Bucyn

Brain on drugs - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

The South Florida Sun Suntinel show scans of healthy brains and the brains of the addicted. It's horrible. Alcoholics have huge holes in their brains.

I was particularly horrified by picture of the 17-year heavy weekend alcohol user's brain. To me it looked worse than the heroin users brain after 10 years of use. And the 18 year old pot user who's used 3 years 4 times a week was not reassuring, so much for pot being harmless. It's not as bad as the weekend alcohol user, but no where near normal.

This is what we are dealing with: people with significant holes in their brains. People who CAN NOT think, cope, or reason. A thought starts here...then falls into a hole--or has to be rerouted around the hole into territory that has nothing to do the original thought. No wonder they are so rediculous, irrational, and come off as being so jaw-droppingly assinine.

What's reassuring is that after a year of no use how the brain starts to heal up--but it's no where near normal. I guess AA is right: A's cannot manage a normal relationships for at least a year after no drinking. The best parts of their brains are still blown out. Their brains just aren't ready. It looks like depending on the damage you may need two or more years before you get a functioning brain back.

That's informative for those of us who think the relationship should get back on track soon after the A stops drinking. No, it may take years to get back to normal---and the new brain growth may not be like the old, you may never get back the one you fell in love with again. He'll have a new brain, be a new person. One you may not like or may not like you.

This is what we are up against.

I think the weekend alcohol user's brain was the most significant to me because although XAH drank pretty much everyday, I think at minimum he has drunk (got a 'buzz' as he'd put it) every weekend for most of his adult life and certainly for the past twenty years. Even if he only started to drink daily since I knew him in 2004, he still had another 15 years of weekend drinking under his belt.

His brain at the least looks like this, and very likely much worse.

It was clear to all three of my kids and myself that early in 2009 he lost his ability to be normal, he went over the edge, he 'gave up' even trying to be normal, fair, rational, sane. I thought he was devastated over the commitment of his 12 year old son to a mental hospital--something he thought would only be a 48-72 hours thing, but they kept the kid for 8 days. That it just 'broke' something inside him and he was desperate to avoid reality after that.

Now I think he just drilled one too many holes in his brain with alcohol and it became useless to him. It went from functional--if not optimal--in dealing with life, to nonfunctional. He was just your typical irrational, blaming, rage filled illogical mess.

Hope he stopped drinking once he got back to his childhood home, otherwise, more and more holes.

These pictures are shocking, but maybe it will help some of us understand how impossible it is to deal with these people--it's not a matter of a spouse trying harder, or using the right words or technique, or giving enough love.

Nothing but long term abstinence is going to fill in those holes and without those holes filled in they are incapable of rational thought, incapable of parenting, incapable of any sort of relationship, and eventually with enough holes incapable of employment or self care.

These holes are why they trash and abuse the people they love. These holes are why you don't matter. These holes are why you cannot trust them with your children.

LexieCat

No surprise to me there...

I drank alcoholically for maybe ten years. Pretty much daily drinking, I attempted to control it for brief spans of time (particularly weekdays) and drank tons on weekends.

After two years' sobriety, I still have cognitive deficits. Blank spots, memory problems, difficulty with abstract thought and attention deficits.

Hopefully with more time it will continue to improve, but I definitely need to compensate for the losses right now.

Eight Ball

[QUOTE] What I am desperately trying to do at the moment but failing.

Sadly, why I am failing.

Why I will always fail and come second to a beer.

Good post - not sure how medically accurate it is but it definitely helps you to understand what could be happening at a functional/health level.

Murray4x5

Thought provoking stuff!

It would be interesting how such information, on an individual basis, could help in an addict's recovery. Someone, like maybe a behavioural psychologist, could base much of their recovery program on what specific areas of the brain were damaged.

While the images are shocking, we shouldn't think of them as holes though, just areas which didn't meet the threshold of blood flow to be filled in by the computer program. There is decreased activity for sure, but those areas might still be able to function on a reduced level.

