Alcoholism
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-03-26/alcoholism
It’s estimated that about 12 percent of Americans suffer from alcoholism at some point in their lives. In a recent Wall Street Journal article writer Paul Carr described his very personal struggle with alcohol and the steps he took to overcome his addiction. He didn’t join Alcoholics Anonymous, but over the last few decades many have with impressive results: A look at the disease of alcoholism, what makes some people especially vulnerable, and the latest research on what works and what doesn’t in the effort to stay sober.
Guests
Paul Carr
writer and columnist
Samantha ' '
a member of Alcoholics Anonymous
Dr. Markus Heilig
clinical director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Comments
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Have the guests talked about osteoporosis and alcohol? I have it with no family history. My conclusion is that my early drinking days is the cause.
I got admit I am very proud of you
I am an atheist, sober in AA for 31 years, no relapse. While I do have to "translate" some, especially since I live in the south where religion is rampant, I found a way to make AA work for me. It's also important to me for people to know, especially newcomers, that you don't HAVE to believe in God to get sober or even to be in AA. It's not for everybody, no doubt about that. But I like having the security of knowing that it's everywhere I go, with a common purpose.
Thank you for your insightful, helpful comments.
I wanted to comment on the caller's concern about AA's focus on a higher power. My husband, now sober for nearly a year, has found AA to be a key part of his sobriety. He is not a religious person, having rejected organized religion after being raised in a fundamentalist Protestant tradition. To him, the higher power isn't God, but rather our marriage and the importance of it to his (and my) life. Our marriage was endangered by his drinking, and his realization of that danger is what propelled him to get sober. He tried a couple of different groups before he found one that works for him. That has been key.
Yes, I once heard an AA speaker say that he (successfully) selected the sun as his "higher power" to give him strength.
Diane,
Thank you for featuring alcoholism on your program. AA is not the only option for people in recovery.
SMART Recovery (smartrecovery.org) is a fast growing, self-empowering option for those who do not feel comfortable going to AA meetings.
SMART Recovery emphasizes the behavioural aspect which your guests Paul Carr abd Dr Marcus Heilig mentioned.
SMART Recovery uses tools and techniques from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in mutual support groups (over 650 to date) without any reference to religion, or "surrendering to a higher power". In addition, SMART Recovery has a fantastic website which also offers online meetings and chat rooms
You might consider inviting representatives of SMART Recovery to be on your show, September is National Recovery Month.
Best regards,
Lee
As we talk about the effect of alcoholism on alcoholics, I think it is also very important to talk about how family members are affected by the disease of alcoholism. I am married to an alcoholic who has been clean for nine years. That being said, I believe alcoholism (active and inactive) has an enormous effect on family members of alcoholics. Al-Anon family group has been critical for my recovery from this disease and has given me sanity and peace of mind that I never knew was available. Whether the alcoholic is drinking or not, in recovery or not, dead or alive, I think it is so important to emphasize the support that is out there for family members, because the alcoholics are not the only ones who suffer, by far.
AA is not religious as to a particular religion. It is faith-based and religious to the extent that it refers to "God" (though it also says or whatever higher power you believe in).
Mainly, however, the hallmark of AA is that it assumes a person is "powerless" and has turned his will over to a higher power.
On the other hand, cognitive behavior therapy assumes a person retains power - so a person has a choice of whether or not to engage in the addiction - alcohol, drugs, overeating, gambling, whatever. This is particularly helpful for folks interested in taking control of their lives. It is a rationally-based program which challenges faulty beliefs that result in malappropriate behaviors.
This is such an important distinction, spiritual as opposed to religious, that I am having a hard time believing it was never mentioned. My family consists of many, many generations of chronic alcohol use. My children, tho not raised with alcoholic parents, are burdened with generational chronic alcoholism on both maternal and paternal sides. Every alcoholic that I have come in contact with seems to start their look toward recovery by refusing to try AA based on the understanding that AA is all about God and that doesn't work for them. My father rejected AA as an option playing the God card twice before deciding for his third hospitalization to let go and learn what he needed to know. He spent the last 25 years of his life sober. My son is as alcoholic as his grandfather ever was and his reason for not choosing AA is exactly the same as today's writer strongly explained. Even using some of the same words.
My son is back to drinking alcoholically...
In addition, my understanding is that AA also, in the 12 Steps, provide a structure that allows one to begin behaving in an adult manner..something that alcoholics and children of alcoholics never seem to learn on their own. (sorry so long)
I am so glad there are so many comments mentioning A.A. It is not intended to be a "religious" program. Unfortunately, some meetings are driven by their beliefs in God as theirs and everybody else must believe in a supreme being. the basic concept of aa is proven to be helpful for many and I as an agnostic have found it has saved my life. There is a chapter in the AA book for the Agnositic/atheist about not having to believe in a supreme being. The people in the "rooms" is like one big therapy group. You take from it what you want to help you. A Higher power of your understanding to me just means you are "turning it over" letting go that I can' do it alone. I also have a mental illness also and AA and my resolve to get well myself is what matters. Even after relapsing AA recieved me with open arms. Being in AA has helped me with a dream of finishing an IRONMAN triathlon.
I am beginning to ramble....this is just my opinion.
Hope this helps someone out there from giving AA a chance.
AA doesn't focus on any syllable of Alcoholism. It focuses on sobriety. MaNY AA members are either alcoholics and/or addicts. It really is the same issue. The true focus is on conquering the addiction.
