Secondhand drinking, secondhand drugging – they’re as real as secondhand smoke. They are what happens to those who are on the receiving end of a person’s drinking or drug abuse behaviors.

What is Secondhand Drinking | Secondhand Drugging (SHD)

SHD refers to the negative impacts of a person’s drinking or drugging behaviors. It is what happens to the person who must cope with the arguments, the verbal/physical or emotional abuse, the physical assault, the sexual assault, the behaviors that occur in a blackout, the accident caused when driving while impaired. They occur when a person drinks or uses a drug in quantities that exceed that which the body can metabolize, which is what changes brain function, because the chemicals in drugs and alcohol interrupt the brain’s normal cell-to-cell communication system.

Secondhand Drinking | Secondhand Drugging – It’s as Real as Secondhand Smoke.
It’s what happens to those on the receiving end of a person’s drinking or drugging behaviors – like parental arguments rooted in excessive drinking.

I have had a great deal of interest, lately, about the concept of secondhand drinking, secondhand drugging (SHD), so I thought it might be helpful to pull together some previous blog post links on this subject. The term is meant to cause impressions similar to those people have when they hear “secondhand smoke,” a term that immediately brings to mind the impacts of a person’s smoking on others.

1. Secondhand Drinking Prevention
2. The Health Consequences of Secondhand Drinking | Drugging (SHD)
3. Understanding the Secondhand Drinking | Drugging – Codependency Connection
4. Protecting Yourself From Secondhand Drinking

Two other blog posts you may find helpful when trying to better understand and prevent SHDD are included below:

1. An Unsent Letter to Dad: the Impact of Secondhand Drinking on Children
2. Unfortunately Love is in the Brain, Not the Heart

Secondhand Drinking | Drugging and the Secondhand Smoke Connection

When, as a society, we took the focus off the smoker and instead focused on the new science that explained what a person’s cigarette smoke did to the health of others in its proximity, we had a sea change. Finally, people could understand another person’s cigarette smoke was the reason for their severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, heart disease or lung cancer. Just as things changed for people exposed to secondhand smoke when new scientific research became available, so too can things change for people exposed to SHD. Finally, people experiencing SHD-related stress can understand coping with a person’s drinking or drugging behaviors is the cause of their health conditions. These can include: sleep difficulties, migraines, anxiety, depression, stomach ailments, skin problems and many other health concerns. And like secondhand smoke, they can employ new [brain] science to prevent and/or reverse these impacts.

© 2011 Lisa Frederiksen

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Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

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