A bizarre alcohol story. Anyone ever hear of anything like this...
 

I'm not that close with either of my 2 brothers (for no good reason), but we're working on it as my parents health is beginning to fail and we're starting to pull together a bit. Anyhow, my younger brother who I pretty much see only on holidays, has been living with a woman for about 25 years now that is/was without question a raging alcoholic. I don't think I've ever seen her not drunk. My brother has admitted she gets drunk every day. She has some other issues along with the drinking, and in my mind she was pretty much a hopeless case. The kind that wouldn't even consider sobriety as a way of life.

About 8 or 9 months ago she had some surgery, and around the same time had a drunken accident. My brother has been telling me that she stopped drinking around that time, and I didn't really question him, as I didn't entirely believe him. I figured it meant she's just drinking less, but I spent 2 days with her, xmas eve and day - and what he said is true. She's not drinking. I didn't talk much with her because we're sort of on different planets, but I questioned my brother afterwards. I will absolutely question her now that he's told me what he has.

Basically, she bought some 115 proof alcohol, and was getting toasted on it a few nights in a row. On the final night, she slipped, hit her head on the refrigerator or something, and was out cold for what my brother says seemed like an hour but then admitted was probably less than a minute. He claims, and I believe him now, that she never had another drink after that.

We got together today as he helped me wax a new Kia Soul I just purchased (YAY! :)), and I asked him lots of questions. As I said, she's got a lot of other issues going on, she's under several doctors care, and she has her neurologist concerned. She hasn't undergone any major personality change, but my brother says there are certain foods she won't eat any more (ones she used to love), and there are a few other differences in her interests, likes and dislikes going on.

Bottom line in all this, as insane as it sounds, is that a trauma to her head seems to have destroyed her desire to drink. I was hesitant to post this because I myself am having a difficult time believing it, but I'm not in the habit of BSing, and there would be no point in my doing it with this story. I haven't googled it yet, but I'm curious if anyone here has every heard anything of the sort before.

While I didn't see this (I would have probably intervened), my brother said she actually tried to have a glass of wine at one point during dinner. She smelled it and said she couldn't. The smell nauseated her. Wasn't like an, "I don't want to drink thing". Was more like an I can't drink, the idea makes me sick.

That's all I got here. Thoughts?

Sounds like a miraculous silver lining to the accident.

Hope it lasts :)

It's an intriguing idea, and I've read stories about people changing personalities and accents and acquiring addictions after certain kinds of brain injuries , so it's feasible...

but it could also be as simple and down to earth as my own epiphany.

If you remember my story I was an all day drinker, had been for several years.

I ended up hitting my head several times over the course of two days, had a brain bleed, and some mini strokes...

I decided then and there I wasn't ready to check out yet, and that I better sort myself out.

Haven't drunk from that day to this.

It's not as good a story I'll admit. I'm not expecting the dee telemovie anytime soon :)

I don't recall anything else instantly changing tho, with regards to likes and dislikes, or personality.

D

I wish it were that easy for everyone. I've heard a few stories of people having an epiphany and never having a drink afterwards but more in the finally resolving something way, not head trauma.
I wonder if she didn't just scare herself into sobriety? Is your brother comfortable with her being sober? It can alter the roles in a relationship.

Yes. Your post didn't at all surprise me. There are documented cases of such occurrences, though not all about becoming resistant to alcohol. Many years ago, for example, some guy who was suffering from severe bipolar depression accidentally shot himself in the head while cleaning his shotgun. He never suffered from mania or depression after the incident.

People have been known to lose their sense of smell and taste after fighting a virus or bacterial infection, and also after suffering a closed head injury, sometimes losing their taste for previously favored foods, and acquiring a taste for foods they never liked. Of course, there are many stories about dramatic personality changes following head injury as well.

I don't recall all the specifics, but many years ago I read about a guy who was suffering from Korsakoff syndrome (wet brain). He was a miserable drunk prior to the onset of the disease. After losing virtually his entire long-term memory, he appeared to be happy and well-adjusted emotionally. And he lost his desire to drink.

I worked with a neurologist for a few years, doing psychotherapy with his patients who had closed head injuries, including a physician with Dissociative Personality (or Identity) Disorder, aka, Multiple Personality Disorder, who was for a time doing rounds in a hospital while under the control of one of her alternate personalities. I witnessed tremendous mood swings in my patients, and dramatic shifts in personalities from pre-morbid to post-injury (typically based on reports from friends, families, partners, colleagues...).

That's why I want now to talk to her a bit. She's not the greatest communicator. Nor is my brother, so it could very well be that that was her wake up call, and it's just easier for her to not go into an explanation with him about it. He's pretty convinced that the head injury just simply knocked the desire out of her.

If only they could patent that, Joe :)

maybe slightly OT but for anyone interested, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks is still a darn good read.

Some of the manifestations of brain injury or impairment are truly astounding.

D

Jeez, I got smacked and beaten up so many times as a drunk and disorderly and had one or two bar stools broken over my head. I've been thrown down flights of stairs. I've taken falls without spilling a drop. I must have a hard head because I don't recall being carted off to hospital or lasting more than a week afterwards without a drink. In 2007 I had a major operation to remove a massive acoustic neuroma pressing against my right temporal lobe. Six weeks sober and then back with a vengeance. Guess a spiritual solution was the kick in the head that worked for me in the end :D I'd be interested to hear if it lasts in this woman's case. Just quietly it sounds like a blessing. I've heard of people suffering knocks to the head and waking up speaking a different language or with another accent but never giving up the booze.

