Can you imagine going through major surgery without general anaesthesia? That’s what Christel Place did when she had her thyroid removed – and she’s one of a growing number of patients who opt out of general anaesthesia and get hypnotized instead. Hypnosis plus a local anaesthetics leaves patients sedated but aware, reports the Associated Press, and doctors say their recovery time is faster and their need for painkillers reduced. This method is feasible for only certain operations, of course – not those involving the heart or internal organs.

For her surgery at the hospital Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc in Brussels, Belgium, Place pictured herself hiking in the French Alps while surgeons sliced her neck open.

Doctors say nearly any surgery usually done with a local anesthetic could work with hypnosis and less pain medicine. Since doctors began offering hypnosis at the hospital in 2003, hundreds of patients have chosen it. At another Belgian hospital, more than 8,000 surgeries have been done this way since 1992.

Surgery to solve thyroid problems is usually done with either local or general anesthesia and is considered low risk.

In the U.S., there are no guidelines on the surgical use of hypnosis, according to president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Dr. Mark Warner. Dr. Warner often uses music therapy or asks patients to picture a soothing scene to distract them from any discomfort. “If we could get more research on the right patient groups that would benefit from (hypnosis), that would be wonderful,” he said.

Dr. Roelants described hypnosis as a modified state of consciousness. “The patient’s mind goes to a pleasant place, but the body stays in the operating room.” At Roelants’ hospital, one-third of all surgeries to remove thyroids and one-quarter of all breast cancer surgeries, including biopsies and mastectomies, use hypnosis and local anesthetic.

Using hypnosis means patients recover faster and hospitals save money, according to some studies. But it may require doctors to spend more time with patients beforehand to do the hypnosis and they may need more careful monitoring during surgery.

Place said waking up from the surgery was more abrupt than she’d expected. “It was like I was really in the mountains and then ‘poof,’ it was over,” Place said, laughing.

Read the entire story with photos of surgery at CBC NEWS.COM or click here
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-204_162-10008770.html#ixzz1jwaHzvuK

Former smokers have a better-functioning memory than those who still light up, a new study finds.

On a practical test of their recollection ability, people who on average had quit smoking for 2.5 years  performed 25 percent better than current smokers did. People who had never smoked scored 37 percent better than the smokers.

“We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits for the body, but this study also shows how stopping smoking can have knock-on benefits for cognitive function, too,” said study researcher Tom Heffernan, a psychology professor at Northumbria University in England.

Lighting up, or learning?

The researchers aimed to measure “real world” memory abilities by sending 69 study participants on a tour of a university campus. Twenty-seven were smokers, 18 were former smokers , and 24 never smoked.

The participants were given a list of 15 locations around campus and an action to perform at each location. For example, upon reaching the library, participants were supposed to remember to check for messages on their cell phones; upon reaching the sports center, they were supposed to remember to ask about the cost of membership.

On average, the smokers performed 8.9 tasks correctly. The participants who had quit smoking averaged 11 correctly performed tasks, and those who had never smoked averaged 12.1. There were no differences between the groups in terms of their IQs, the study said.

Previous studies showed that quitting smoking improves “retrospective memory,” which is the ability to learn information and retrieve it later. The new study instead measured participants’ “prospective memory,” which is the ability to remember to carry out a particular action at some future point in time.

For example, remembering to take medication at a certain time of day requires prospective memory.

Previous research on the effect of smoking on prospective memory yielded mixed results, with some results showing smokers were worse off, and others showing no effect from smoking, the study noted.

How does it work?

Although it is unclear exactly how smoking may interfere with memory, research has shown that chronic smoking is linked to a breakdown, or atrophy, of parts of the brain.

The researchers hypothesized that smoking could damage brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus or thalamus; all of those regions have been linked in brain imaging studies to prospective memory, they said.

Heffernan also has studied the effects of alcohol and marijuana on memory. He and the other researchers acknowledged that their new study was small and relied on self-reports of smoking, which would be subject to inaccuracy and dishonesty on the part of participants. Future work should follow a cohort of smokers and former smokers over time, they said.

