If there is enough alcohol in the blood stream, long enough, that will cause alcoholism. Real Native Americans, genetically, don't have enzymes to change alcohol into sugar, therefore, it is easy for enough alcohol to remain in the blood stream long enough to cause us alcoholism.
Abusive alcohol intake overloads the liver, so it has to break it down into smaller stages. One of the stages converts alcohol to formaldehyde (a preservative) and something else (ammonia I think). Once formaldehyde reaches the brain, it bonds with dopamine (triggers adrenaline), to form a substance called Tetrahydroisoquinoline (TIQ or THIQ). This substance stays permanently in the brain (part of the formaldehyde property).
Later, when alcohol is again ingested, absorbed into the bloodstream, and reaches the TIQ in the brain, there is an instant Adrenalin reaction which triggers our feelings of compulsion and craving for more. In other words, our brain is actually pickled, and set up to crave for alcohol as soon as we drink it. The damage in our brain has been done, and cannot be undone. We cannot unpickle a pickle.
If we take in (grasp) what this fact actually means, recovery can take on a whole new perspective. The back door in our mind, for an escape route, has been shut. We can know understand when they say we do not have alcoholism (as if we could somehow get rid of it) but WE ARE ALCOHOLISM.
__________________
"... unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of recovery." Dr. Silkworth. (Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Ed. p.xxix)
Great topic. And thats a great explanation of it, Part7. I think I read a whole thing somewhere about how it takes generations and generations, and hundreds or even thousands of years for a race of humans to develop the chemistry to be able to process alcohol. It's kinda seems like we "get used to it", so to speak. Native Americans didn't have/make alcohol before invasion by the white man. So, their body's don't have a way to deal with it. I know it for a fact...cause I lived on a reservation with my Native American girlfriend for quite a few years, and it just does something to them that makes them get really *+%#ed up. Luckily, my girlfriend only drank like once or twice a year...the New Years thing or whatever. And she would get really mean, and violent. And that wasn't her personality AT ALL when she didn't drink. Eventually, she quit altogether.
I also read that a large percentage of Asians are allergic to alcohol. Their skin gets all red, and they get really sick if they drink just a beer or two. I think thats why they don't seem to drink a whole lot...I haven't seen too many at AA meetings. I think that allergy is a blessing in disguise.
Some white race people seem to be able to drink large amounts of alcohol, like Irish and Russians. Prolly cause they've had it for thousands of years.
Dont matter, though, what race you are, or how used to alcohol your race is: if you drink it enough, eventually you will become alcoholic. And once yer alcoholic, the brain never forgets, just like Part7 explained.
i haven't had a drink in over a year and a half, but if I did, I can imagine I would probably get a strong buzz after just 1 or 2 beers. And be totally wasted after just 8. And if I drank hard liquor, I'd probably wind up in the hospital.
The more I think about it, the more grateful I am that I dont drink that poison anymore. What a waste of time. I've can feel the hangover right now, just thinking about it.
The more I think about it, the more grateful I am that I dont drink that poison anymore. What a waste of time. I've can feel the hangover right now, just thinking about it.
#*%K that.
Waste of time??? ... what about the MONEY???
That stuff cost me a small fortune ... not to mention the cost to my health ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Yeah, ... the more I think 'bout it, you're right, Time is more important than the money ... you can always get the money back to some degree, but not time, that's for doggone sure ... and the health bit, depend'n on how bad ya got, some of that is recoverable ... sometimes not so much ...
and the cost in the end is your very soul, for all eternity ... (if you believe in Heaven) ...
THAT's why I'm so very grateful ... not that one can earn a place there, 'but for the grace of God' ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Between 1981 and 1988 I knew I was an alcoholic but kept denying it (ignor-ance is more likely the truth), and I kept relapsing.
Each time I relapsed I was into it for at least another three months before coming back with my tail between my legs.
On each relapse two thoughts would always pop up.
During my first drink, I would realize my folly, and say "Well that did it, I might as well get drunk now!". Followed by "Gee! I got a lot of catching up to do".
CATCH UP TO WHAT, THE GUY ON THE PARK BENCH?
Whenever I got sober and reflected on this, I could never work it out. But drunk, it made total sense.
Then years later in recovery I discovered why, while drunk, I thought my irrational thoughts seemed right, and everybody else was wrong. Because IT FELT RIGHT.
As long as it felt right, I couldn't give a damn if it was irrational or not.
By the way, we don't have to have a drink to be insane.
We already become insane to pick up that first drink.
The trouble with that, we cannot tell when we get insane, because we are already insane.
That is another reason why the 12 Step program is a spiritual program. We rely on a Higher Power, on a daily basis (step 11) to keep us on track.
__________________
"... unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of recovery." Dr. Silkworth. (Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Ed. p.xxix)
Great post P VII, ... I know exactly of what you speak ... my journey seems to have been on that same path you were on ... and yes, I find step 11 necessary to keep me on the path we're on now ... it makes it easier to 'look forward' to every day rather than dread it ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
I don't believe it is possible to to take a non alcoholic and have them drink themselves into being an alcoholic, at least not of my type. For one thing, I was an instant aloholic. At 11 years old I was given uncontrolled access to alcohol and immediately lost control. (phenomenon of craving at first drink).
Secondly, the latest research indicates a combination of gentics and environment, roughly 50/50. One may have the gene, but if there is no environmental trigger, one may not develop alcoholism. This may explain that while alcoholism seems to run in fanilies, it may sometimes skip a generation.
Thirdly, on this assumption, every heavy drinker, or person that spent a period of their life drinking to excess, like students sometimes do, would become alcoholic. Yet they don't. Most just grow out of it, or in the case of the long term heavy drinker, never lose control. Long term excessive use of alcohol will cause health problems, but it doesn't cause alcoholism. Always remembering that for the alcoholic, alcohol isn't the problem, it is the solution to alcoholism. Take away the booze, and the alcoholism will appear.
Thank you very much for telling me about formaldehyde to tetrahydroisoquinoline. Many Orientals lack the enzyme to breakdown ascetaldehyde into ascetic acid. Ascetaldehyde is such a vasodialator that it causes severe headaches, therefore, these people avoid alcoholic beverages to avoid the resultant severe headaches. Antabuse blocks the enzyme that breaks down ascetaldehyde into ascetic acid.
Naltrexone however is very very promising. Watch the documentary "One Little Pill".
Baclofen as well. It is very safe and not a narcotic (it's a muscle relaxant, originally used for MS). Google "baclofen for alcoholism" and read the reviews. However, naltrexone works instantly.
-- Edited by Jakamo on Monday 29th of February 2016 06:35:12 PM
