What do you all think of this, i hope ok to post a link!
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 7
I've been sober a long, long time, but I found the article about Olivier Ameisen very interesting. He pretty much summed up my condition in describing his own as 'a chronic underlying distress..' I have always seen my predilection to drink excessively as a means of easing this rigidity in my emotional and physical body.
Very early on I was told by somebody that they thought I was traumatised, but I poo pooed him. Time has told me that he was right. My work with other alcoholics over the years has led me to conclude that many alcoholics were self-medicating to ease the symptoms of trauma. What Dr Ameisen discovered was that using a drug that worked as a muscle relaxant, also gave relief from this unconscious rigidity. And since that was the effect he was seeking from alcohol, he no longer felt the imperious urge to drink.
We alcoholics can be a very conservative bunch and are too often stuck in our ways. I think that any new insights in treating this condition should be welcomed.
Very early on I was told by somebody that they thought I was traumatised, but I poo pooed him. Time has told me that he was right. My work with other alcoholics over the years has led me to conclude that many alcoholics were self-medicating to ease the symptoms of trauma. What Dr Ameisen discovered was that using a drug that worked as a muscle relaxant, also gave relief from this unconscious rigidity. And since that was the effect he was seeking from alcohol, he no longer felt the imperious urge to drink.
We alcoholics can be a very conservative bunch and are too often stuck in our ways. I think that any new insights in treating this condition should be welcomed.
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 14
Originally Posted by FightingIrish 
If there were a cure for Alcoholism, I would definitely take it, because then I could drink all the time...
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: On the beach
Posts: 163
Snufflehog, i agree, & think anxiety can be a chronic underlying distress & i know thats why i drink, to escape anxiety, but know the vicious circle & that stopping drinking will cut my anxiety/paranoia/irrational thoughts etc!!
I take valium & in large doses i don't want to drink, but i'm so sleepy, so maybe a muscle relaxant like Baclofen would be useful but as my doctor at the substance misuse centre says, they can't prescribe it yet until further tests!
All i have as an option is the Chlordiazepoxide hosptital or community detox followed by Acamprosate.
Will have to wait & see about Baclofen.
I take valium & in large doses i don't want to drink, but i'm so sleepy, so maybe a muscle relaxant like Baclofen would be useful but as my doctor at the substance misuse centre says, they can't prescribe it yet until further tests!
All i have as an option is the Chlordiazepoxide hosptital or community detox followed by Acamprosate.
Will have to wait & see about Baclofen.
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 7
I would never see Baclofen or any other pill as a cure or solution to the underlying dis-ease. I just think we need to hold fire a bit before rejecting them out of hand. They might offer those who have tried and failed to 'get it' in AA a lifeline. I think we need to make a bit more room for manoeuvre, that all.
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