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Dec. 26, 2011 — If women didn’t already have enough reasons to quit smoking before pregnancy, here’s a big one: Smoking during pregnancy may set their child up for blood vessel damage, a new study shows.

Dutch scientists enrolled more than 250 children. When the children were 4 weeks old, their body dimensions and lung function were measured. At the same time, their parents completed questionnaires about such factors as smoking during pregnancy.

When the children were 5, the researchers used ultrasound to measure the thickness and flexibility of their carotid arteries, large blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain. They also collected updated smoking information from their parents.

The walls of the carotid arteries in 5-year-olds whose mothers had smoked throughout pregnancy were about 19 microns thicker — about one to two times the thickness of a piece of cassette tape — and 15% stiffer than those whose mothers had not smoked.

If both parents smoked while they were in the womb, the children’s carotid arteries were nearly 28 microns thicker and 21% stiffer than those of children whose parents didn’t smoke during pregnancy. These changes may indicate damage to blood vessels that may affect their function, the study authors suggest.

The scientists did not find an effect if only the father smoked during the pregnancy, or if the mother hadn’t started smoking until after giving birth.

Smoking During Pregnancy vs. After

“The challenge there was to show that it was really smoking in pregnancy” and not exposure to cigarette smoke afterward, researcher Cuno Uiterwaal, MD, PhD, says in an email to WebMD. “To further explore that, we did this study.”

Uiterwaal, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care at the University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands, says, “with our findings, we think that smoking in pregnancy does play an independent role, although we know that exposure of children to [secondhand] smoke is damaging in many areas.”

“Smoking in pregnancy is bad for many reasons for the mother and certainly also for the child,” Uiterwaal says. “Our findings may well be another argument to quit during pregnancy. Many women do quit as soon as they know they’re pregnant, but not all do.”

An accompanying editorial notes than nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults smoke, and more than half of children show biochemical evidence of exposure to secondhand smoke. “There is no known safe level of exposure,” write authors and pediatricians Susanne Tanski, MD, MPH, of Dartmouth College and Karen Wilson, MD, MPH, of the University of Rochester.

Uiterwaal’s study, Tanski and Wilson write, “provides one more piece of evidence for the importance of smoking cessation, in particular, among families with young children and those planning to have children.”

Uiterwaal’s study and Tanski and Wilson’s editorial appear online in Pediatrics.

Both emotional and physical pain are messages that we need to stop and pay attention.

When we feel pain, our first impulse is often to eradicate it with medication. This is an understandable response, but sometimes in our hurry to get rid of pain, we forget that it is the body’s way of letting us know that it needs our attention.

A headache can inform us that we’re hungry or stressed just as a sore throat might be telling us that we need to rest our voice. If we override these messages instead of responding to them, we risk worsening our condition. In addition, we create a feeling of disconnectedness between our minds and our bodies.

Physical pain is not the only kind of pain that lets us know our attention is needed.

Emotional pain provides us with valuable information about the state of our psyche, letting us know that we have been affected by something and that we would do well to focus our awareness inward. Just as we tend to a cut on our arm by cleaning and bandaging it, we treat a broken heart by surrounding ourselves with love and support. In both cases, if we listen to our pain we will know what to do to heal ourselves.

It’s natural to want to resist pain, but once we understand that it is here to give us valuable information, we can relax a bit more, and take a moment to listen before we reach for medication. Sometimes this is enough to noticeably reduce the pain, because its message has been heard. Perhaps we seek to medicate pain because we fear that if we don’t, it will never go away. It can be empowering to realize that, at least some of the time, it is just a matter of listening and respond! ing.

The next time you feel pain, either physical or emotional, you might want to try listening to your own intuition about how to relieve your pain. Maybe taking a few deep breaths will put an end to that headache. or try writing in your journal about hurt feelings will ease your heart.

Ultimately, the message of pain is all about healing.

With the holidays approaching, you may be anticipating, with a bit of trepidation, all the food temptation that you are likely to be subjected to.

It’s no doubt the time of year when boxes of chocolate and cookies inevitably appear on your doorstep or in the office . . and you find yourself at parties where endless spreads of sweets and high calorie dishes abound.

