Women and Men with Alcohol Problems Begin their Healing In Sorrento Mesa

How can you tell if you have a problem with alcohol?  After all, it seems as if alcohol is served everywhere in La Jolla, Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Rancho Santa Fe, and Mission Hills, even at the spa and beauty salons.  Alcohol is served at parties to celebrate your local soccor, basketball, football, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Indian Princess activities. Co-workers and business associates in Sorrento Valley, La Jolla and Downtown San Diego,  attorneys throughout San Diego County, get together for dinner and drinks, create events such as wine clubs and wine tasting parties for fundraising or social events.  Opportunities to drink alcohol are scattered throughout communities in San Diego.

If you are questioning your drinking and if you work or do not work, are a parent or not, here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself:

• Do I want to go to the activity because alcohol is going to be served, or because it usually becomes a big drinking event for me?
• Do I have a rule for myself about drinking and driving with my children or their friends in the car?  Have I ever broken that rule, or thought about breaking it, just one time?
• Am I isolating with my alcohol or prescription drugs in my room, while my family is being together and doing homework, talking or watching TV?
• Am I isolating with my alcohol or drugs and not returning phone calls, avoiding friends and family because I would rather come home from work, get comfortable and drink my alcohol, alone, with no one bothering me, except the cat?
  
• Do I wonder if my alcohol and drugs are really more important to me than my partner/spouse/chidren, even though I hate to think like this?
• Do I hide bottles in trash cans that belong to my neighbor  or drop them off in different neighborhoods so I will not be discovered?
  
• Do I go to different liquor stores so the clerks will not ask me why I was just here buying alcohol yesterday, or earlier today?
• Do I usually defend my alcohol purchase by saying that I am getting ready for a big party - usually with myself, however I do not say that.
• Do I think I might have some physical pain this weekend, so I call the doctor and lie about my current level of pain so I can get a refill from the pharmacy for my favorite prescription medication?
• Have I ever gone to see doctors including than my primary or family physician, trying to get a prescription for tranquillizers or opiate pain medication, knowing I would drink alcohol with the pills? 
• Have I ever thouight maybe I was addicted to alcohol or to the prescription drugs?  

If you would like to do an online assessment, go to our home page and find alcohol and drug assessments. Or call our office at 858-453-4315.

Only you can decide if your drinking or drug use has moved from social use, to early or middle stage addiction.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D., MFT, CAS

Relapse Prevention Treatment for Addicted Women in San Diego County

How many times have you said to yourself that you were not going to drink or use drugs again, then found yourself with a drink, a line or a prescription bottle in your hand?  Many women discover that the relationship they were in during their alcohol and/or drug use, or a new relationship begun in early recovery,  is a trigger for relapsing. Letting go of the relationship with alcohol and drug use is essential to recovery. For most people who have addictions, the substance is number one relationship in their lives, and people, including spouses, children, and parents become number 2.   The number one relapse trigger for women who are trying to remain free of alcohol and drugs, is a relationship difficulty.  If your drinking and/or use of drugs was connected with a difficult relationship, get some support from others who understand the strain addiction has on  relationships and marriages.  

Research has shown that alcohol and drug treatment for women is most effective when learning includes an understanding of the development of codependency in relationships. Women often value pleasing and seek approval from others, over their own self care and sobriety. Alcohol and drug treatment for women in groups with other women, help to build self esteem, boundaries and increase effective communication with others, the essential foundation for long term quality of life issues. Family education and family therapy helps family members also understand the effects of chemical addiction on their side of the relationship with the chemically dependent woman, and to make changes for healthier communication patters. Listening and being heard and understood are the hallmarks of creating intimacy in relationships that has been robbed by the addiction.

Depression and anxiety are common co-occurring problems with women who seek treatment for alcohol and prescription drug dependence. An effective treatment program will help women to understand distortions in thinking and feeling states impacted by alcohol and drugs.

Lasting Recovery will help you make the changes you need to get your life back on track. If are unable to help you with the range of services we offer, we will refer you to the wonderful resource network of other providers and centers that will be able to be of service to you.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D., MFT, CAS

Women Alcohol Drinkers Face Breast Cancer in San Diego County

Ladies and Girlfriends, be aware of what you consume!

The official word the UK Department of Health, as reported in Joined Together, a service for the latest information on alcohol and drug dependence and effective treatment, reports that women who drink regularly face an increased risk of breast cancer by 50%.

The BBC reported recently that women who consume more than 14 standard units of alcohol weekly raise their risk of developing breast cancer by 50 percent. A standard unit is 5 oz, or about 5 glasses of wine per standard bottle. The majority of women drinkers,who live in Carmel Valley, Mission Hills, La Jolla,  Rancho Santa Fe, and Del Mar, who come to intensive outpatient alcohol treatment to receive treatment and recovery, have reported drinking from 1-2 bottles of wine in an evening, adding up to 10 standard units at one sitting!

If you or someone you love is drinking 3 or more bottles of wine in a 7 day week, the chances of breast cancer risk increases by 50%.

With stronger wines being poured into bigger glasses these days in bars and restaurants, a single glass of wine can contain up to 3.5 units of alcohol. Most women don’t realize how much they are drinking.

Experts say that alcohol use causes about 2,000 breast-cancer cases a year in the U.K. How many cases in the U.S. are related to drinking?

If you are a woman and would like to cut down on your alcohol intake, give us a call. Helping women to live healthy and productive lives is our mission.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D., MFT, CAS

Outpatient treatment for women who love wine in San Diego and Carmel Valley

According to a recent British survey, 8 out of 10 bottles of wine consumed at home are purchased by women. Drinking wine has replaced the social connection of having a cup of coffee with friends.

The problem is that women do not think drinking wine 3-4 times a week is a problem. Most women who call an outpatient alcohol and drug treatment program for alcohol treatment are dependent on wine.

Wine is packaged and sold throughout grocery stores, and many women think it is a food item. Wine is displayed in the vegetable section, the bread and bakery section, the candy section, end aisles, front aisles, the potato chip section and all sections in between. It’s no wonder that women in Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Encinitas, La Jolla and Scripps Ranch purchase and drink it. Consumers are seduced by hundreds of millions of dollars spent in research and marketing by the brewers to get the women to pick up the bottle of wine.

I have heard college educated women say that they could not have an alcohol problem, because they only drink wine. They think alcohol is a food group. And it is not.

Yet women are frequently drinking and isolating at home, becoming more depressed and anxious, and feeling more and more lonely. Why the loneliness? We have given our personal power over to the substance in a bottle. We think it will change our mood state and give us a euphoric feeling, yet the downside is that we become depressed and anxious, feeling guilty because we cannot keep our commitment to just have one or two drinks.


Women often have a 2 drink rule. If a women has a problem with being unable to consistently control the amount and effects of alcohol, feels urgency to drink and sneaks or hides alcohol, she could be in the early stage of alcohol dependence.

Two drinks does not seem like it provides effective emotional effects, e.g. a mood change, and a sort of compulsion takes over. The needs of the body to satisfy the growing physical and psychological need for alcohol, undermine her thoughts, emotions and behaviors. In this case, women cannot consistently control the amount of alcohol they are drinking and the 2 drinks turns into 6 or 8 drinks, an overload to the mind and body.

Drinking alcohol whether it be wine, beer, vodka or whiskey, while ignoring the feedback from others that the alcohol is a problem just adds to the confusion and need to drink more.

If drinking wine is beginning to be a problem for you, call us for outpatient alcohol treatment, where you can attend during the day, from 10-1pm, or evening from 6-9pm. Take the steps now to get back your health. Now is the time to decide and act.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D., MFT, CAS