Update on my Radio Show!! WOW such good news

The show will be live on http://www.recoveryradiouk.com/ at 18:58, tune in and check it out!! WOW

Radio!!

Hi

So just a quick note to say that today I did a pre-record radio Demo for 'Recovery Radio UK' check it out at the attached link

Cheers

Love Karl

http://karl-w-newton.podomatic.com/entry/2015-08-29T07_39_03-07_00

Update on Me, Kick Starter Project & The Drink Problem Part 3 - Education & Treatment

At any given moment you have the power to say this is not how the story is going to end

So hi this is my latest blog post.  Quick update on me, ok so today marks 27 weeks since I gave up drinking.  Its also been 9 days since I came off the Antabuse medication.  Its been a tough week this week as I’ve had new anti-depressive medication kicking in and its resulted in a lowing of my mood and me feeling constantly tired and zapped of energy.  I also been through a breakup this week swell.  But I’ve still managed not to reach for drink so I guess I'm fairly proud of myself.  For some strange reason I still won’t give myself any self praise for achieving 27 weeks sober.

Even though I am now off the Antabuse I am going to be maintaining Sobriety.  As I have mentioned in previous posts some people are able to have just 1 or 2 drinks, enjoy it and walk away.....if thats you, I envy you, you swine!! you make me sick!. Why, because Im not able to, once I get a taste for it thats it i won’t stop until I pass out.

I’ve managed to get through this week by focusing on this blog and trying to do some other positive things.

One main problem that I have found since I stopped drinking is that for all its bad points, Addiction is a very time consuming hobbies.  Once you stop how do you fill that time?

The Kickstarter Project

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/487557470/to-create-a-recovery-bar-club-for-addicts

Ok so see the link above, I’ve launched a Kick Starter project.  The Concept? An Alcohol Free Social Venue with the same benefits of any other Pub/Bar/Restaurant/Nightclub, to offer a pressure free social environment for recovering addicts.

Ok so I want to create a bar and restaurant that may open till late evening and act as a normal bar/club but that will be exclusively alcohol free and somewhere for recovering addicts to socialise without the pressure of drink being involved.  It needn’t be exclusive for people in recovery anyone will be welcome which I believe will attract people who don’t really like drink, or that would rather save money on a night out and drive or indeed healthy minded people who don’t want to drink.  In essence people who would rather enjoy the fun of a night out and socialising, conversation etc without being intoxicated or dealing with a venue full of intoxicated people.

Would this be a dull boring venue though?

Not in the slightest!  We want to offer everything a ‘normal venue’ would i.e Live music, DJ’s, Comedy nights, sport, even Karaoke!.

Food wise we will offer a fantastic lunchtime menu with meat and vegetarian options and then a fantastic evening menu along the same lines, as well as a bar snacks menu.

Drink Wise, who says non-alcohol has to be boring.  We will be providing a top range of hot beverages such as coffees, syrup options & Herbal Teas.  We will offer a range of common soft drinks and special locally sourced organic soft drinks.  Our pride and joy however will be a superb Mocktail (Alcohol Free Alternative Cocktails) Menu.

We also will have a firm policy of employing (as many as possible) ex addicts to help them in there recovery with rebuilding their lives etc.  This will include in all roles from the kitchen, bar, front of house, entertainment, security etc and all ideas on the running of the venue will be as a team decision instead of a typical management decision based business, there for our staff will have a lot of pride in seeing there ideas and thoughts become a reality.  

Im also aware that some people recovering from addiction are maybe homeless or lack essential life skills or IT skills which are needed for so much these days like applying for jobs etc, so we will have a computer section which will act as an Internet Cafe but we will offer lessons and courses on a free basis for things such as cooking, life skills, IT and anything else there is demand for.

For all its down points addiction is a time consuming hobbies, so we will offer ways for ex addicts to fill there time, maybe like art, writing, craft groups etc and we would like to run an in house radio station swell which can be streamed to the world over the internet.  It will give us music within the venue during the day but will also give us a chance to train people in doing radio work which will give them confidence and something to do, as well as the focus of writing a show, pre creating interviews/features or jingles and then bringing it all together in a live show.

We also want to link up with local addiction services and be used as a venue for group based meetings and courses etc.  We will also run our own independent group session meetings as an alternative to AA and other services that some people may not be comfortable.

We hope people will help us get this project off the ground as I feel it could make a HUGE difference.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/487557470/to-create-a-recovery-bar-club-for-addicts

The Drink Problem

Part 3 - Education & Treatment

Ok, so it would seem through my research that there is very little in the UK eduction around Alcohol.  There is some eduction done for 15/16 year olds around the subject of drugs and sex etc.  I think given the impact that advertising, TV and social media and peer pressure plays these days that sort of age is far too late, I know I had my first drink when I was 14 for example, and Im sure Im not alone in that sort of fact.  Drug education is not a compulsory subject in schools, yet:

60% of schools say they teach drug education once or less a year.

59% of young people say they can’t remember having a drug education lesson in the last year.

63% of 11 to 15 year olds say they find teachers a helpful source of information about drugs.

96% of young people said they found drug education helpful in thinking about the risks associated with taking drugs. Mentor believes drug education in school is vital to help ensure young people have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to avoid the damage drugs can do. But drug education remains a weaker aspect of the curriculum. Pupils have higher expectations of what should be delivered, and teachers ask for national resources and guidance. Quality standards which schools can use are available in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The UK has none..

Patterns of PSHE delivery

The World Health Organisation reports that 73% of European countries have a legal obligation to include alcohol prevention in the school curriculum and just over half have national guidelines for the prevention and reduction of alcohol-related harm in school settings.

By contrast, the new National Curriculum for schools in England doesn’t mention alcohol at all. Despite the fact that England comes 9th for early drunkenness according to the most recent ‘Health Behaviours in School-Age Children’ report.

A recent mapping exercise we carried out as part of the Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service (ADEPIS) project found that the majority of schools provide an hour or two a year of drug education, which unfortunately won’t cut it when it comes to offering the kind of support that will make a real difference in young people’s lives.This guidance is aimed at teachers, school governors and practitioners with health and wellbeing as part of their remit working in education, local authorities, the NHS and the wider public, voluntary and community sectors. It may also be of interest to children, young people and their families.