Cheery faces thrust rich food and beverages into your hands . . .and it may feel like you are clinging to every ounce of willpower you have, but only by a thread.

Relax, and cast your worries aside. With the following ten tips, you’ll be able to survive the holiday onslaught with a smile, and fitting into your clothes easily. . . .

Tip #1: Avoid excess hunger. Do not let yourself become ravenously hungry. Make sure that especially at this time of year, you plan regular, healthy meals for yourself so that your stomach is comfortably full. You’ll be less tempted to binge, if your blood sugar isn’t plummeting, so make sure to include enough protein in your diet.

Tip #2: Take time for physical exercise. This will keep your blood sugar stable, reduce stress, increase your metabolism, and improve your overall sense of well-being. Find an activity that’s fun for you that you can really enjoy and look forward to – perhaps a long walk while pumping to the beat of your favourite music, racquetball, or in-line skating.

Tip #3: Have foresight. Plan a strategy for those situations where you know your willpower will be tested. If you know that you will be at a party where sinful treats are likely to be plentiful, plan your course of action in advance. Keep in mind that if you totally deprive yourself, you’re very likely to binge later. Make your strategy one that you are happy with. Perhaps you’ll allow yourself to indulge in a certain number of hors d’oeuvre, but steer clear of the dessert table.

Tip #4: Be assertive: Mentally rehearse challenging situations that are likely, before they happen. Create mental movies where you are the heroine – overcoming any temptation to sabotage yourself by overeating in social situations or giving in to outside pressure to eat foods that you know are harmful to you. Practice using phrases of assertiveness such as “Thank you, I’m not hungry, or Everything was delicious, and I’ve had enough.”

Tip #5: Be prepared: Carry around healthy snacks such as celery, cucumber or carrot sticks to munch on during the day. The fibre in the vegetables will help you to have a full feeling in your belly, and make it easier to walk away from the junk.

Tip #6: Keep your eye on your goal. Even the most difficult situation is transitory so keep your focus on your ultimate desire for yourself to get you through any challenges: Achieving and maintaining your ideal weight, fitting into your clothes comfortably, feeling happy and confident in your relationship to food. Frequently visualize yourself at your ideal weight, wearing your favourite outfit and engaging in an activity that you really enjoy.

Tip #7: Reward your successes. You got through the entire evening by focusing on and enjoying the people you were with, drinking bubbling water with lemon and lime, and only nibbling on some cheese, crackers and veggies, followed by a healthful dinner. Congratulate yourself! Treat yourself to a full body massage and revel in how good it feels to truly honour and care for yourself.

Tip #8: Be gentle with yourself. So you couldn’t resist and before you even realized what you were doing, you gobbled down three homemade cookies. Now the old self-talk starts creeping in, encouraging you to just throw in
the towel and eat more (since you already blew your “diet”). Resist the temptation to agree with that negative voice, give yourself a moment to recover, and make a new choice. Remind yourself that if you were carrying two plates and one fell, you wouldn’t just drop the other one, too. Walk away from those cookies . . .take a deep breath and find a more healthful activity.

Tip #9: Stress Busters are essential. The holidays can be a time of added frenzy. Prepare for that by engaging in stress busting behaviours. Take some time everyday to center yourself with self-hypnosis or meditation. Become aware of your breathing throughout the day, and make sure that you are taking full, deep, life affirming breaths. Drink lots of water and make sure to stretch throughout the day to help release some of the tension
that’s accumulated in your muscles.

Tip #10: Use positive self-talk. When you become aware of inner voices that sabotage you, choose to not listen to them. Practice giving yourself positive suggestions instead. Speak to yourself the way you would imagine that the most loving, caring friend would talk to you. Praise the progress you’ve already made such as avoiding hanging around by the food table at parties, and give yourself gentle encouragement to help yourself avoid any pitfalls you may encounter.

The need to fill an imaginary void by shopping is a symptom of disconnection from our true selves.

