RevivingOphelia

I came across this statement on SR and would like some input from all you fabulous folks.

In your opinion, is this true?

Please expand upon your response as you feel fit.

Gottalife

Yes, the allergic reaction to the ingestion of alcohol manifesting as a craving never occurs in non-alcoholics. It must be understood that we are talking about an overwhelming craving, well beyond the ability of the alcoholic to control.

RevivingOphelia

Interesting. May I ask from where this belief stems? How do you know this? Anecdotes? Evidence? I am really curious!

p.s. You didn't vote!

Gottalife

Silkworth and Jung, both experts in this field, experience, medical advice, recent statement from the head of our national addiction center, a professor of psychiatry. Common sense - how probable is it that a perfectly normal person would, upon taking a drink, have a random overpowering craving to drink alcohol until they dropped?

RevivingOphelia

I'll have to google some Silkworth and Jung (etc.). Thank you offering some support for your assertion.

Just one thing--the poll didn't actually ask if people crave to "drink alcohol until they dropped." My cravings, in fact, aren't to drink until I "drop"--they are to drink until I reach a nice level of ummm...saturation?...a level of drunkeness that does not include passing/blacking out (i have no cravings for those!). Although that did happen, it wasn't/isn't part of the craving. The craving was for the HIGH/the RELEASE--the temporary state of non-feeling.

I am curious if folks think non-problem drinkers experience the urges and cravings that we on SR experience. I just am not convinced that every person who CRAVES some drinks is an alcoholic. Shrugs. Makes for a good discussion maybe.

babycat

I think it depends on what the word "craving" really means. There are varying levels of a craving to me.

visch1

Hi. In part most of the time that I drank was for the desire to escape my feelings. Usually after the first drink the compulsion took over and I got the I don't care feeling which was what I wanted but without the side effects. With the help of the people in AA that desire was lifted within a short period for which I'm grateful. BE WELL

flutter

I don't know.. I crave a lot of things I'm not addicted to. Being an alcoholic, I don't know what it feels like for a non-alcoholic. I hear all the time "I need a drink!" and the person really does only have ONE drink. Sometimes I crave a food, or a book, or activity, but I don't know if it's 'craving' or just a want. I'm getting too hung up on the word I think LOL

miamifella

I think this question is about semantics and not really the point.

How many times on this site and others have I been told that addicts to not crave their drugs only alcoholics can crave their substance. I guess if you want to narrowly define words, one could say that only ice cream lovers can love. If you are not an ice cream lover describing your feeling toward ice cream, then you are misusing the word "love."

In ordinary terms, everyone craves things. And yes, there are times when non-alcoholics can crave a drink. But after they have one the craving is gone.

mfanch

Craving is caused by chemicals. It is physiological. It can be caused by a multitude of things. The craving for alcohol is only one of many. I had many myself, for: opioids, booze, men. I couldn't NOT indulge them before I took the 12 steps. The steps work on ALL my addictions and relieve all my cravings.

RevivingOphelia

Yes, semantics do play a part in many questions that arise in life, don't they? I still think there may be a "point" to asking things if one is curious--regardless of the myriad of interpretations embedded within the connections between vocabulary and experience.

As I wrote earlier, on this site, someone wrote that the craving for alcohol is manifested in only alcoholics. I did not define the term, or explain my interpretation of a "craving," but merely wished to learn if people agreed with the statement I came across last night--in whatever way they interpret it. If they wanted to elaborate, all the better.

Thank you for your participation.

Joe Nerv

I think you can rest assured that the person saying that was wrong. I don't even think there's anything to argue here.

I keep using my wife as an example. She's the best non alcoholic I know. She has a few drinks a year, at best. There have been times she did, because she craved it. I generally don't eat processed sugar, but from time to time I crave it. I am not addicted to sugar. I can't tell you how many times I've heard some non alcoholic say, "I could really go for a beer right now". I'm sure everyone here has. My other favorite non alcoholic, my mom, I'm sure I've heard say, "I'm really craving a brandy alexander!" And my mother drinks about as much as my wife does. I've never, EVER even seen her drunk.

The reason someone might say it only exists in alcoholics is because of the quote in the BB that says that there is a "phenomenom of craving" that exists in the alcoholic. That phrase has become a staple in AA lingo, and I believe people feel a sort of protectiveness about it. It is my belief that something about that helps them to affirm their alcoholism, and hold onto their sobriety. Can't really speak for them, but the power in which I hear the words regarding "craving" and the "physical malady" which alcoholism is, leads me to believe I speak truth here. While I realize it's only opinion.

My poll vote shall now go to nay.

sugarbear1

I'm an alcoholic and I had cravings.

I can't speak for the nonalcoholic, I don't comprehend that kind of drinking!

RevivingOphelia

Thank you for the input, everyone!

ElegantlyWasted

I think with something like this you have to be verrry careful as to how "Alcoholic" is defined. I would hit up a clinical researcher for a breakdown on the hard science behind cravings and their relative degrees in an "Alcoholic" vs someone who is not genetically predisposed (A normal heavy drinker who has had no consequences related to consumption). There are so many variables that effect the craving phenomena that so many opinions are relevant, but may not apply to a specific case. I think modern medicine had taken craving symptoms beyond the realm of mere opinion, in that there are tendencies and probabilities that hold very firm as to the nature and character of an clinical alcoholic's craving vs those who are not and have cravings related to the chemical dependency aspect of drinking. Just my take from the reading I've done.

casavpa

Chronic alcoholics drink, not only because of their addiction, but also because of their life circumstances. Binge drinking could be for pleasure or pain!

caboblanco

I thought the "allergy theory" was just some AA nonesense. You claim that Carl Jung had part in this theory. Ill have to google that

Pete55

Craving is physical, what happens inside my head is mental obsession, think about it for a moment.

Dr Silkworth does not say they had a craving then took a drink.

( Quote from BB 1st edition)

I voted "I don't know" because I don't know how another experiences alcohol.

On the medical side of physical craving when medical science advance, Dr Silkworth's theory was proven correct. Somewhere I posted it, it indicated that the enzymes from the liver and pancreas required to metabolize alcohol, are not there in quality and quantity.
This slows down the rate of metabolizing alcohol and it's at the acetyldelhyde phase that produces the craving for more.
This then seems is what separates us from the real alcoholic and the non alcoholic.

My out of control drinking had lots of "quality" and "quantity" !
This progressively became worse.
The obsession became greater to, I obsessed that "it won't happen again when I go out for a "quiet drink".
In my situation, there never ever ever was a "quiet drink", I do not know what it is like to drink normally because I have never experienced it.
One drink or the 2nd and it's party time, it's not easy having a party all on ya own in a over-night drying out prison cell and not remembering, or hazily remembering how I got there. All I know is I had a invitation to front up to court for drunk and disorderly charges the following week.

miamifella

Actually, Silkworth's theory has been disproven more often than proven. There is obviously a physiological component in addiction to any substance or behavior.

Silkworth's theory is generally discounted--but so what? The point of the Big Book is to help alcoholics not to accurately record scientific and historical data. Whether Silkworth is true or not in his theory really changes none of the essentials. He was certainly right in positing a physiological element in addiction. If he got the details are right or wrong does not change the larger message.

Fallow

My wife is a normie. She craves\wants\desires\needs\likes a drink sometimes. She looked at me the other day and told me she did not think she would be able to quit drinking entirely like I have. This is coming from a woman who drinks half drinks, leaves the other 3 glasses of wine in the bottle to go bad, and says she misses me bringing home dark beers that she could taste. She craves a taste of dark beer but she will never actually go to the store and buy any