The recommendations focus on encouraging children not to drink, delaying the age at which they start drinking and reducing the harm it can cause among those who do drink.

NICE recommendations include the following:

• alcohol education should be an integral part of the school curriculum and should be tailored for different age groups and different learning needs

• a 'whole school' approach should be adopted, covering everything from policy development and the school environment to staff training and parents and pupils should be involved in developing and supporting this

• where appropriate, children and young people who are thought to be drinking harmful amounts should be offered one-to-one advice or should be referred to an external service

• schools should work with a range of local partners to support alcohol education in schools, ensure school interventions are integrated with community activities and to find ways to consult with families about initiatives to reduce alcohol use.

Dr Gillian Tober, consultant psychologist and former president of the Society for the Study of Addiction, answers questions about treating addiction.

When is it time to get help?

The sooner the better. Some people say you have to hit rock bottom before you're ready to change, but evidence shows that the earlier the intervention, the more successful it will be.

What can friends and family do?

Whether you're a relative, friend or an employer, as soon as you detect a problem relating to addiction you should tell the person that you've noticed a worsening pattern in their drinking, drug use, mood or physical health.

If this is said in an accusing way, the person is likely to be defensive and will distance themselves. The more positive and constructive you are, the more likely it is you will be able to help the addicted person and get them into treatment.

The evidence for the benefit of support from people close to the addict is so strong that many specialist services offer treatment that's based on recruiting a network of family and friends.

It's important that the person with drug and alcohol problems is helped by people who are concerned, constructive, and who don't have problems themselves.

Who should the person go to first?

A GP can refer an addicted person at any stage, not just when they're willing to stop. GPs can give advice about sensible drinking and use their own surgery's resources, such as nurses or counsellors.

GPs may also recommend national helplines, such as Samaritans, and support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.

These groups help lots of people deal with their addiction. In addition, there are local NHS addiction units that will see people, even if they're not ready to stop. These units encourage people to talk about their addiction and try to change their motivation.

Find your local alcohol addiction service and find your local drug addiction service.

How is an addict treated?

Treatment is adapted to suit the individual. There are several treatments that are proven to work. These mainly combine talking therapies with medication. Cognitive behavioural treatments are typically used because they work very well with addiction problems. 

Treatment usually starts with getting the person with the problem to think about how they want to change. It's important to avoid condemning them. They need to believe they can do it and their life will be better as a result. 

Professionals will discuss how the addicted person sees their life in the future, what obstacles they feel they face in changing, and what will help them deal with those obstacles.

Then they can identify the situations the addicted person will find difficult and make plans to deal with those situations. Through this process they can set the target, which is ultimately abstinence.

Once you've identified the target and what the person needs to do to reach it, you set up all the resources available. Family and friends are an important resource. You want people who won't encourage the person to "just have one drink because it won't matter", but instead offer to take them to the cinema, for example.

When people engage in dependent behaviour, their whole lifestyle revolves around using and obtaining the substance, and dealing with the after-effects. Changing that lifestyle is a very big step. Often the hardest part is not stopping the addiction, but staying stopped.

How do self-help groups and residential rehab work?

Some self-help groups are extremely useful because they provide a network, often in the absence of family and friends. Groups are very useful for giving support during aftercare.

Residential rehabilitation helps many people overcome the initial phases of withdrawal and start making lifestyle changes that will allow them to continue in recovery.

Do self-help or home-based recovery programmes work?

Most definitely. People are more likely to find a way to recovery that suits them if there's a wide range of options available. People don't respond well when they feel they're being pushed into a corner.

However, a self-help manual can rarely replace being with supportive people in a social setting that rewards abstinence or control.  

Does recovery always have to mean abstinence?

For a minority of people with moderate drinking problems, a controlled drinking goal is possible. However, most people at treatment centres need to aim for abstinence. With heroin and cocaine, abstinence is the only option.

How does an addict guard against relapse?

Lots of ways. One would be removing or avoiding the triggers of addiction. Another might be making contact with new people who aren't in recovery and don't use drugs.

That's a big step to take, and some people advise the opposite, saying it's important to stick with people who are in recovery because they understand and can offer support. This is fine as long as they're supporting your abstinence rather than stimulating your addiction.

In the case of drug users, the people who recover successfully are the ones who change their drug-using surroundings. This can be very difficult, especially if their partner is a drug user (unless they change their habit, too).

It's also important for recovering addicts to change their activities so they have alternative ways of feeling rewarded, alternative ways of coping with feeling down or lonely, and alternative ways of having a good time.

Very often, people get into drug and alcohol addiction simply to relax and enjoy themselves, but then they lose control. When that happens, they have to find different ways to relax.

So that about concludes todays Blog Post, my next post will be up after I have had a few days break....Watch this space!!

- Watch your thoughts, they become words

  Watch your words, they become actions

  Watch your actions, they become habits

  Watch your habits, they become character

  Watch your character, it becomes your destiny

The Drink Problem - Part 2 Pricing and The Law

The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken

The Drink Problem

Part 2 - Pricing and The Law

So in this post Im gonna explore the problem around the pricing of drink and the licensing law.

Lets start of with pricing, its no secret that drink is so readily and cheaply available, with even the most struggling of pockets able to afford supermarkets own equivalent of alcohol.  Not to mention regular drink offers.  Lets do an example shop, Im going to visit the online stores of Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons and see just how well I can do on Lager for £20, below are the results, correct as of Thursday 27/08/2015.

Asda - 40 cans of Carling for £20.00 - 50p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

Sainsburys - 45 cans of Carling for £24.00 - About 54p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

Tesco - 30 cans of Carling for £20 - About 66p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

Morrisons - 40 cans of Carlsberg for £20 - 50p per can which is 1.8 units of Alcohol

The above is just an example using what I used to drink, but all the above also do cheap bulk offers regularly on all drinks. 

Now to look at the licensing law.  

The Licensing Act 2003 (c 17) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night refreshment. Permission to carry on some or all of these licensable activities will now be contained in a single licence — the premises licence — replacing several different and complex schemes. Responsibility for issuing licences now rests with local authorities, specifically London boroughs, Metropolitan boroughs, unitary authorities, and district councils, who take over this power from the Justices of the Peace. These authorities are each required to establish a Licensing Committee, which is to act in a quasi-judicial capacity under the Act. The powers of the Act came fully into force at midnight at the start of 24 November 2005.

