What Alcoholism Is?
 

This is a topic I've often thought about because there are so many different schools of thought out there, to start I'll list some of the more common ones :
1. A primitive brain issue.
2. A genetic predisposition.
3. A spiritual issue.
4. A disease.
5. An allergy.
6. A lack of God/Higher power in our lives.
7. A coping mechanism.
8. A moral weakness.
9. A mental health psychiatric issue.
10. A biological chemical imbalance issue (like hypoglycemia)
11. An OCD issue. (obsession/compulsion)
12. Self Treatment for psychiatric issues (anxiety/depression)
13. Self destructive ideation
14. Chemical addiction/tissue dependency

Those are just some that I could think of but logic would seem to indicate that you can't treat something if you don't know what it is you're treating. I understand that it could be a combination of several of the above but I doubt that it could be all of the above. One also has to consider that it can morph into a pathological (disease) state when it reaches the tissue dependency phase but it does not start out as such.

What I do find interesting is that a wide variety of treatment options seem to work. My inclination is that it is mostly a primitive brain and coping mechanism which evoloves into an addiction. But then why does a spiritual approach seem to work for many? Could it be that when a person gets "spiritually fit" they can more easily say no to the primitive brain (addictive voice). CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is yet another approach that works great for others. Science has even tried drugs that block the cravings and treat it that way. Many have quit using just this forum and knowledge acquired through reading about all the different approaches.

I guess the discussion would be just what is it that we're treating and what is the common thread in all the different treatment approaches if you see one. There must be a common thread if so many different approaches seem to work. Any thouights?

1. A primitive brain issue.

After drinking enough I had much in common with carp, or a weasel during deep hibernation. Depended on the night.

2. A genetic predisposition.

It's all the fault of a hairy little guy in Africa who kept sneaking back for the fallen fermented fruit after the rest of the tribe were all asleep at a decent hour.

3. A spiritual issue.

I found spirits can be ingested to correct spot deficiencies in levels.

4. A disease.

I caught 'drinker's elbow', and 'parking lot knees'.

5. An allergy.

Drinking addressed my more severe allergy to reality. If chicken soup is 'Jewish penicillin', would whiskey be 'Irish ampicillin'?

6. A lack of God/Higher power in our lives.

I prayed often while drinking...almost always in the same position.

7. A coping mechanism.

In general yes, however it did nothing at all for parking lot knees.

8. A moral weakness.

Wrong. It's AMORAL STRENGTH vs moral weakness. I was strong.

9. A mental health psychiatric issue.

Either drinking or going without drinking made people around me crazy. Not my problem.

10. A biological chemical imbalance issue (like hypoglycemia)

Ok, so I'll eat less glycerin. Never liked jello anyway.

11. An OCD issue. (obsession/compulsion)

That explains the irrisistable compulsion to do all those repetitive motions (pouring, raising the glass, dialing the one permitted phone call)

12. Self Treatment for psychiatric issues (anxiety/depression)

And I prescribed heavily, heh-heh.

13. Self destructive ideation

Apparently I was never going to allow myself to talk coherently with attractive women.

14. Chemical addiction/tissue dependency

What can you do? Some of my tissues demanded frequent alcohol baths.

I think the common thread is not drinking. Folks who have that genetic predisposition and allergy thing that has them crave more alcohol once they start drinking making it so that they can't stop or control it once they start shouldn't drink at all.

So the main problem is in the head, the mind - how to keep from drinking that first drink. The root causes and conditions of that mind thing seem to be the biggest differences - and even they don't seem to be all that great in terms of differences.

In my experience, I experienced the "phenomena of craving" the first time I drank booze at 15 years old. I do have moral weakness, undiagnosed mental issues, but moreover I believe in the "spiritual malady". Deep down, there's really an ungrateful, seflish creep driving me. With God's help, something better takes over and then I'm not so creepy.

I liked it too much... Then I couldn't do without it.

Occam's Razor.

Take your list and think of #1 as the root from which all other branches sprout.

IMO

It is an obsession for a substance that causes catastrophic consequences. Despite vomiting, loosing friends, careers, opportunities and hangovers we still crave it.

I kind of wonder if there might not be a degree of a placebo effect going on with a lot of the different treatment methods. I mean if you chant to the Sun Goddess for 4 hours a day and you really believe that this will cure you and it does but it turns out there is no Sun Goddess then was it really just the power of your belief?

How do we know there was no sun goddess ;)

People who try to figure out who, what, when, where, why or how are usually trying to figure out a way to NOT qualify. Either I'm alcoholic or I'm not! If I'm not, keep on drinking. If I am, stop trying to pick the fly poop out of the pepper and start trying to find a way to stop drinking.

Much too easy to get led down the primrose path if you don't question everything, that applies to most things in life.

On the other hand, I regularly and insistently I questioned my alcoholism - did I have it? what was it? why me? - for 20 years...and that got me nowhere Back.

yet we do it all the time here - and successfully. Amazing things human beings- defying logic :)

I'm not anti intellectual - but wanting to know the answers actually became a form of procrastination and inaction for me - the solution for my problems came from action, not rumination.