Hi Joe. I gave up drinking after cracking my head and blacking out (hence the name :)) and I'll be two years sober next month. The desire to drink wasn't taken away, sadly, but instead a real motivation to change was somehow implanted! I am extremely grateful that it happened and I hope your brother's partner feels the same way and continues to do well :)

I think Dee is right (as always ;) ) about the epiphany! xxx

Guess only someone in the medical field could explain if it's possible the accident made her have an aversion to certain food as well as alcohol.

In any case hope it lasts.

25 years is a long time to involved with a raging alcoholic.

Maybe correlation isn't causation at all and the bump to the head is not the direct cause of her sobriety. I fell off my chair one night and passed out cold. I quit drinking the next day. A coincidence? Absolutely. The next day, I made the choice, I quit for good, not because I hit my head but because I just got tired of hitting my head.

After I spent 10 days in the hospital
when running off the road hitting a
concrete culvert back in Feb. 1990,
I was pretty messed up but recovered
nicely in about 3 months taking prescribed
meds for pain and such.

During that time I was recoverying, I
had no desire to drink probably because
the meds had taken its place. However,
once there was no more pain or use
for the meds prescribed, I thought
a drink wouldn't hurt then to only
begin the insanity of cravings once
again.

Even tho I didn't drink for that short
time I was healing, my addiction was
just taking a break, ready, willing, waiting
patiently for that perfect moment to wake
up and take over my life, mind, body, soul.

Then come August 1990, I was right
back where I had left off the day I had
my accident, and wanted to die. To end
the struggle. To end my failures. To
stop the insanity.

Alcohol was too powerful, too cunning,
too baffling to comprehend or make sense
of.

Then family stepped in with an intervention
getting me help I so needed at that time in
my life. I remained in a rehab facility for 28
days learning about my addiction and its affects
on my mind, body and soul.

That was 24 yrs ago as I remain living
a recovery life built on steps and principles
set down for me to live on each day.

All I can think of at this moment is that
alcohol, waits on no one. Its is Cunning,
Baffling and Powerful even to this day for
me. It maybe dorment, asleep, resting,
for just that perfect moment when I become
weak or laxed in my program, mind, body
and soul to relinquish it's fangs, claws, to
shred it way thru my life, leaving nothing
in its path of destruction.

Im not taking nothing for granted today
because as long as alcohol is around it
waits patiently for its next victim showing
no mercy.

Just my thoughts as always. :)

during my time working in rehab for the brain injury population, i met folks who couldn't stand the taste of their own teeth. also, those who developed obsessions for totally random things.

As a professional caregiver, I have seen a lot of drastic personality changes due to sever trauma or head injuries. However, usually they are negative effects such as nice people become mean or calm people become impatient.

One of my clients lost 50 lbs in 3 months after a head injury, but it may have been due to the meds he was taking. I have also seen others develop an aversion to alcohol after some kind of trauma along with new meds, but they were far from alcoholics to start with.

I don't doubt that it is possible for someone to become a better person after an injury. The movie "Regarding Henry" is more or less about this sort of thing.

I would be the first to try and build the machine to conk folks in the head. We'd make millions!!!!:c029:

I see what you did there :). Nice.

I did mention that her neurologist hasn't a clue, or did I leave that out?

I was friends with a guy in my neighborhood meetings who was one of the first to survive AIDS. He was a whacky dude, but a real sweetheart who put his hand out to anyone and everyone. He even took homeless drug addicts, put them up in his garage, fed them, cleaned them up, took care of them, and told me those were the people who needed the most love.

Anyhow, he went into an AIDS related coma for a few months. I thought he had passed away, but I got a call from him about a year after I heard the news of his hospitalization. To make a long story short, he had one of those not so good personality changes. He became someone who seemed almost possessed. He would interrupt in the middle of meetings, stand up and say whatever it was he felt like saying. He would be rude, disrespectful, and the part that started getting him banned from meetings was that he'd do truly insane things that people started considering a form of terrorists acts. Everyone knew he had AIDS, and for fun he'd lick a cookie or 2, and then put them back with the bunch near the coffee machine. He would greet women with big wet kisses, and talk to guys within an inch of their face. He would play bigtime on people's fear of AIDS, and do it effectively. He got banned because he was becoming a real threat to the people in the meetings, and making it difficult for some groups to function. The guy eventually moved to Florida... if anyone lives around wherever it is he moved to and goes to meetings there, I'm sure they'll know exactly who I'm talking about. I know he's still around because he popped into one of my meetings for a visit this summer. I was told he was visiting some relatives.

It's sad. He was an awesome dude, turned monster.

Interesting i have heard of things like this before

Not exactly on topic, but my siblings claim our mother is showing signs of senility. I haven't seen much of that, but what we've all seen is that my mother seems to have forgotten she's an alkie. She has literally become a "social drinker" and that is WHEN she even chooses to drink.

yes, i've wondered about dementia....if i get dementia, will something in the brain turn/click/differently-connect and will i forget that i'm an alcoholic?
i've watched my mother, who has dementia, drink and enjoy a beer. she's never, in her entire pre-dementia life, liked beer.

slightly off-topic, yet not really.

makes sense that changes in the brain translate into other changes.