As some of you know I've gotten 'hooked' on Celebrity Rehab on VH1 -
I've learned a few interesting 'facts' that I wasn't aware of before and this information has benefited me tremendously in dealing with my own alcoholism (ie I wasn't aware binge drinking was so difficult to treat) ....Reference was made to a "broken brain" on several occasions. During The reunion (Where are they now) episode last Thursday Dr. Drew Pinsky made the statement that alcoholism/addiction has been recognized by the "psychiatric board' as a "mental illness"......I have Googled my fingers off and have found nothing on the internet to support this (I'm a 'fact' kinda gal, as some of you know).... I do realize, as an alcoholic, that I have a 'disease', that is recognized by the AMA..... I guess I'm a bit slow in putting things together, but it has become clearer to me this is what is meant by statements like 'that's your disease talking"...... The longer I stay sober, the more insane I feel some days. Can't turn off my mind, can't sleep, sleep too much, small doses of depression, small doses of euphoria....and the list can go on and on.....
Your thoughts? Input? Facts?
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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
Hi Jen, My thoughts...... I tend to believe it is how one "thinks" that can impact one's life. The AMA is now suggesting that the mental health of patients seems to improve their physical health when those patients have a "positive" outlook or are spiritually minded. There are also articles about, behavioral patterns. If recalled correctly, a small child absorbs millions of peices of data very early on. Taking that into consideration.......the enviroment in which that child is being raised comes into play. It is absorbing "mentally" what is said, the actions of others, ect. ect. Doing this it will often imitate those things. In my own, alcohol was not present. Until preteens I really didn't give it thought. Then I noticed how "funny" one uncle acted as well as smelled. And questioned it. Media often plays a role as well. When I was younger, tv ads often glamorized alcohol, as they did smoking. Beautiful clothed models socializing with beer/liqour in hand. All designed to make one "think" one "needed" a drink (or a cigarette) to do anything. One couldn't enjoy a sports event to the fullest without these things. Does the outcome of the game REALLY depend upon the amount of alcohol consumed by each spectator?! My biggest influence as far as my own consumption.....my AH. He grew up with it "learning" it was a means to socialize since his father did things that way. His father was a member of many organizations and held serveral offices among those. It was common place that meetings for officers were held in the homes. Alcohol was served. Common place that after a hard days work....to drink. Common place for alcohol consumption after a funeral. It was also quite often my AH went along with his dad to his uncle's, when his aunt called for help in "settling down" his uncle down. (He was alcoholic who hid very well his habit when driving my school bus.) This man could get mean at home, mostly verbal abuse, but could tear the hell out of a house....furniture, doors ect. Taking all this into account.....I tend to believe the absorbtion of this by any child would lead that child to do the same. Looking at the AA program/twelve steps........attending repeated meetings one is mentally absorbing. They have "mentally" realized alcohol has had adverse effects. They have "mentally" made a decision to seek help. They "mentally" learn to break the habit by replacing it with better habits. We "picture" in our minds the best "GOOD ORDERLY DIRECTION" I also believe that genetics also comes into play for many. The AMA has already narrowed down the gene and have began the process of methods to "recode" it. On serveral sites on the web, there is information. Some people enter AA/recovery on their own. Some need more extensive help. Personal view........I tend to believe the mental outweighs the physical....however, it all goes togethor. One can be born with a mutant genes. That is physical and can play havoc on the mental. More often, one's own thinking leads to one's drinking. Thinking patterns to escape from perhaps more profound issues......like abuse, feeling unpopular, body images, unloved. The same goes for depression. Some cases are physical where drugs can be administerd to alter the mutant. While in other cases it is altering thinking patterns. For the most part.....I'm proned toward the mental. Wanda
I'd never heard that binge drinkers were harder to treat. What's the reasoning behind that?
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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguements and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
~Herbert Spencer
I suppose you could call it that. No big deal to me. I know that I was emotionally dependant on the juice. I drank because I was uncomfortable in social settings, because it was the "in" thing with a lot of people that (I THOUGHT) I wanted to fit in with. I drank just because I couldn't face any of life's simplest problems or challenges without being at least semi-numb from alcohol.
I would guess that a binge drinker might be harder to convince, because they would say, "But I don't drink all the time, so I can't be an alcoholic."
Kinda like the way I used to say, "But I've only gotten crawling drunk a handful of times, and I've never passed out or blacked out." Horray for me...I was a careful drunk!!!
So, I guess, to answer the Yay or Nay question.... I am an alcoholic, with a mental addiction (and physical addiction right after that first drink), and an allergy, and I am mentally ill.......YAY!!!!
well just judging by the fact that AA has their own definition of insanity, I'd say why yes it is a mental illness. You can't say that a practicing alcoholic is of sound mind. Getting behind the wheel of a car after a half a dozen or more drinks is proof of that.