For once I'm happy not to know everything :)
just my .02

D

Well we need to have some idea of what we are treating for our handling of that thing to qualify as treatment. Otherwise it's just accidental happenstance. But as long as we recognize the signs and symptoms, we don't need to understand the underlying cause in order to treat it. Trial and error suffices, and we can distinguish between those treatments that work and those that don't work by taking note of which ones best reduce outward symptoms. As long as we can do that, we don't need to be aware of how they work "underneath the hood."

I suggest that it doesn't seem to work at all. Just because people believe they have been helped by supernatural forces (whether with alcoholism or any other malady, e.g. blindness, cancer, pneumonia, etc.) doesn't mean they are correct in their beliefs. In the mean time, I see no evidence to link belief in supernatural forces with success in quitting drinking.

Not sure what alcoholism is, but I think it's worth looking at things other than the scientific when speaking about it. Although the disease model is promising with hopes for a "cure" and an increased scientific focus on the physically measurable parts of addiction, it doesn't address the way alcoholism is experienced, related to, or recognized in the alcoholic. Not knocking the medicalized model, but just saying that there are aspects of subjective meaning that it can not address.

Different treatment approaches work for different people probably because of that subjective, meaning-making piece of the addiction puzzle. It seems like the people I meet in person (and read from here) with a lot of time found a way to take back the sense of self, or recreate it, to break with the past and relate to it in a different way.

There is no equation or standard directive for finding meaning or redefining the self because we can't locate "meaning" or "the self" in a physical body. It's not measurable in an objective way, like the brain is. It can only be communicated by sharing our lived experiences. Perhaps this is why AA, support groups, forums like this, therapy, supportive friends, family, church, work etc have such a healing effect.

If there is any common thread in the treatment methods it is probably that they aim to facilitate a long-term change in the alcoholic/addict.

Addiction "treatment” presupposes that if you become better adjusted, happier, and fill that "dark hole" in your soul, that you will somehow be less inclined to get drunk. Of course, anyone who has actually been addicted should know better. If you are addicted, you always want to drink, in sickness or in health, rich or poor, happy or sad, for better or for worse. Personally, I don't believe there is anything to treat, and the common thread among people who successfully recover from addiction is simply knocking it off for good.

TU, could you please expand on and clarify your meaning of always wants to drink?

There is a part of me that will always want to get that next drink, no matter what the circumstances. I believe you have referred to it as the "alcoholic mind" in your posts, but there are of various names for it. I don't believe this part of me can be "treated" away, not in the conventional sense, and I don't bother trying. Instead, I have locked it up and ripped the handle off the door.

I think what TU is getting at, without wanting to kick the hornets nest too much, is that by labeling alcoholism as a disease/some sort of lacking in your personality etc. sets you up for a relapse in the future. When you realize that it is merely your brain seeking pleasure, then you learn to control the desire to drink, life moves on.

(edit: TU beat me to it)

Yes, the alcoholic mind. Yeah, locked up and ripped the handle off the door, lol, I hear that! :)

Awesome stuff. Thanks, TU.

My chronic alcoholism is indeed an illness of mind, body, and spirit -- and not merely my brain seeking alcoholic pleasure. I cannot control the desire to drink. The desire to drink has been removed from me or otherwise made powerless [locked up] because of my sobriety. My alcoholic mind is shut down, and my sober mind is alive and well.

As well, I don't accept that alcoholics relapse because of character defects or otherwise lacking in quality of personality. Relapses are made manifest from living a life which supports and nourishes alcoholism instead of living a practical common sense sober non-drinking life. For me, that sober life also includes living spiritually. :)

I get where yer coming from.....but I also get where Music is coming from (and I agree with him too).

I wasted (maybe it wasn't wasted...I dunno) a lot of time trying to figure out why I was alcoholic, how I "got it," when crossed the line from the normal drinking I did in college to the alcoholic drinking I did in my late 20's and 30's, what "made" me alcoholic....

What I was doing was really what Music was pointing to.....trying to find some evidence that would prove to me that I didn't need to be in AA, work the steps, and rely upon anyone but myself and my mind to recover.

I had to get with "acceptance" first....big time. Once I finally accepted that I was alcoholic and accepted that I also had alcoholism.....then I could set out on a sound path of recovery. From that new path......sure, I question things. Every time I go back through the book and the steps with a sponsee or on my own (with a sponsor) I almost always start out with the tiny notion that maaaybe I'm not an alkie anymore.....lol. It usually isn't more than a couple pages into the book though, that I'm convinced....once again....that that's precisely what I am - and that allows me to refocus on "what I'm going to do about it."

I don't see anything wrong with questioning......I think it's healthy to a degree. For me though, if the questioning is my primary focus.....and recovery takes a back seat........well, recovery takes a back seat. For an alkie of my type, recovery has to be my primary focus and the questioning has to be secondary.