Key measures contained in the Act include:

• Flexible opening hours, flexible opening hours for licensed premises, with the potential for up to 24 hour opening, seven days a week, will now be available. As well as the flexibility, the granting of these new type of licences is to be, for the first time, subject to consideration of the impact on local residents, businesses, and the expert opinion of a range of authorities in relation to the licensing objectives. This flexibility is intended to minimise public disorder resulting from standard closing times whereby many intoxicated individuals are all ejected onto the streets at once come 23:00, as well as encouraging less of a binge-drinking culture.

• Single premises licences the single integrated premises licence, bringing together the six existing licensing regimes (for alcohol, public entertainment, cinemas, theatres, late night refreshment houses, and night cafés) with the intention of cutting down on bureaucracy and simplifying such provision.

• Personal licences a new system of personal licences relating to the supply of alcohol is to be brought in. This will enable holders to move more freely between premises where a premises licence is in force than is currently the case.

So as a result of the above we now find in 2015 that most standard pubs open until anywhere between 23:00 and 01:00 during the week and maybe as late as 02:00 at the weekend.  Night clubs now open until anywhere between 03:00 - 07:00 normally only at weekends, and clubs will normally close between 01:00-03:00 during the week.

Not to mention convince stores and petrol stations etc which will sell Alcohol 24 hours a day, as well as a new craze of 24 hour beer delivery to your house.....such as http://www.24houralcohol.co.uk/london-alcohol-delivery

So this is it for todays post, take care, watch this space for further posts.

- The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are

KETCHUP!!

A little update on me.  So ok I came off the Antabuse over a week ago, which means within a few days or a week at the most it should be out my system, as such I have been able to get Tomato Ketchup again.  I have not been allowed it whilst on Antabuse because it contains Spirit Vinegar.  Its weird you never really know what you have till its gone and as strange as it may sound, I’ve missed abit of Ketchup on my Bacon Sarnie or my chips!! see picture below....YAY!!!

The Drink Problem - Part 1 Modern Society & Advertising

The Drink Problem

Part 1 - Modern Society & Advertising

The priority of any addict is to anaesthetise the pain of living and to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief - Russell Brand

In this blog post I will be exploring the role that Alcohol plays in modern society including how it is advertised and glamourised on TV and in Film etc.

In a way history has built up alcohol into the way it dictates modern society, here are some examples.  Every politician makes promises. It’s in their job description. But in the good old days, they offered something more concrete: Candidates handed out alcohol in return for votes.The practice dates back to ancient Greece and Rome, and it’s been recorded throughout Europe’s history as well. It then stayed around longer than you might think. George Washington’s first attempt at running for office (in the Virginia House of Burgesses) was a failure; on his next attempt, he won, after giving out about half a gallon of alcohol for each vote. A century later, the Republican Party elevated the idea, treating 50,000 of Brooklyn’s citizens to an alcohol-laden picnic. Some attempts failed, however, leading to important life lessons for 19th-century politicians. Stephen Douglas learned the hard way that if you’re expecting 20,000–30,000 people to show up for your party, make sure you have enough booze to go around. After the food and alcohol ran low at his New York bash, the whole thing turned into a massive pushing and shoving match. Voters went away still hungry and thirsty, and when they went to the polls, they voted instead for some man named Abraham Lincoln.  The New Testament is pretty explicit about approving of alcohol. Jesus and the Apostles all drank wine, and according to St. Paul, wine is a gift from God. Paul also said that wine should be enjoyed but not abused, and abstinence is better than alcoholism. While it seems like that should end all disputes on the matter, some Christians argue that the wine of the New Testament is actually non-alcoholic grape juice. They argue this even though the same Hebrew words describe Christ’s wine and the wine that got Noah drunk and naked. One of the first things the Puritans did in the New World was build some breweries, but some Baptist and Methodist groups call drinking and alcohol evil. Abstaining from alcohol is a big consideration in the Mormon belief system. Other groups, like the Evangelicals, have recently begun lifting bans on the consumption of alcohol in some of their schools—by instructors, anyway.  In ancient Egypt, from around 4000 B.C., writings reminded mothers to include a healthy serving of beer when sending children off to school. The idea that we needed to keep alcohol from younger generation started later, with Plato. In his Laws, written about 360 B.C., Plato described a soul having tasted alcohol as being made of fire and iron. Anyone younger than 18 wasn’t ready for the responsibility that needed to go along with enjoying this most godly of pleasures. He also outlined guidelines for how much you should drink. Once you were 18, you could certainly drink, but it was also important that you didn’t drink too much. By the time you were 40, however, you were free to honour Dionysus above all other gods. Alcohol would help you forget sorrow, renew youth, and soften the hard edges that came with age. Plato also went a step further in his Republic, saying that young men needed to be coached on how to drink properly. They should be trained at formal dinners about how to behave while drinking and what their limits were.  

The problem is we are bombarded by conflicting messages. These days alcohol, whether it’s a £25 Pinot Noir or a cheap can of lager, carries a health warning telling us to “drink responsibly” as well as information about how many units you can safely drink each day. Yet if you walk into pretty much any supermarket you can’t fail to notice the cases of beer stacked up, or the bottles of fizz with their pretty labels.

Jackie Ballard, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, agrees that it’s a mixed picture. “There is a growing group of under-25s who don’t drink alcohol at all, but there are also young people who binge drink on a regular basis. At the same time there’s an increasing number of people, particularly women, who are drinking at home.”

Ballard believes we have a “cultural difficulty” with alcohol. “If you go back 20 or 30 years smoking was normal, but if you look at TV soap operas today they’re all set in pubs which has this drip effect into people’s minds telling them that alcohol is something you need to have a good time, and I think that’s something we need to move away from.”

Debbie Bannigan, chief executive of national recovery charity Swanswell, says our drinking culture is changing, but not necessarily for the better. “Our traditional drinking culture was to drink occasionally but to drink a lot. “But over the last 10 or 15 years we’ve tried to overlay a continental drinking culture where we drink wine, and we’re now drinking on a daily basis. Unfortunately what we’ve done is create a daily binge-drinking culture.”