In our culture today, we are constantly encouraged to consume. This includes food as well as purchasing ever newer items that we may not need, often using money that we may not actually have. It could be that we are trying to fill a void we feel within ourselves, but if we take the time to examine it, we know deep inside that this is not the solution. We may notice how quickly the joy fades after our purchase or once the food we’ve enjoyed is gone, and how soon we feel the urge to do so again. This is a symptom of disconnection from our true selves, so the first step toward balance is connection to our center.

When we connect to our center, we access the fullness of who we are as an individual spirit. We also connect to the energy source of the universe, from which nothing can be lacking. It could be that we have been energetically starving ourselves but trying to feed the need physically, outwardly. Once we make the decision to reconnect, we have the ability to examine the behaviour from a higher place within ourselves. We can look, without judgment, at the thoughts and feelings that occur before and after our indulgences to find a pattern. We may want to keep track of these observations in a journal so that we can go back if we lose our way.

Often boredom is the main cause for the desire to eat or shop. But when we connect to our center, our intuition can more clearly guide us to the places where our energy can best be used. We can replace the boredom with a meditation practice, a class, a project, seeking a new job, or getting involved in a charity. We may even want to begin planning an adventurous trip. Whatever inspires us tells us the direction we should go. When we find the place we are meant to be, we become so consumed by its constant creation that the frivolous filling of an imaginary void becomes a thing of the past.

By Chaplain Paul G. Durbin, Ph.D.

The Bible has been the most influential book in my life and it still speaks something new to me each time I read it.

What is the first written record of the use of hypnosis? The first written recorded use of hypnosis is found in the book of Genesis 2:21-22, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up in its place with flesh, and the rib which God took from man. He made woman and brought her to the man.” In this incident, God used hypnosis as an anaesthesia so that Adam felt no pain during the removal of his rib.

In addition to the reference in Genesis, mention of hypnotic techniques is found in other ancient sources concerning the Egyptian “Sleep Temples.” In the temples, Egyptian priest used hypnotic-like procedures to improve health. These temples were so popular that they spread to Grease and Asia Minor.

Chaplain W. Leo Peacock gives a number of New Testament illustrations of hypnosis in his paper “Religious Hypnosis and Personal Control.” Chaplain Peacock makes a point with his interpretation of Matthew’s account of Joseph’s dream concerning taking Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:20-25). When Joseph discovered that Mary was expecting a child, he decided to break his engagement for he knew that the child was not his. The story told of an “angel” or “messenger” coming to Joseph in a dream. In this dream, the angel told Joseph to marry Mary. Upon waking, Joseph did as the angel suggested. Peacock writes that this is a clear description of an individual being hypnotized and while under hypnosis being given a post-hypnotic suggestion which he immediately acts upon as soon as he came out of the hypnotic trance.

Paul speaks of going into a trance while praying in the temple (Acts 22:17). Peter “fell into a trance” and from that experience came to see that God loved all people and accepts all people who come to him. Peter had been invited to the home of a centurion who was devout in his faith, but was not Jewish. At that time, it was religiously unlawful for Peter to visit the centurion’s house. After the dream, Peter went to visit the centurion (Acts 10:1-48).

The practice of “laying on of hand,” mentioned in the Bible, uses some of the techniques of hypnosis. In the book of Acts (28:8) we read, “And it came about that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him.” Elsewhere in the book of Acts, there is a reference to an apostle looking into the eyes or gazing into the eyes of a person which resulted in the person being healed. “This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who when he had fixed his gaze upon him, and had seen that he had faith to be made well, said with a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’ And he leaped up and began to walk.” (Acts 14:9-10).

