Yeah, its a disease

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Yeah, its a disease

Neophyte · Senior Member

Liked this article: (i know it says drugs, but it includes alcohol and nicotine just as much.) http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/science-addiction/drug-abuse-addiction

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Interesting article ... ... ... thanks Neo

Neophyte · Senior Member

I had a bit of trouble with the "disease" concept my first 60 days. Reading scientific articles/studies on how alcohol/drugs change the brain chemistry and the other factors that go on behind addiction helped me through it.

Sidenote: i didnt want to make a seperate post about this because i dont think anyone will take this suggestion, but i recently got asked to be a sponsor (i feel like i dont have enough time to be a sponsor, but maybe my HP thinks i am capable) and she asked me about anything ive come across that helped explain coming to beleve. I am a big fan of reading, but i know not most are. So i told her to watch Life of Pi. I found this book (and the movie which was suprisingly far from disappointing) to really open my eyes to what spirituality is supposed to be about. It helped me over come alot of the glaring flaws i saw in alot of major religions and brought to light what those religions all shared. In a sense it taught me what spirituality was and what it could offer.

If anyone else has any other suggestions on things that they found to be a significant part of their 2nd/3rd steps, id really love some feed back. Thank you all for being here.

Neophyte · Senior Member

Thanks python. Were still just getting to know eachother, and im kind of making extra time to do a 4 step on my actions and how they have effected my recovery (good and bad). I just also feel that its important to see recovery as the chocolate milk in that jar of pickles (please tell me you caught that reference, please god tell me you did)

John · Admin

The American Medical Association has 3 primary tenets by which a "disease" is defined

1. It's Chronic - It cannot be wished away, willed away, ignored away, and it is inclined to periodically come out of remission (rear its ugly head again) even with the best known treatments being undertaken and all indicators of a full remission in place.

2. It's Progressive - In the absence of agressive and effective treatment it always gets worse, never better.

3. It's Potentially Fatal - There are no guarantees. Even though the sufferer's illness has been in remission for a substantial period of time, and their health relatively restored, should they be inflicted with another bout it could result ulitimately in their death.

To understand alcoholism or addiction a person needs to grasp and understand the pathology of the brain that is effected by it. This is where the disease we are addressing is centered. It is more operative as a neurological malfunction, that as a by product has physiological and behavorial symtoms.

That being the case, if a person has a neurological disorder/malfunction, how can we expect that brain to make good, healthy, wholesome decisions? Isn't that the same as expecting the abnormal to act normal?

I often have to work with the family of alcoholics and addicts that are coming into the homes in order that they might better understand some of the dynamics of this disease and how to better understand it as a neurological issue not a character issue. To do this, I have a animated illustration that I use that comes from Time magazine, and a video that I found on youtube.com. I will provide this information below for you to view.

So many times I hear a parent, wife, husband, brother, sister or adult child say, "This is absolutely insane! Why won't they stop??" They just answered their own question. The key word is "insane". (neurology) Thus in step two this is what we are seeking to be restored, our sanity. This takes time, effort, faith, and a great amount of environmental, and emotional support.

I hope this writing helps those with some questions better understand why alcoholism or addiction is defined as a disease and some of the internal dynamics of it that the eye can't see.

John

To view the animated illustraton go to:

http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,1640235,00.html

To view speaker on the Physiology/Pathology of Addiction go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CawzicB1bHM

Fyne Spirit · MIP Old Timer

Hi Neo,
step 2 for me was a no brainer, and no big deal. It was the realisation that I was beyond human aid and I was left with only two choices. Carry on to the bitter end or accept spritual help. I had come to believe that my only hope was spiritual help. Being convinced of that, I was now at step three - am i going to do what is required to get spiritual help or not. Yes or no, a simple decision. It was yes and expressed through the third step prayer, so the decision was made. Now to put it into effect would require action, so the decision is followed at once by step 4, a house cleaning. There is no big deal or mystery around the first three steps. They are just admitting the problem without reservations, identifying the solution, and deciding to take action.

If you have a look at Clancy's take on the steps that Stepchild posted, it can be seen that steps one to nine are all taken once and are to do with dealing with the past. 10,11 and 12 are about living today. I don't take step 3 today to hand over, I work step 11 for guidance and strength. I don't do step 4/9 today, I use step 10 to sort out any new mistakes as I go along, and I practice step 12 to keep my spiritual experience (the result of the initial steps) current. What Clancy has to say is pretty consistent with the Big Book. Beware of over complication and analysis paralysis.

With you new sponsee, you could sit with them and read and discuss the first 164 pages of the Big Book, starting at the very first page. No doubt you would both learn a lot.

God bless
MikeH

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

That's the way I see it Mike....And there is nothing in the book to suggest otherwise.

Neophyte · Senior Member

Thanks mike, we started yesterday reading through the book and discussed some things. She's just really apprehensive and stuck on her misconceptions about spirituality. I know it helped me to have other perspectives that weren't adressing me personally to see how there are... Many versions (for lack of better term)... Of spirituality. Kind of like a "take what you need and leave the rest" idea, but exposing her slowly to many sources she could draw strength from.

justadrunk · MIP Old Timer

I had to start out using the group as my HP. There was evidence that it was keeping me sober - somehow - when I could not. At that point, I needed obvious. I couldn't think about it more in depth than that.