She feels that the ease with which we can get alcohol is one of the problems. “People used to have to go to the off-licence or the pub to get a drink, but now they can just pop a bottle in their trolley as they go down the aisles when they’re in the supermarket.”

People also use social media networks like Twitter and Instagram to normalise drinking. “There are hastags like #wineoclock that not only encourage people to drink, they encourage them to drink more of the time.”

It can also be hard trying to work out the number of alcoholic units you’ve had. “Most people don’t understand units because it doesn’t give them a visual reference. Not only that but the fact there’s a recommended number of units per day makes it seem like it’s OK to have a drink every day.”

We also appear to be drinking more than we’re letting on. Research published last month suggests that alcohol consumption in England has been underestimated by the equivalent of 12 million bottles of wine a week. The extra booze is swigged on holidays, at weddings, and during celebrations and isn’t accounted for by surveys that only ask questions about “typical drinking”.

All of which has serious health implications. Alcohol misuse has long been seen as a significant public health challenge; one that affects thousands of individuals, families and communities across the country and costs the NHS an estimated £3.5bn each year.

But there are a number of worrying trends and Bannigan believes many people don’t appreciate the health repercussions. “People often aren’t aware of alcohol-related illnesses like haemorrhaging, liver cancer and even dementia. Around 10 per cent of dementia is alcohol-related and we estimate there are about 80,000 cases of alcohol-related dementia in this country.”

The good news, she says, is that around 25 per cent of alcohol-related dementia is reversible. “If people realised they run an increased risk of dementia it could make them think about what they’re doing.”

When we talk about alcohol abuse we still tend to think in terms of social stereotypes, whether it’s the man on the park bench clutching a brown paper bag, or the binge-drinking teenager lying spread eagled on the pavement on a Saturday night.

Lucy Rocca, founder and editor of Soberistas, a social network for those concerned they may have a problem with drink, says we have a culture that endorses and trivialises heavy drinking. “The prevailing message seems to be that it’s OK to get hammered.”

But she points out that drinking habits have changed. “We’ve seen lots of pubs closing in recent years and there’s been a massive increase in drinking at home. Cut-price alcohol has made it easier to drink to excess in your own home, particularly for women because there’s still a stigma attached to women being drunk in public.”

She’s noticed other habits too. “It seems that younger people are drinking less and getting drunk does seem to be less cool among young people today, although social media might have played a part in that with people worried about getting drunk and having their picture taken.”

However, Rocca says other groups seem to be ignoring the health risks. “Older people and middle classes professionals haven’t changed and in some cases it’s getting worse. There will be a lot of people around the country drinking a bottle of wine a night and that’s hazardous, but they won’t realise it is.

“We’re also seeing the number of women going to hospital with breast cancer and liver disease increasing, which means the message isn’t getting across.”

As well as the stereotypes that persist she feels the issue of alcoholism isn’t always taken seriously enough. “Before Charles Kennedy died there were a couple of comments making light of his drinking problems.”

She wants to see changes. “The first step should be the Government sending out a stronger message saying that it’s not acceptable to drink to excess,” she says. “I think we should introduce minimum unit pricing and restrict alcohol marketing at major sports events. We also need better education, the message needs to be sent out so that people know what constitutes harmful drinking.”

Rocca also wants us to be more honest. “We have a tendency to defend our own drinking by highlighting other people’s problems, and I think we need to have a more honest conversation about how much we are drinking.”

HOW MUCH IS A UNIT?

We’re supposed to be keeping an eye on how much we drink, but how many of us know what a unit of alcohol is?

With so many different drinks and glass sizes, from shots to pints – not to mention bottles – it’s easy to get confused about how many units are in our drink.

According to guidelines, men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week, no more than four units in any one day, and have at least two alcohol-free days a week.

Women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, no more than three units in any one day, and have at least two alcohol-free days a week.

• A pint of ordinary strength lager (Carling, Fosters etc) = 2 units
• A pint of strong lager (Stella, Kronenbourg etc) = 3 units
• A pint of ordinary bitter (John Smiths, Boddies etc) = 2 units
• A pint of best bitter (Fullers, Youngs Special etc) = 3 units
• A pint of ordinary strength cider (Woodpecker) = 2 units
• A pint of strong cider (Strongbow, Dry Blackthorn) = 3 units
• A litre bottle of super strength cider (Frosty Jack etc) = 7.5 units
• A 175ml (standard) glass of wine = 2 units
• a 250ml (Large) glass of wine = 3 units
• A bottle of wine (12% abv.,750ml) = 9 Units
• A pub measure (25ml) of spirits (vodka,gin,whiskey,rum etc) = 1 Unit
• An alcopop (I.e Smirnoff Ice, Wkd, Hooch, VK etc) = 1.5 Units

And the effects of such......

• Around 2 units = Talkative and relaxed, self confident, may be over drink driving limit
• Around 4 units = Blood flow increases, feel inhibited but your attention span shortens, you start dehydrating one of the causes of a hangover
• Around 6 Units = Your libido increases, your reaction time is slower, your liver starts working overtime
• Around 8 units = Your easily confused, your noticeably emotional, your libido decreases
• Around 10 units = Your vision may be blurred, Wine drinkers will have downed the calorie equivalent of 4 Mars Bars, If you drive you are 20 times more likely to have an accident
• Around 12 Units = If you regularly drink this amount you may have an alcohol problem, Regular heavy drinking causes liver damage
• Around 16 Units = You’ll find it very hard to control what you say and do, You may feel nauseous, You may be at risk of losing consciousness
• 18+ Units = Strong likelihood of losing consciousness, You face an increased heart attack risk, You’re at risk of breathing in your own vomit and suffocating, You may be incontinent

According to the above I used to range between 20-25 units per day on a normal day, and on a weekend or party etc between 22-30 units per day, in both cases thats more then recommended I have in a whole week, so i was drinking 7 times the recommended limit a week for years on end.

We live in a society now where drinking is widely accepted and promoted and glamourised.  In fact, as I’ve found since i gave up drinking, if you are going out to socialise you are looked up on as the minority or the strange one if you are not drinking for no good reason such as illness or driving etc.  Most young people only go out into town on a night now to ‘Get Drunk’ rather then anything else and in most cases will be tipsy or drunk before they have even left the house.