Jesus often spoke in parables or stories which still bring to mind vivid pictures which tell us something important about life. The parables can have a different meaning to us at different times in our lives. One of the principles of hypnosis is repetition and there are two of Jesus’ parables (The Friend At Midnight and The Unjust Judge) which speak to this issue. In the parable of the “Friend At Midnight” (Luke 11:5-10), Jesus tells of a man who knocks at his neighbour’s door at midnight and request some food for a friend who has arrived at his house unexpectedly. At first the friend said, “Do not brother me. ” but because the man is persistent, the friend will get up and give him as much food as he needs. What does this have to do with hypnosis? At first the subconscious (the friend next door) is resistant to change but through persistence, in the use of hypnotherapy, the subconscious will grant what is requested. Jesus concludes the parable, “Ask and it shall be give to you , seek and you shall find; knock it will be opened to you. For everyone who ask receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. ”

In the parable of “The Unjust Judge” (Luke 18:1-8), Jesus told the story of a judge who does not fear God and respects no one. A widow keeps coming before him for protection from her opponents. As the woman persists, even after being turned down several time, the judges says, “Because she bothers me, I will give her legal protection. Just by continually coming, she wears me out.” I leave the parable for your interpretation.

The idea of the human trinity came to me from the Bible for there I learned that we are made up of body, mind, and spirit and each affects the others and are affected by the others.

Paul writes of the human trinity in the twelfth chapter of the book of Romans. Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercy of God, that ye present your body as a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service and be not confined to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2).

In God’s sight, the body and mind as well as the spirit are important. The body is the temple of God, and the place where the spirit dwells for Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” From Romans, I hear God saying through Paul that real worship is more than the offering of great prayers. It is more than the offering to God of a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to God.

The renewing of the mind calls for a change in attitude. It calls for us to let go of any negative thought because they can be a block to living life to its fullest. God wants us to realize our talents, our abilities, our potential, and with divine guidance to use them for our own good and for the good of others. He leads to look into the heart (subconscious) and mind (conscious) to see our potential and our possibilities rather than our failures and limitations. In the Bible, one can find several references to hypnotic like activities. For instance, the first written record of the use of hypnosis is recorded in the book of Genesis 2:21-22, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh, and the rib which God took from man, he made woman and brought her to him.” In this incident, God used hypnosis so that Adam felt no pain during the removal of his rib.

Paul speaks of going into a trance while praying in the temple (Acts 22:17). Peter “feel into a trance” and from that experience came to understand that God loves all people and accepts all people who come to him (Acts 10:1-18). Through the book of Acts, there are a number of references to the apostles looking into the eyes or gazing into the eyes which resulted in the person being healed (Acts 14:9-10). The practice of “laying on of hands” mentioned in the Bible uses some of the techniques of hypnosis (Acts 28:8).

The writer of Proverbs 23:7 said that as a person thinketh in his heart, so is he. St. Paul wrote, “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”(Gal. 6:7) This says to me that what is sown by the conscious mind through thoughts and images into the subconscious mind tends to become a reality. Mental images give the subconscious mind a model to work toward for good or bad. The use of positive imagery improves life and health. Until there is an image in the mind, there can be no reality. The author of Proverbs 29:18 also wrote that were there is no vision, the people parish.
Jesus said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because… he sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised.” (Luke 4:18) Following that guidance and the proper use of hypnosis, we can heal the brokenhearted, bring deliverance to those in captivity to pain, fear, and phobias; give sight to the emotionally and spiritually blind, and set at liberty those who are bound by unwanted habits.

Chaplain Paul G. Durbin, Ph.D._Chaplain (Brigadier General) United States Army: Retired 1989 Director of Pastoral Care & Clinical Hypnotherapy: Methodist Hospital, New Orleans, LA: Retired 2001 Director of Clinical Hypnotherapy: MHSF, Affiliated with Methodist Hospital: Retired June 30, 2005
You can contact me at pgdurbin@hotmail.com

Food is fuel. That doesn’t sound like a revelation, does it? I mean, we all know food is fuel, it’s what keeps us going through the day, builds muscles, powers our brains.

But think of it again. Food is fuel.  If that’s all that food is, why do we obsess about it? Why do we eat too much of it? Why do we put in types of fuel that our body neither wants nor needs?

Imagine if you did that to your car – can you picture yourself at the gas station, filling up, and then when the tank is full, you just keep on pumping, so that it flows out all over the forecourt. People would think you were crazy.

Or imagine taking your nice shiny sedan out to a farm and filling it up with thick, sludgy farm diesel – it would ruin the engine.  Yet that is what we do to our bodies when we overeat, when we cram in junk food with no nutritional value.