Thanks for posting this. It will springboard many google searches on my part as I try to better understand what I have done to my body and brain.

Murray

Hadassah

Thank you for posting this article. I showed it to my 13 yr ds and I know it helped him ( and me) understand better why his dad acts like he does. It has always amazed me that he does and says certain things, but no more. Now it makes total sense.
Thanks again. H

Summerpeach

Interesting, it explains much of the actions of my friends with addictions.

Bucyn

When you can see right through the brain to the background or poke your finger through, it's a hole and there IS NO functioning. Some of those 'areas that didn't meet the threshold of blood flow' are such you can throw a tic-tac through them.

Maybe the pot smoker had dimples and erosions, maybe the cocaine and heroin user had pits, but the weekend heavy alcohol drinker had HOLES, three or four or five that you could see right through to the background.

There's no prettying it up and minimizing. Those are HOLES.

Fortunately, in recovery, they close up. They heal. It is truly miraculous.

Bucyn

Or maybe in custody battles, a brain scan can be taken to show why the A should not have unsupervised visitation or decision-making authority over minors. You have a parent with a fully functioning brain and a parent with holes in their brain, which gives the child a better chance at a stable life?

A's love to go to court and deny that they drink, well, this would be hard to deny. And the children would be better off for it.

And maybe a great tool for dealing with alcoholic denial: This is your brain. This is a healthy brain. See the difference? Alcohol is what put those holes in your brain. Keep drinking and there will be more and more holes. How are you going to function with a brain full of holes?

Murray4x5

Hi Bucyn,

I don't know your story, but it seems you've had a rough ride. It sounds as if I were in your shoes, I'd be using whatever evidence I could to prove how unstable my spouse was in order to protect my child.

I find this information fascinating on a very different level, as it might help me better understand what I have done to myself, how it might explain why I don't participate in many activities that brought me joy and satisfaction in the past, and how it might help me focus on specific "cognitive exercises" which will "fill in the holes" faster.

I was lucky that I stopped drinking when I did, as my love and commitment to my wife and daughter remains as strong as it ever was.

I'll try to find some links which describe how SPECT scans are generated and interpreted. I'm confident the holes aren't holes (actual voids within the brain) just areas of diminished blood flow which didn't meet the base threshold of activety to register, and therefore didn't get coloured in on the computer program.

I'd like to thank you for showing us this for a completely different reason; my wife's Honda Civic was t-boned by a Dodge Ram pickup a couple years ago, and she still to this day will lose thoughts, can't multi-task as she used to, and will insert related but wrong words into sentences. This scanning technique may well help her very much.

Murray

sojourner

Definitely agree with Murray4x5. What looks like "holes" to us is more likely blood flow decreased too low for the scan to pick up. If there was really a hole there, it seems that the tissue around it would implode thereby causing the brain to "shrink" in such that an autopsy would show the brain as having a smaller diameter to it. So what I'm thinking is that there is tissue there, it just is not showing up on the scanning. I'm thinking that the scanning used was to measure blood flow. So if there was blood flow, it showed up as a color. Decreased blood flow that was below the ability of the scan to detect it would show as a black color. I could be wrong on that part of it. It just does not seem like brains can have holes and not implode.

But those scans do show that we loved ones are dealing with a neurologic disorder - not a moral failing.

LexieCat

Yeah, they aren't literal holes, but they are areas that are not functioning properly at the moment. Still pretty dramatic--what isn't working at the moment.

Bucyn

The colors have no significance--that's noted at the top. And yes, autopsies do show that brains can shrink and become riddled with tunnels and have all sorts of damage.

I guess it probably wouldn't do much good to show an alkie a scan of his damaged brain; denial is incredible. "No, what's happening isn't really happening; it's something else; you are misinterpreting; the evidence is wrong, it doesn't tell the whole story; it's not that bad, it's really you...quack, quack, quack..."