Alcohol now days is glamourised majorly in TV adverts and shows and films.  Its always a positive thing when you see it, associated with good times and being cool, never in a negative light.  The only time it is done negatively is in drink drive adverts, but even then it doesn’t suggest “why not, not have a drink” to simply says “If your going to drink, don’t drive”.  In the soap dramas, you know Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Corrie, Eastenders etc, what is the focal point of everything in the communities, where they all go at the end of the day, where all the action happens, where the characters always celebrate or gather to socialise ‘THE PUB’ and always with Alcohol.  Now I'm only speaking from first hand experience but I'm sure its common in most households, I can always remember the soaps being on in our house growing up and i started watching them from the age of sort of 12/13.  If this is the case what is this teaching our children growing up? Soap operas are to blame for encouraging teenagers to drink, warns a report.  Some of the nation’s best-loved programmes including Coronation Street and EastEnders are littered with so many references to alcohol that they are a ‘major source of exposure’ for children and young people. The study  found 92 per cent of episodes contain some form of alcohol imagery including drinking, bottle branding and scenes in the Rovers Return and Queen Vic. Research also revealed drink was a recurring theme every nine minutes on terrestrial channels during the evening. Alcohol use was highest in soap operas, closely followed by feature films, says the report published in the Journal of Public Health.  The greatest amount of alcohol content was in the hour immediately before the 9pm watershed. The study, by researchers at Nottingham University and King’s College London, is the first for nearly two decades to document alcohol content during prime time on the five most popular terrestrial TV channels.  The researchers said: ‘Our findings demonstrate that prime-time television is a major source of exposure to alcohol imagery among children, and as such is likely to be contributing to uptake and consumption of alcohol among young people in the UK.  Tighter regulation of advertising and promotion of alcoholic drinks, including promotion through sporting events, has been proposed to reduce [such] consumption. We suggest that such measures should include television programme content as well as advertising, particularly before the 9pm watershed.  They added: ‘Episodes of alcohol branding comprised advertising, such as billboards, branded products such as bottles visible behind a bar or held or used in a scene and branded items such as umbrellas or clothing.’ The study examined more than 400 broadcasting hours between 6pm and 10pm, including adverts. The researchers said it was ‘surprising’ to see real brands of alcohol alongside fictitious branding in TV pubs. The study found that 92 per cent of soap episodes carried alcohol imagery compared to 86 per cent of feature films, and sport and comedy,  both 63 per cent.  

The study led Alcohol Concern to call for the appointment of an alcohol advertising regulator. But ITV spokesman Alison Sinclair insisted alcohol imagery in programmes is taken seriously ‘Real advertising brand names never feature and the focus is on the drama in a small community and on the dialogue amongst the characters in the pub as opposed to alcohol intake,’ she said.

BBC spokesman Joanna Allen added: ‘Any alcoholic drink bought or consumed by a character in EastEnders will always be a fictitious brand. Any use of branded alcohol is purely for background dressing.’  Also look at things like ‘The Simpsons’ a kids cartoon, in every episode more or less Homer goes to the pub and gets drunk and there is even an ultra cool character called ‘DuffMan’, all these things are making drinking look cool to kids as they grow up.  The other Sunday I went to a local pub to watch a football match on Sky TV at a lunch time.  In the area in front of the the TV there was about 100 people.  I would say me and about say 50 of the people were over the age of 25, there were then another 30 people between the ages i would say of 20-25, then there were about a group of 6 lads who I would say were not long 18 and then there were 14 clearly under aged kids, i would say they must of been aged about 10-14 years old.  During the adverts for during the TV footage i would say at least 1 in 3 adverts for alcohol, adverts that made alcohol look like a good thing.

To this blog post I have attached some images of examples of how alcohol is promoted as a good thing constantly.

This is it for todays post take care and check back soon for another post.

- Addiction isn’t about substance, you aren’t addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood that the substance brings.

My latest hard hitting blog post

Its not about how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts! - Zig Ziglar

MOST people would agree that some drugs are worse than others: heroin is probably considered to be more dangerous than marijuana, for instance. Because governments formulate criminal and social policies based upon classifications of harm, a new study published by the Lancet on November 1st 2010 makes interesting reading. Researchers led by Professor David Nutt, a former chief drugs adviser to the British government, asked drug-harm experts to rank 20 drugs (legal and illegal) on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society, such as damage to health, drug dependency, economic costs and crime. Alcohol is the most harmful drug in Britain, scoring 72 out of a possible 100, far more damaging than heroin (55) or crack cocaine (54). It is the most harmful to others by a wide margin, and is ranked fourth behind heroin, crack, and methamphetamine (crystal meth) for harm to the individual. The authors point out that the model's weightings, though based on judgment, were analysed and found to be stable as large changes would be needed to change the overall rankings.

So yesterday I was posted a blog post with stats on drinking in the UK.  It is apparent to me on many levels that drinking is a problem in this country.  One of the main problems that people highlight is ‘Binge Drinking’ and the state of our high streets and towns on an evening and weekend nights etc, pubs and clubs.  The consequences of which are not only hangovers to the individual drinking but also to the cost of policing and to the NHS.  I heard an interesting scope on this recently the person i heard speaking (i can’t remember who, sorry) said “It is often moaned about now days that there aren’t enough bobbies on the beat, that it takes ages to answer some calls during day time hours.  What if we didn’t need to use as many police on the binge drinking culture at night and in the early hours and could reallocate those officers to normal day time SOBER in the majority of cases crime.”.  Its certainly an interesting point.

Alcohol costs the NHS around £3.5 billion a year.  This is quite a costly stat, one which you would think the government would address, incorrect.  The UK government gained £14.6 billion in tax revenues on alcohol in 2014, put simply the government makes money out of binge drinking and drink problems, over £10 billion in profit!  Maybe this is why the government won’t pass law on minimum unit pricing of alcohol or review just how glamourised alcohol is on the tv in adverts and soap dramas etc.  Could this also be why education on alcohol misuse is not addressed propley, because maybe the government wouldn't mind if the kids of today also turned into binge drinkers and made them some more money?

It was the American Government that created the ‘Disease of Alcoholism’ to shift blame from ‘The Bottle’ to ‘The Man’.

I will be doing a further post looking more into how alcohol is glamourised in tv adverts, shows and in general in todays society.

