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I'm not knocking anyone that talks about emotional pain as a reason to drink, but I want to offer an alternative theory alcoholism based on my experience. Many
by labrador 10y ago
I'm not knocking anyone that talks about emotional pain as a reason to drink, but I want to offer an alternative theory alcoholism based on my experience. Many if not most people have settled on the theory of escape from a painful existence as an explanation, including many alcoholics. I've been battling alcohol since I was a teenager and now I'm almost 60. I've been in and out of rehab, lots of therapy and psychiatry, lots of sober time, a family with grown kids, a successful career and yet my most recent relapse almost killed me. More on that at the end.
Alcoholism is beyond thought and emotion. It operates at another level. It takes Kings and Queens. It takes happy family men, while often skipping abused children who grow up to be unhappy adults that can't hold a family together. It takes spiritual and religious leaders such as Alan Watts. The list of great, productive and seemingly happy people who are destroyed by alcohol is a long one.
My theory is that is a genetic glitch that allows alcohol to get hooked into the autonomic nervous system. It's telling in "Leaving Las Vegas" a woman tells Cage's character to quit drinking and he replies "why don't you tell me to stop breathing?" Carl Sagan liked to talk about our reptilian brain. That's the way I look at it. When the lizard brain wants a drink, it's going to get a drink. Luckily for me, it's not all the time. The urge comes and goes (sometimes for years.) The gene seems to run in families. If it is cured, my bet it will be through genetic therapy.
I'm not saying that resolving emotional issues doesn't make it easier to stay sober. Many things make it easier to stay sober. Sometimes I just go somewhere where I can't get it. That helps. It's why a lot of guys stay in the Navy. They have productive sober time at sea. Finding other activities and diversions certainly help. I like to program. I've often stayed sober by programming.
My last relapse almost killed me because I'm finding as I have become older, my ability to fight it is greatly weakened. On top of that, I go into a trance-like state where I stay I will stay drunk for days and weeks at a time unless someone who knows me intervenes. That is terrible on the body and as the body weakens, the ability to resist weakens. The downward spiral can be quick and brutal.
- Mtinie 10y agoYou aren't alone. Should you ever want to chat/commiserate/pair program, you can contact me through my HN account. I don't have it all, though I have a lot, but I still find myself continuously drawn to a side that defies my own logic. I both glad and saddened to hear that I'm not alone.
- labrador 10y agoThanks. You are not alone. I meet people like me in AA and get coffee with them. I don't go now because I don't believe the program as designed actually works, at least for me. I also wasn't making connections at my favorite meeting. I may try another.
- zafka 10y agoIf you would like, contact me via my email. I think we have some issues in common.
- WalterBright 10y agoA good friend of mine drank heavily through his twenties. Then, he just stopped, and rarely had a drink since (decades). I asked him how he stopped, and he said he just lost interest in it. This also lends credence to the idea that it is genetic.
- Trundle 10y agoSorry, how does it lend credence to the genetic theory? Ones genes don't change do they? But the need for escapism can.
- echlebek 10y agoIf said friend wasn't genetically predisposed to alcoholism, it would explain why they would be able to quit drinking to excess with relative ease.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- coldtea 10y agoThis goes against Occam's razor, needing 2 different mechanisms, one for people that manage to quit drinking (even after 5 decades of alcoholism) and one (genetic) for others that died alcoholics.
- jnbiche 10y agoWell, specialists have long hypothesized that there is a huge difference between "heavy drinkers" (usually in their teens/20s and who quit) and "alcoholics". Heavy drinkers usually overimbibe as part of their social circle (fraternities, etc.) whereas budding alcoholics are the ones drinking alone at home in their teens/20s.
- labrador 10y agoThere is definitely a certain class of heavy drinker that isn't a real alcoholic. Some people just like the effect, but get tired of it.
- JamesBarney 10y agoOne way it hijacks the mind is through opiate receptors. I've heard good things about the Sinclair method(taking an opiate-blocker before having a drink), and it operates by blocking a lot of the euphoric aspects of alcohol. And slowly it causes the hooks that alcohol has sunk into the brain to whither and die. Or at least that's the theory.
- labrador 10y agoI tried it but it didn't do much. I've actually found Kratom, which also works on those receptors, to be a good alternative. You can't overdose on Kratom and when I use it I don't ever get the urge to drink.
- groovy2shoes 10y agoSo many benefits to that plant, and yet the various state governments have been in a hurry to criminalize it. What a shame that so many people who had been struggling with addiction and finally found an affordable, legal, and ostensibly safe relief in kratom, only to have it taken away without legislators giving it any real consideration.
- labrador 10y agoThe DEA changed it's mind after public outcry. I'm buying it again at the local herb shop. (I live in CA.) Yes, it a great help for some.
- groovy2shoes 10y agoOh! That's great news! :)