I hope someone mentioned on air how helpful Al Anon is, the sister 12 step group just for family and friends of alcoholics? A lot of the callers were friends and family of people with drinking behaviors that concerned them.
I started attending Al anon when I'd tried in every way I could, to get my boyfriend to stop drinking. Worry about him, our future and my own wellbeing was too much for me to manage on my own. It was tremendously educational and emotionally supportive to discover in Al Anon that I was not alone, and there were many many things I could do on my side of the street that might help the situation to improve. And many of the things I'd done to try to "help" were almost certainly making matters worse. The al anon web site is: http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/
I will also say that the "god" discomfort about 12 step groups is something many members of these groups share--and talk openly about. That has been the case from the early days of aa. That is why the 12 steps do not require a belief in god, but in a higher power of your own definition and understanding. For many it is the wisdom of the shared experience in the rooms and program literature. For others, it is found in nature. Still others simply think of "Good Orderly Direction." both aa and al anon offer a way of life open to people of any faith or of none.
If a specific belief in any god were required, many of us would have turned and left after our first meeting.
I recognize I have a drinking problem and have a question perhaps someone can answer...is there a difference between drinking beer vs. "hard" alcohol such as vodka, gin, etc. and their effects on the brain, liver, etc. (that is the deterioration rate over time?) I know that both types are equally addictive and both are very damaging, but - well, I just want to know if my organs stand a better chance of "recovering" due to my heavy drinking of beer over a long period of time vs. other types of alcohol. I know every body is different. I used to be very athletic and am not really overweight, although my body definitely shows the affects of drinking.
ADHD is a nonsense "disorder" created by the APA to sell pharmaceuticals. If you wish more information about that, you might read books by Robert Whitaker such as "Anatomy of an Epidemic" or "Mad in America". I also recommend "Medication Madness" by Dr. Peter Breggin. Stimulating drugs used for children cause those same children to be labeled "bi-polar" and then they can go on SSI and use more pharmaceuticals. The kids lose, and big-Pharma wins. It is really criminal. Are you also aware that SSRI and SNRI drugs are stimulants? Dr. Joseph Glenmullen of Harvard wrote a book called "Prozac Backlash" way back in 1996. These drugs are called "activating" and Dr. Glenmullen does a very nice job of explaining that really means they are stimulants. I'm just saying....
You might want to visit morerevealed.com before you go running off to AA. People in AA say they are powerless over alcohol. Those same people then say, "I drank to get drunk!" Which is it? Powerless or intentional? For me it was intentional. I drank like a fish - a case of beer per day. I made that choice. Today I limit my drinking because I do not like the bad effects of excessive drinking. You really can choose to have a couple of drinks. You really can choose not to have hangovers. People in AA don't want to hear that. They also don't want to admit that most people don't succeed in AA. Besides, the biggest criminals I ever met in my life, I met in AA. I have heard a guy confess to murder. I heard another confess to selling cocaine to his African American baseball teammates so he could help his friends from the brewery replace the pension fund money they stole. They hide behind "Anonymity" and everyone acts like that is okay.
What if you like booze a lot but can quit at any time. Liberal democrats drive me to drink but no matter how much I drink I cannot get away from them. Can liberals self deport to mother Russia or China?
I very much appreciated hearing the conversation today. Just hearing both sides of the AA vs. "One's own conviction" gave me hope that I can overcome my addiction to it. Paul, I down loaded your book on my kindle and I loved it. Samantha, I applaud your strength and resilience. I see myself in you. I'm not a trouble maker drunk. . I'm just a girl who loves the feel and the effects of wine. And it's always at home after the kids are asleep. My problem is that I need a magnum to feel that buzz. I've developed a tolerance over the years (since 1994), and now I'm feeling the health issues. (tired, unable to focus, shaking, blotchy skin) Your doctor's comments on the effects on the brain made a profound stamp in my thoughts.
This is literally the first time I've admitted my problem to anyone. thanks for the forum.
I spent several months in AA before coming to the conclusion that it was basically the Scientology of recovery, with Bill Wilson being the L Ron Hubbard. If it's worked for you, I think that's great, but unless you believe alcoholism is a "spiritual disease" that can only be cured by "Getting on your knees and asking God to remove the compulsion to drink", then I think you should look elsewhere for help. I like the idea of one drunk helping another, but the heavy handed god stuff is a real turn off for a lot of people.
As an agnostic/athiest - the God thing works because it is a power greater than ourselves. There is a whole chapter devoted to the agnostic, which Bill Wilson (the "founder" of AA was). The true founder of AA was believed by Bill to be Dr. Carl Jung who in the early 1930s was treating Rowland Hazard, the wealthy industrialist from New England. At the end of the final treatment, Rowland thanked him traveled to Paris on his way home and proceeded to get drunk, again! He returned to Dr. Jung exasperated and Dr. Jung said "you have the mind of a chronic alcoholic. I have never seen one single case recover, where that state of mind existed to the extent that it does in you. ... Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these were suddenly cast to one side and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them." AA is a system to "mass produce" this psychic change - it does not need to be AA, but I have found it to work.
After 3 years in AA, I still have days when I wonder if I belong there. Still, I no longer have any desire to drink and I am not the angry, impatient, opinionated person I was. So: both chemically and emotionally sober. I am more aware of those times when I want to tune out, a predelection that has been with me my entire life. GOD can also be the "Group Of Drunks". Even here in the bible belt, we hear this at meetings. I am convinced that we all need community to change our behaviors, be it from writing a book, blogging, or attending a 12 step meeting. To each his own.