Also in future posts I will be discussing an idea I have had about opening an alcohol-free restaurant/bar which can offer a lot of benefits to people in recovery, I'm currently waiting on the www.kickstarter.com profile for the project to be verified, once it is i shall write a post about the project with links etc.

For now take care.

-You can’t calm the storm......so stop trying!! What you can do is calm yourself, the storm will pass

Latest Post, including some facts and figures on alcohol, MUST READ very eye opening

Habit is Habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time - Mark Twain

This is my latest blog post, first of all lets do a quick update.  So since I wrote my last post i have become single again, me and the new GF just didn't work but again I've managed a disappointing break up without a drink so thats a good thing.  I have now come to the conclusion that the best route forward for now is to concentrate on me and my recovery and build myself into a shell of self happiness without seeking love and to simply let fate take its own action in good time, if indeed there is a girl out there destined for me and my crazy ways.  Also in my last post I was debating wether I should come off the Antabuse medication......I did.....I stripped away the comfort pillow.  I still have not had a drink so that is now 26 weeks and 3 days I have been sober.  I will not however be going back to drinking I am to remain sober, i know I'm not the sort of person who can just have 1 or 2 casual drinks and walk away so its better not to touch it at all and maintain sobriety.  

No one’s happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy- Ayn Rand

In todays blog I'm going to list some facts, figures and stats that i have researched about the extent of the drinking problem that we have in the UK at the moment.

• More than 9million people in England drink more then the recommended daily limits
• Alcohol is 10% of the UK burden of disease and death, making alcohol one of the 3 biggest lifestyle risk factors for disease and death in the UK, after smoking and obesity
• An estimated 7.5million people are unaware of the damage their drinking could be causing 
• Alcohol misuse costs England around £21n per year in healthcare, crime and lost productivity costs
• Alcohol is 61% more affordable then it was in 1980
• Alcohol is a causal factor in more than 60 medical conditions, including mouth, throat, stomach, liver and breast cancers, high blood pressure, cirrhosis of the liver and depression
• In the UK in 2012-13, there were 1,008,850 hospital admissions related to alcohol consumption where an alcohol-related disease, injury or condition was the primary reason for hospital admission or a secondary diagnosis.
• In 2012 there were 8,367 alcohol-related deaths in the UK
• Males accounted for approximately 65% of all alcohol related deaths in the UK in 2012
• Alcohol now costs the NHS £3.5bn per year, equal to £120 for every tax payer
• In England and Wales, 63% of all alcohol-related deaths in 2012 were caused by alcoholic liver disease
• Liver disease is the only major cause of mortality and morbidity which is on the increase in England whilst decreasing in other European countries
• Deaths from liver disease have reached record levels, rising by 20% in a decade
• The number of older people between the ages of 60 and 74 admitted to hospitals in England with mental and behavioural disorders associated with alcohol use has risen by over 150% in the past decade, while the figure for 15-59 year olds has increased by 94%
• Only 6.4% of dependent drinkers access treatment in the UK
• For every £1 invested in specialist alcohol treatment, £5 is saved on health, welfare and crime costs
• Alcohol-related crime costs £11n per year (2010-11 costs, England)
• A fifth (20%) of all violence in 2010-11 took place in or around a pub or club. This rises to 30% for stranger violence.  More then two thirds (67%) of violent offences occur in the evening or at night and 45% at the weekend
• Nearly a fifth (19%) of all adult binge drinkers reported committing an offence in the previous year compared with 6% of other regular drinkers and 3% of those who occasionally or never drank alcohol.
• There were 9,930 casualties of drink driving accidents in the UK in 2012, including 230 who were killed and 1200 who suffered serious injury
• Victims believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol in around half (47%) of all violent incidents, or 917,000 offences
• Men and Women prisoners who reported drinking daily drank an average of 20 units per day
• In 2012, 43% of school pupils (aged 11-15) said that they had drunk alcohol at least once
• 193 Males and 121 females between 15 and 34 years of age died from alcohol-related causes in 2011 in the UK
• The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions of 15 to 24 year old male patients increased by 57%, from 18,265 to 28,747 from 2002 to 2010
• The number of hospital admissions of 15 to 24 year old female patients increased at the faster rate of 76% from 15,233 in 2002 to 26,908 in 2010
• In a sample of over 2000 15-16 year olds from the UK, 11% has had sex under the influence of alcohol and regretted it
• Almost 1 in 10 boys and around 1 in 8 girls aged 15 to 16 have unsafe sex after drinking alcohol
• Every year in the UK, more than 10,000 fines for being drunk and disorderly are issued to young people aged 16-19
• Almost half of young people excluded from school in the UK are regular drinkers

I think some of these facts are quite shocking really, and i think it highlights not only that we need to address this drink problem which i will go into further in future posts, i.e the advertising and prices or alcohol and many more issues.

I think one major thing that we need to do is increase the amount of eduction done on the use and risks of alcohol and substances, especially as early as the 6th year of eduction, because i believe that we now live in an age that once kids hit secondary school the chances of experimenting with alcohol and substances especially through peer pressures is alot more common then it used to be say 10 or 20 years ago.  I not saying we should go in with a ‘just say no’ attitude as when kids are that age the more you tell them something is bad and not to do it, the cooler it will seem and they will naturally rebel.  We should instead simply offer them facts, figures and case studies, bit of shock and owe pictures and videos to simply give them the tools to make there own educated decision on what to do and also make them aware that if they run into problems there is help available and it is ok to reach out for it.

I will write more in my next post, for now share this blog around and spread the word if you would be so kind, take care

The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken

Tuesdays post, Antabuse and other things on my mind

You can never get enough of something that almost works.

Hi this is my latest blog post, firstly it has now been 25 weeks and 4 days since I last had a drink.

Tomorrow however is 'D Day' for me (or so i seem to be making it so) on making the decision as to whether or not i am ready to come off the Antabuse medication. I credit the whole of my sobriety so far to the psychol block that Antabuse has put on me, i.e knowing that if i have a drink it could make me seriously ill makes it easier not to reach for that drink. Although as my key worker has pointed out to me it has also took my own personnel strength not to say "feck the consequences im drinking anyway". Also no one held a gun to my head each morning and forced me to take the Antabuse, i could of easily thought im not gonna take it anymore so i know i can drink but i didn't, because i know i want sobriety and its for the best if i achieve that.