What has happened is that over the past 100 years our attitude towards food has been profoundly changed, mostly by the advertising industry.

It is estimated that the average North American is bombarded with up to 1500 food related ads per day, each of which is dedicated to the message that food is so much more than fuel.

Food is now a lifestyle choice, a status symbol, a reward, a pleasure, a comfort, a celebration, and it is, above and beyond anything else, an emotional experience.

So what happens if instead, you go back to believing that food is fuel? Two consequences run from that. The first is that you naturally stop overeating. The second is that the quality of the food that you’re going to choose will naturally improve. We’ll look at each of these in turn.

Overeating is something that we have learned.  We learned it because we long ago forgot that food was fuel, and just like your car’s gas tank, we need to stop before we overfill it.

Thus we learned to clear out plate, regardless of how we felt. We learned to eat our school lunch quickly, because we were in a hurry.  We learned to sit and stuff our faces while watching TV, because that’s what everyone else does.  But when you realize once again that food is primarily fuel for your body, you start to ask different questions – such as what are the best foods that are going to fuel your body and give you energy, and how much of them should you eat?

Are the foods you are eating giving you the energy that you deserve? Are they giving you the energy that you need to live the life that you want to lead?  When looked at in this light, you start to make very different decisions about food. It’s not about what you have to give up or do without, it’s now about what do you choose to eat to be the person you want to be.

So when you begin thinking about food as fuel, it’s not about beating yourself up over the things you have to stop eating, it’s about making new decisions about
-How good you want to feel?
-How much energy you want to experience?
-How alive you want to be?

When this happens, controlling your weight becomes a lot easier.

Healing Our Mirrors

Are you feeling disconnected or distant from those you love?  If yes, you could be trying to analyze this sense of emptiness in your relationships or judging others for pulling away from you.

If this is the case, it might be helpful to spend some time alone and explore these feelings.

You may find that your sense of disconnection is related to something that you are feeling inside you such as fear or an emotional block. You may even be the one pulling away from someone and projecting that action onto them.

Exploring these possibilities could help you see how the universe often uses people to mirror to us, our own fears so that we can resolve them.

By understanding that we usually create our own sense of separation and disconnection from others, we can learn to release our fear of being abandoned. When we begin to feel that our loved ones are pulling away and distancing themselves emotionally from us, we can choose to explore how we may be causing this separation.

If we discover that we are the ones who have been pulling back emotionally or pushing our loved ones away, we can take action to resolve the situation. The more we work on resolving our fears about being left by another, the stronger our connection to others will grow.

You can heal and strengthen your connections with loved ones today by taking a look inside yourself and exploring your own feelings.

Alcohol abuse especially binge drinking is a huge problem in our society, also many children have problems with alcohol.

Alcohol addiction is a life threatening addiction. If you are suffering from alcoholism EFT can help to control your cravings and address the root cause.

Alcohol is not your identity. Calling yourself an alcoholic keeps you an alcoholic. Become the person you want to be. What are the causes of your alcohol abuse. Did you start drinking because of stress at work, relationship failure or because you were depressed.

If you have problem controlling your drinking habit, then try EFT. Here you’ll find a list of phrases to tap on in controlling your drinking habit.

• I adore the taste of a cool beer
• I daily need a chilled glass of white wine
• I only drink for social reasons.
• I will have no friends if I don’t drink
• I don’t know where this alcoholism came from
• I have this alcohol addiction
• I really want a drink
• I feel I must have a drink
• I just need a drink to feel better
• All my friends drink alcohol
• I associate drinking with good times,
• I want to quit or drink less but don’t know how
• I can stop drinking anytime
• I can’t refuse that drink
• I can’t believe I will never drink alcohol again
• I don’t have a strong desire to stop drinking
• I can’t stop drinking because I have a lot of stress
• I don’t believe EFT can help me to stop drinking
• When I don’t drink alcohol I feel antisocial
• I need to have alcohol in my house
• I feel at ease when I have a drink
• I drink to forget my problems
• I like to get drunk
• When I drink
• I have more self confidence when I drink
• People like me more when I drink

Give it a try and let me know what you think…