet to include Reports done by UCLA on Peru and Bolivia (University of California in Los Angeles); and Reports done by private institutions on the chemical usage within the Central Region of Peru, to include the Huancayo region. Also data was used from the collected writings of the author, his three books on drugs and alcohol and its effects on individual and society; 2001, 2002, and 2003. Empirical data also collected by the author within the Mantaro Valley region, from cultural institutions; and the more direct way was used by talking to taxi drivers, many folks from the media whom are concerned. Thus, there has been a good cross-section of society the author has used in gathering his information.

About the Authors background: Post Graduate Studies (two years, 1986-1987: received International Certificates for Counseling); Alcohol and Drug License Counselor, USA, State of Minnesota, No: 300274: issued by the State Health Department. 10-2001; International Ordained Minister (Revered) from Independent Christian Churches 1-31-93 (Post Graduate Studies at Liberty University, in Theology, 1990 or one year); AA Degree, University of Maryland (Behavioral Science) 1976; BS Degree, Troy State University (in Psychology and Sociology) 1979

Copyright Dennis L. Siluk, May 23, 2007 Agony of the Valley The Effects of Alcoholism on the Individual and Peruvian Society as a whole, and how to deal with it in the (Central Region) and Mantaro Valley of Peru

Drawing done by the author 1974

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com