I am now starting to get stronger and i can't be on Antabuse forever, at some point im going to have to stop using that comfort pillow and do this myself. I am starting to feel that now might be that time, im due to see the nurse for another prescription tomorrow and i am in serious thought about whether or not to end the treatment of Antabuse then and take this flight solo.  From what i've been told i would still receive an emergency 2 week supply to 'break glass in case of emergency' and once took the pill would work within half and hour, so i suppose if a craving was ever really strong i could reach for that.  Im also very aware that there are meeting i can attend daily to keep strong through it as well as a number of contacts i have made at recovery who would be there for me if i needed them.

It going to be a tough choice to make and i will write later in the week about what i choose to do.

'At night its a drink, in the morning its medicine, ones too many but 100's never enough'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAWcs5H-qgQ&list=PLUvt2ON9yC0vFxrMqLqUXb9m8bZ5eeJDg&index=1

No pride or self love

no pride or self love

I’ve never seen anyone drink themselves smart, successful or happy. Most end up broke, bitter and alone.

The more I think now about who I am and was when I was drinking, to be honest, I’m ashamed of who I was.  I had no self-pride, I wouldn’t wash, put on clean clothes, wash my hair, clean my teeth, I was vile.  I would hide and cover up my drinking, I would spend my last penny on drink even if that meant depriving myself of food. I would let people down, I could never hold down a job or I would erratically quit jobs, I’ve even stolen from workplaces to fund drink before. I am deeply ashamed of who I used to be. I had no ambition, I didn’t care who I was or what I was doing and briefly when I was 18-20 I got into taking drugs aswell with drink when around a certain crowd, namely Ecstasy and Cocaine.  I moved away from Birmingham in 2004 to leave that crowd and the drug habit behind, although I never quit the drink, if anything quitting the drugs elevated drinking more.  The problem was I was a heavy drink addict and suffering from mental health issues and I did not give a shit about myself so I would pile any old shit into myself in the hope of numbing the pain and my racing brain for a while. It was around this time I was also heavily self-harming.

The problem with the above as I have now learnt (although I knew something was happening at the time) when you sniff cocaine on top of drinking, fuck me it’s incredible the high, the rush is incredible there are no words could describe how good it feels WOW. I’ve now found through research this is because when both drink and cocaine are mixed the body naturally releases something called Cocaethylene which provides an incredible high through a release of loads of Dopamine. ITS INCREDIBLE, the problem however then is nothing is like the first hit when you take that first line of cocaine and once it wears off you want more and you do more drink and cocaine to chase it, but you will never get it.  Once you stop your obviously going to get a down or a hangover, however when the 2 are mixed and Cocaethylene rears its ugly head this is the worse come down you could ever imagine its truly horrible, that bad you almost mercifully want to kill yourself just to end the suffering which is unbearable, and if a normal down from cocaine lasts a day or 2, this down lasts a week or 2!!. Honestly with the regular down from this and my mental health issues at the time I still to this day do not know how I didn’t manage to kill myself!

I remember once I went out with the bad crowd of mates and they had dragged me out as I was feeling down and on about killing myself, they dragged me out to try and stop me but I still felt like that so when I was offered a lot of drink I drank it, when they offered me ‘E’ Ecstasy pills I took them, and when I was offered lines of cocaine I did them. In the end I crashed and collapsed in the middle of the club and started fitting, then getting admitted to hospital and having my stomach pumped and being kept in on observation overnight.  I then lied to my family and told them I had been in hospital as my drink had been spiked with ketamine.

Once I left Birmingham in 2004 I never touched drugs again.

It’s now coming up to 25 weeks since I quit drink and I am starting to feel a massive sense of pride and positivity.  I am currently spending a lot of time studying addiction and I will be writing blog posts soon on my findings and research, stay tuned!!

My latest

Read this one, its all here this time!! lol

Hi welcome to my latest blog post.  Ok so this one again will probably be all over the place as my mind is jumping around in all directions at the moment.  Ok were to begin…….lets talk about the good old drinking days lol

Ok example 1, Cheltenham races day out 2014.  Ok so I went to the races for the day, my coach was leaving Birmingham at 9am, therefore I had to leave my house at about 8am, I woke up at 6:30am and had drank 2 cans of Carling lager before I left the house, washed down another can on the bus ride to the coach station and finished the 4^th can whilst waiting for the coach. 4 cans before 9am, winning, we then arrived at the racecourse ready to be let into the stands at 10am, first race was at 1:30pm some 3 and a half hours later and the first thing that caught my eye when through the turnstiles ‘Guinness Village’ Finally a village in which I care to preside, thankyou kindly lol.  Fast forward to 1:15pm and time to go trackside and place my bet and watch race number 1, me plus 8 pints of Guinness drank whilst adopting the whilst in Rome attitude whilst in the before mentioned Village. The cycle continued all afternoon of get a pint, place bet, watch race and repeat so by time the last race had finished I had drank a total of 15 pints of Guinness on top of the Carling breakfast. I could hardly stand up and was a complete mess, my mates were taking the piss out of me and the fact I was barley with it.  It was now time to find my prompt coach home, I couldn’t, I had lost it, nearly missed my ride home, god knows how but I found it somehow in the end and the journey home began, I slept the whole way.  When we got to Birmingham I woke up and got a second wind and went to my local to meet my Dad after he finished work and drank another 3 pints of Guinness before going home with a 4pack 2 of which I drank with a couple of Jack Daniels chasers.

Example 2, 1 fatal weekend whilst living in Rugby.  At this point I was DJ’ing Friday and Saturday nights in a venue in town until 1am, the gig was a bad one and led me to drink heavily which was about 12 pints of Carling and 4 Jagerbomb chasers, unfulfilled and upset after the gig I then went home and drank half a bottle of Jack Daniels before passing out at about 5am. I woke up at 10am still upset and intoxicated and decided to go into town to get some breakfast, I didn’t I went to a pub and drank another 7 pints of strong lager before 2pm with a couple of Jack Daniels chasers. I then went and met my mate at his work and was adamant on drinking further despite him trying to stop me. I eventually convinced him to come to another pub with me for dinner, I nursed a pint for an hour or so whilst falling asleep into my plate of food.

