I was curious if any of you have ever considered this treatment method to deal with your behavioral problems surrounding alcohol?
Aversion therapy is a form of psychiatric, mental health or psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations in order to stop the specific behavior. Aversion therapies can take many forms, for example: placing unpleasant-tasting substances on the fingernails to discourage nail-chewing; pairing the use of an emetic with the experience of alcohol; or pairing behavior with electric shocks of various intensities.
The reason this interests me is because as we all learned in AA 101 addicts are very susceptible to being influenced by their personal triggers to drink or use. Even after such time as the chemical dependency and physical addiction is long behind them these stimuli can overwhelm and cause relapse. Using that logic wouldn't it be safe to assume that they could be equally affected by a trigger or stimuli of our choosing if it was powerful enough to elicit the necessary emotional of physical response?
Im seriously considering purchasing a dog shock collar and zapping myself whenever I think of drinking...even when I see an image or advertisement for alcohol I should zap myself. Think of how much I would come to loathe the sight and thought of of the stuff.
OMG! Still looking for the easier, softer way, I see.
The problem - alcoholism is 3 fold - mind, body, spirit.....I personally don't need to pay someone to remind me of the 'discomfort' - haven't forgotten my last relapse. If I ever start to think there's any glamour in a cocktail for this gal, I can play the tape all the way through.
The triggers will subside, but you gotta put in the time and work.
Gotta pay those dues, one day at the time, to collect the rewards.
The shock collar reminded me of a story.
The ex hubby and I had an Akita, Amanda. She was BAAAAD about snatching food off the table, your plate, outta your hand, off the counter top. So ex hub got a shock collar and a ham. He froze the ham solid, put it on the countertop, put the collar on Amanda. The dog gnawed the whole ham to bits with a ' yelp' every so many seconds as she was getting shocked. Didn't "avert' her from one damned thing! We finally just decided to put her outside at meal time!
-- Edited by Doll at 09:20, 2008-08-08
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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
I have to agree with Doll here. I still remember vividly where my last drunk took me and do not wish to go back there. I feel so blessed when I look around and see where my 8 months one day at a time sober has got me and how differently people react towards me now. I have been suffering phsyically in quite a bad way since I got sober and the disease has often tried to creep back on me telling me this didnt happen when I was drinking but God willing my programme has managed to get rid of those thoughts and realise that alcohol on top of these physical problems would be even more hell.
I love your quote about two hands and one mouth although, that was my friends brothers quote for years. Unfortunately, God rest his soul he died from our disease a few years ago.
Tipsy, dont let the stinking thinking get to you and reach out to your Higher Power when it tries to rear its ugly head.
Oh c'mon , of course I'm upset...I just camouflage my feelings with playful idiocy as a defense mechanism. And the reason I intentionally post things to get a rise out of people is because when I was a child my parents were very busy so I was forced to do bad things to get attention. Unfortunately I never grew out of it.
here's a very sterile and platonic (((((Hug))))), Tipsy.
Did you ever write about this when doing your 4th Step? Just curious. That's the kind of stuff that heals us, you know. Maybe you thought you wouldn't be funny enough to be accepted at the company meeting, and a drink would "help" you?
I think a lot of us have used defense mechanisms to cope with feelings of insecurity since childhood, and we carried them over into adulthood. In recovery we see how those mechanisms don't work anymore. We become able to accept ourselves as we are, and we don't need to prove anything anymore. We are valuable no matter what. We are even valuable when no one notices us.
I hope you can move toward some real healing inside. I know you have heard this 1,000 times, but I am going to say it again. A good sponsor and the Steps can help you overcome the need to keep using old coping skills that don't work. There is a lot less to cope with when life itself becomes less anxious, and we find a general sense of acceptance and serenity....
Take care... Keep us posted, let some TRUE feelings out to SOMEONE... that is the path to recovery.
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
We finally just decided to put her outside at meal time!