Neurologic damage and other health problems, are a by-product of alcoholism. The cause of it is still that stinkin' thinkin'; and recovering from alcoholism always means changing the stinkin' thinkin'.

Still Waters

The graphic states clearly: Doctors can identify areas in the brain suffering from loss of function that show up as holes in SPECT scans.

These are not literally holes in the brain, but loss of function areas that show up as holes in that type of scan.

Truly horrifying.

Sojourner: They chose to pick it up, they chose to continue using. These holes don't appear instantly, they build over time.

Hadassah

[QUOTE=Bucyn;2700826]Or maybe in custody battles, a brain scan can be A's love to go to court and deny that they drink, well, this would be hard to deny. And the children would be better off for it.


What a fabulous idea!!

Lola1024

WOW. Thanks for sharing this information. Puts a lid on the "I didn't try hard enough to make it work" thoughts I have had recently.

laurie6781

Actually my Neurologist called them 'dead areas' in my brain. He has my brain scans, I get them yearly. He has showed me my scans compared to a 'normal' brain.

I have areas of my brain that are absolutely DEAD. Areas that in other folks are active. HOWEVER, I also have areas of my brain that 'normal' folks don't use and mine is very active. He tells me that over the years, in my recovery I have built NEW PATHWAYS to replace the areas I killed with all my alcohol and drug abuse.

He personally has seen over 300 cases like mine and is getting set to write a book (another one to his long list).

What I learned from my own personal experience to date, (29+ years clean and sober) and watching others I have worked with and work with, who continue to grow and change in recovery is that it takes TIME, lots of TIME for the A to relearn and learn new ways of handling life in general and ones self in particular, BUT it can be done, if the A is serious about recovery and WANTS recovery.

Thank you so much (((((Bucyn))))) for posting this.

Love and hugs,

LexieCat

Thanks, Laurie,

That was my impression, too. Much of the brain isn't used to begin with. Making new neural pathways is also what enables stroke victims to recover.

It takes time, but I expect that eventually, if I stay sober, I will be almost as good as new in the mental faculties department.

Still Waters

Yes, just like with strokes or physical injuries - the brain finds new pathways.

It can't do that with a constant assault of drugs and alcohol though.

Bucyn

I guess it's not surprising that this would bring out the alcoholics, recovering and otherwise, who feel anxious and threatened by the data and launch into minimizing the message, denial, and other quacking, quacking quacking.

Because this is a a message board for Friend and Family of Alcoholics, for the support of people who are dealing alcoholics and not for the comfort and peace of mind for the alcoholics themselves, I will say this:

YES, IT IS AS BAD AS IT LOOKS.

You can take the denial, rationalization, and minimalization to the Alcoholic board, we deal with enough of it in our every day lives and it's too bad alcoholic denial, diversion, and minimalization is brought here too. Most of us get enough of the alcoholic spin on everything in our real life, too bad alcoholic spin has to be dealt with here too.

The purpose of this posts was for people who are dealing with those of you who have done this to yourselves. It is to support THEM, not YOU. It is to give Friends and Families of Alcoholics an idea of what they are up against and answer why alcoholics say such hurtful, nasty things. Why they behave so irrationally and yet believe themselves to be so astute. Why they rage. Why love is not enough, reason is not enough, forced rehab is not enough.

The long-term weekend drinker brain is more damaged than a heroin brain or a cocaine brain. This may be someone who might be considered a 'high functioning' alcoholic.

There is no real way for any spouse or parents or other loved one to fix the alcoholic problem. Feeling guilty because you are not doing enough or aren't loving enough, or aren't understanding enough is a waste of your time. Hopefully, a few F&Fs will look at these pictures and feel their guilt ease. No one but the alkie him/herself can fix that damage.