Before I gave up drinking earlier this year I was drinking daily and had been for at least 6/7 years. During the week or shall we say an average day, it would average about 6/8 cans of lager and some Jack Daniels chasers normally near bedtime.  Weekends or parties or socially etc it would be between 12/18 pints of lagers and lots of Jack Daniels or Jagerbomb chasers.

The above 2 are what might seem like grim examples but they were second nature to me whilst drinking and about as normal as someone going about their everyday business to me at the time.

I have now managed to go nearly 25 weeks without a drink, thanks hugely to the fact that I’ve been on Antabuse medication.  I am now strongly considering coming off Antabuse.  This does worry me as it is very much a comfort pillow but I am starting to feel strong and positive and I feel the time may be coming to take that next natural step.  I already know now that I am going to stay sober though as I know I cannot trust myself to just have a drink or 2 then leave it, I don’t work like that so sobriety is the best plan for me.

I have been chatting with my keyworker and others today and I have come to the conclusion that with this blog and all the studying im doing and the courses etc that I want to work within the field of Mental Health and Addiction.  At the moment I don’t know exactly where in terms of job role etc but I know I want to be in that sort of field of work which is the first time since school I have ever established a career I want to be within which is progress.  Soon I will be doing the Recovery Champion training course and then volunteering as a champion around the service for 6 months, after which the opportunity may arise for me to be signed off as a service user and be signed up as a working volunteer.  Once I do that for 6 months it opens the door/gateway to NVQ training, something which I will also be seeking to do at college etc or possible Open Uni, we have a plan, a route, a light at the end of the tunnel, MOTIVATION. Lets do it!

Scatty Rant involving Parachutes and Alcohol Free Nights Out!

Scatty Rant involving Parachutes and Alcohol Free Nights Out!

Hi, OK so advance apology because my mind is racing so this will probably be a somewhat scatty blog post lol.

Right first, parachute jump! Yes parachute jump, the act of throwing oneself out of a moving plane at altitude! How bonkers does that sound blimey! The thought of it alone scares the life out of me yet it is something I am considering doing for charity, namely the recovery charity that I use.  I’m trying to break down the fear to work out exactly what part scares me and would need attention. It strikes me the fear I have would be for the brief moments in which I would be free falling, that fear of what if the parachute does not open? Etc. I honestly feel once the parachute opened and I knew I would be landing in one alive piece I would probably enjoy gliding through the sky and taking in the sights!

The next thing on my mind is the fact that there is not a late night social venue in my hometown of Rugby, nor nearby Coventry furthermore to my knowledge Birmingham the so called second city, which is alcohol free. This to many sounds alien I’m sure but I feel such a venue is needed for people in recovery. Somewhere to go and have a good night out, dance, socialise etc without alcohol being a factor. Furthermore recovery and addiction aside from this there are just some people who don’t particularly like or care for drink and would love a social environment free of drink and drunk people. I spoke to someone about this recently and they said “what’s the point, you only go out to get drunk, why else would you go out?” This represents everything for me that is wrong with modern society, what happened to going out to socialise and meet people and dance rather than to just get pissed?

I’m going to leave you today with another quote I’ve come across which refers to addiction and I find to be very accurate!

‘You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town!’

Eduction, Modern Society & Complanecy

Eduction, Modern Society & Complanecy

This is my latest blog post, hello.  I’m starting to feel really motivated and positive about my recovery from alcohol addiction.  I have started doing a lot of research in to the cause of addiction and the psychology of addiction.

One quote I have come across which I feel is very accurate is

‘Drugs and alcohol are not our problem, reality is our problem, drugs and alcohol are our solution to that problem’

Furthermore the more I look into it the more I am not surprised that there is a drink culture in the UK at the moment given the way advertising glamorizes drink and always portrays it as a positive and good thing and drink has never been so easily and cheaply available. We have also allowed binge drinking to become a common and accepted part of modern society and now people who do not drink are seen as alien and the minority. I don’t blame all the above though as we are all people with our own minds with which we decide to drink, I do feel though that more should be done with the educational system to make young people aware of the damages drink and drugs can do to your physical and mental health, as such provide them with the correct information with which to make their own informed decisions when it comes to alcohol and drug use. Given how experimenting with weed or drink is getting more common now before kids have even left secondary education I would perhaps suggest introducing education as early as the 6th year of education.

The main problems I am finding at the moment is that OK I have achieved 6 months without a drink, that is a huge achievement given the levels I was drinking at and for how long that had been for on a daily basis, also I was using drink as a coping mechanism so to be able to find other ways of coping the last 6 months has been a battle and an achievement of which I must be proud. However with each more day of sobriety that passes the more I have to guard against the dangers of complacency and a lapse in my progress.  This scares me beyond belief to the point of no sleep and panic attacks at times. 90% of the work if not more is being done by the fact that I’m on antabuse medication at the moment without it I would of lapsed if not relapsed long before now for sure. I now find that I’m fearful of the day that I will eventually have to come off antabuse, I do not feel like I trust myself or have the strength not to reach again for drink.  I have now come to the realistic conclusion that I will never be able to drink again.  When I used to drink I could not simply have 1 or 2 and then leave it, I was all of nothing, once I got a taste I was in beast mode I would not stop until my body through slowly closing down organ by organ forced me to stop, given this I conclude there is no way I can risk even just 1 swift drink which may set me off on that course of self-destruction, drink for me was all and now for my long term physical and mental health, relationships, finances and much more it must be nothing!

Just to add

just to add!!

OK so just ever so briefly to follow up/add a footnote to today’s earlier post, I apologise if these blog posts are abit scatty and over the place or not regular enough. As a result of my mental health problems I do tend to have down days were I suffer from writers block or the words just won’t flow as much as I would like.  I will post as much as possible though as I do find it very useful and empowering.

Furthermore I am spending alot of time at the moment studying addiction and the psychology behind it and with that and my own personal development and reflection on past years my head is a mind field full of pages upon pages of things I wanna say and write about however I’m finding the hardest thing is to know where to begin sometimes and how to channel all my racing thoughts into constructive text lol.

Please though I urge you be patient and show love and support it will all be very kindly appreciated

Yours

Karl x