Boy did I get reamed out one night for suggesting that the second step restoration to sanity implies we are a bit insane. Whewwww!
I stand by it though but mental illness is only part of the picture and modern clarifications of mental illness are incomplete and useless to an alcoholic looking for answers that can help.
"but mental illness is only part of the picture and modern clarifications of mental illness are incomplete and useless to an alcoholic looking for answers that can help"
"but mental illness is only part of the picture and modern clarifications of mental illness are incomplete and useless to an alcoholic looking for answers that can help"
On the nose, Tuggboat, ol' buddy, on the nose!
Sounds like you're looking for a back door on this s.o.b.s. Of course there is more to it, but until an alcoholic, in early sobriety, accepts that their thinking and actions are/were insane, and that their brain is not functioning normally (mental illness), they will have a difficult if not impossible task of recognizing their denial and moving foward toward accepting "suggestions" of the program (and a higher power). Otherwise the beginner will continue to rely on their own flawed (insane) thinking. Almost anyone can put down the drink for a month or three(and how many dry old timers do you know?), but until we learn and accept that "our best thinking"...isn't getting the job down (that we're f'ing nutcases), there's not much hope for real "sobriety". Oh yea there are many that cling to dryness with the prenouncement- "If you didn't take a drink today, you're a winner". You've seen them, clueless as Don Quixote ramming windmills. I've been there too.
As someone that struggled for two years to get more than 2 months, I can attest that my ego and denial kept me thinking that I was not as sick as most in the rooms. I compared out thanks to an ego that convienently forgot very quickly the horrific incidents and consequences of my past thinking and behavior, that could only be charactorized as insane. It wasn't till a pivotal chance meeting, that I went to in Mclean Va, aptly named "The Brain Damage Group". Now with a name like that, you'd surely think that this group was held in an insitution or a halfway house somewhere, but it wasn't. It was held at one of the older more prestigeious churches in Mclean (an upscale community by national standards).
The group had been around for decades at that time ('89). And although it had become a very popular men's meeting with several hundred attendes, the core group was not only old timers but upstanding pillars of the community. There was a special dynamic between these wise old scholarly sucessful men and the balance of 20's 30's yo young men trying to find their way comming out of a crazy upbringing in the 60's and 70's in the suburbia of the nations capitol. I may have heard of the group before, but I don't recall. I only remember staring at the listing in the "where and when" one night serching for a new meeting, and intrigued by the title "brain damage group". Surely I'll fit into this group, I thought with a chuckle, but what will it be like? People on thorizine or valuim, pasty faced with blank stares? Was I going to see the ghost of Dean's future? I hesitated and called my sponsor hoping for an alternate suggestion . Unforntunately he concured that it would be a good fit
Upon arrival, I saw 300+ men filling a meeting room, then heard that there was half a dozen other rooms of meeting in the basement about to begin. I thought, everyone must be nuts and they're all here tonight. A sense of calm came over me as I opted for a smaller room, I took the door on the left, as Bob Barker would say. After the preamble one the elders introduced the topic of, no surprise here, "Insanity". Great I thought, do they ever talk about anything else here lol? So these elders shared their stories, many going back to prohibition, the stock market crash, the depression, and WWI and II. I can't remember what I shared, probably a jail story. Then after the meeting 6'6" 70 someting yo retired attorney named "Stretch" came up to me to tell me he liked what I said. Imagine that!
Then he said something that I'll never forget. He said "We're all crazy in here. And there is two types of insane people, Psychotics and Neurotics." He continued "Pyschotics are way out there and most times you can't reach them. They think that 2+2=5 and they are a rarity. Now Neurotics, like myself, know damn well that 2+2=4........but we don't like it ." We both belly laughed and I suddenly found my definition. It's been a blessing to realize, that when I'm having an oposition to living life on life's terms, that my neurosis is acting up lol.
He went on to say that we must get past AA's definition- "Trying the same thing over and over again expecting different results" when we sober up. He gave the example of how, of when his mental capacity is affected, when he expects stop signs and red lights to be green when he gets there. And that the traffic will part like the red sea, he being like moses lol. I began to get the picture.
So I say to you naysayers, that embracing and accepting your insanity (mental ilness) is the most important step after putting the drink down (which anyone can do). Because if we don't get a handle on this, not much progress can be made toward a truely sober lifestyle. One last thing, my hats off to you s.o.b.s. for getting in here with a high bottom
Great Post Dean. Certainly completes the picture and all that stuff in the first paragragh about too insane to recognize my own denial and other stuff made me feel so warm and fuzzy. :) lol
." We both belly laughed and I suddenly found my definition. It's been a blessing to realize, that when I'm having an oposition to living life on life's terms, that my neurosis is acting up lol.