God knows guilt is a horrible problem for Friends and Families of Alcoholics. And alkies exploit that guilt to their own ends without any consideration for the feelings or quality of life of their families. I hope a few spouses, children, or other victims of alcoholics will look at those pictures and fix them in their minds, so when the alkie guilt-fest starts next time, they find it a little easier to withstand it. It's not the spouse, it's the alkie--the one who keeps pouring the alcohol down his/her throat and increasing the problem.

I hope seeing these pictures makes it easier for spouses/loved ones to set boundaries--NO, you CANNOT drive the car; NO, you CANNOT be alone with the baby; NO, you CANNOT have my credit card...because behind that pitiful, beautiful, beloved face is a brain that is horribly damaged and malfunctioning.

I hope seeing these pictures makes it easier for the spouse/loved one to say: "It's not a matter of trusting you, it's a matter of your ability, and with a brain like that, you just don't have the ability."

I hope that maybe once the Friends and Family of Alcoholics see these pictures, they understand that the rejection, humiliation, abandonment, invective, name calling, and absolute utter hatefulness that comes out of the alkie's mouth is not personal, it's no reflection on you, your worth, your character, your loveableness, your intelligence, or has anything to do with you. It has everything to do with these hideously damaged people. They may clean up okay, they may not be to the point where they are peeing themselves (or like my ex, shtting so violently it flies up to there face), they may still have jobs and be able to pull off looking good on the surface to people outside the household (like lots of weekend drinkers, perhaps even like the person who's brain is profiled)--but inspite of all that, this is what they did to their brains, and these damaged brains are driving their hatefulness.

If they can damage themselves to this extent (altho I'm sure it's unknowingly), how can you not expect them to damage you--and your children? How--with brains like this--can they NOT damage everyone around them? It's not you, it's not 'stress', it's not how they were raised, it's not any of the other excuses they give--it's the brain!

And I hope not only that this post can ease the guilt of Friends and Families of Alcoholics, and raise the self esteem of people who have been victimized by an alcoholic's abuse, and steel the backbone when alkie's start their apologizing, promising, and whining--I hope that the pictures can show why things don't get better for a very long time once the alkie stops drinking; and even why if the brain heals, the alkie may never be the same again.

So many Friends and Family of Alcoholics place so much hope on sobriety. Just get him sober and it will go back to the way it was--and sobriety isn't enough; it takes sobriety plus time; a long time. Sobriety with relapses at six months is not going to help. I hope the pictures make it easier for the spouses/loving ones of alkies to understand the absolute long road ahead, without any guarantees of success, and maybe it will be easier for the loved ones to protect themselves, let go and move on, and to understand just how solitary a road alcoholic recovery really is.

Anyone seeing these pictures also can't help but to understand that alcoholism is progressive. That it isn't going to get better or stay like it is even if they, the spouse/loving ones, do detach etc... The alkie's brain will continue to deteriorate until they stop drinking, and the problems WILL get worse.

And finally, I hope these pictures show the spouses/loving ones that they aren't the crazy ones, they aren't the deficient ones, they really are dealing with insanity. I posted this to validate the friends and families, for their benefit; not to sooth or stir up the anxieties of alcoholics (there's a board specifically for that). Here it's about the coping spouse's feelings, not the alkie's.

And these pictures really show that the Friends and Families of Alcoholics didn't cause it, can't control it, and won't cure it--something that is SO hard for Friends and Families of Alcoholics to grasp sometimes, particularly when their alkie can sometimes be so normal.

Jazzman

Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
A single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) scan lets your doctor analyze the function of your internal organs. A SPECT scan is a type of nuclear imaging test, which means it uses a radioactive substance and a special camera to create pictures of your organs.

While imaging tests such as X-rays can show what the structures inside your body look like, a SPECT scan produces 3-D images that show how your organs work. For instance, a SPECT scan can show how blood flows to your heart or what areas of your brain are more active or less active.

All though these are not literal holes the scans clearly indicate damage caused by drug abuse. This is your brain on drugs, and people forget alcohol is a drug.