Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
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The absence or malfunction of bodily enzymes necessary to metabolize alcohol into a simple carbohydrate, assimilate it into the body and excrete it through normal body function. The failure of the enzymes to perform this function leaves an acetone level in the body. The acetone initiates and engages a physical craving for alcohol. The phenomenon of craving develops in the body.
Some people seem to begin their drinking career with a sufficient quantity or quality of enzymes present to properly metabolize alcohol. But after a period of prolonged drinking whereby these enzymes are perhaps overworked, damaged, or broken down, their quantity or quality deteriorates. A physical cravingdevelops. The progression of this phenomenon causes an individual to cross an invisible line into out of control drinking, "developing" and allergy (as opposed to "addiction") to alcohol.
Others appear, to be missing the necessary enzymes from the onset of their drinking career, or perhaps their enzymes are of such and insufficient quantity or quality that they are allergic (as opposed to "addicted") to alcohol from the very start and subject to a physical craving, both of which suggest they may have been born that way."
From http://www.stepnahead.com/The%20Allergy%20+%20The%20Obsession.htm
Went through this with my sponsor tonight. I had never heard this description before.
Thoughts?
The absence or malfunction of bodily enzymes necessary to metabolize alcohol into a simple carbohydrate, assimilate it into the body and excrete it through normal body function. The failure of the enzymes to perform this function leaves an acetone level in the body. The acetone initiates and engages a physical craving for alcohol. The phenomenon of craving develops in the body.
Some people seem to begin their drinking career with a sufficient quantity or quality of enzymes present to properly metabolize alcohol. But after a period of prolonged drinking whereby these enzymes are perhaps overworked, damaged, or broken down, their quantity or quality deteriorates. A physical cravingdevelops. The progression of this phenomenon causes an individual to cross an invisible line into out of control drinking, "developing" and allergy (as opposed to "addiction") to alcohol.
Others appear, to be missing the necessary enzymes from the onset of their drinking career, or perhaps their enzymes are of such and insufficient quantity or quality that they are allergic (as opposed to "addicted") to alcohol from the very start and subject to a physical craving, both of which suggest they may have been born that way."
From http://www.stepnahead.com/The%20Allergy%20+%20The%20Obsession.htm
Went through this with my sponsor tonight. I had never heard this description before.
Thoughts?
Interesting
Put the obsession along with that and, well, we all know what happens.
Awesome.
xoxo
~Chris
good thread htl. gives us all something to think about.
What it shows me is what I have always suspected which is that it is not alcohol per se that causes alcoholism rather it is my bodies inability to process alcohol in a normal way. Also why I do not necessarily have to be physically dependent on alcohol to be an alcoholic.
When I got drunk it was not because I set out to get into the state I did. I might have had the first drink to "escape" but that never explained to me why I was still drinking uncontrollably days later. I was very relieved to find out about the phenomenon of craving that alcoholics have as it suddenly made sense of my experiences.
I do know that before I was old enough to have any "reason" to drink (I was probably 6-8), I always wanted more. None of my sibs are alkies - I finished theirs and wanted more, not even understanding at that age that it made me feel any different. I just remember my parents having to "cut me off". I don't recall getting drunk until I was 11-12 and that is my first memory of Recognizing a craving for more.
Interesting.
The goal was to explore electrophysiological "markers" to identify children at risk. They found that in response to visual stimuli, the sons of alcoholic fathers had a measurably lower amplitude of P300 brain waves. However, they cautioned that the results were not conclusive as a diagnostic predictor of later addictive behavior. Even so, the finding suggests that addiction is much more of a medical and genetic mystery than either the moralists or the self-help gurus can confidently address with didactic or formulaic solutions.
I think a fascinating point here is that every twist of mind that we experience, be it thought, emotion, imagination or whatever is simultaneously a neurcohemical event in the brain, and these all give off brain waves, some of which we currently have the technology to detect with PET scanners, MRIs and the like, and some not.
I also think it would be fascinating to find out if other psychic phenomena and mental illnesses also run in families, and there have been other studies of both schizophrenia and alcoholism which suggest that they do. The Amish and the Icelanders, for example, are excellent populations to study for two reasons. They're very inbred and their societies are too close-knit to keep family "skeletons" in the closet, so there is data available there that would be very hard to come by in open societies. But I firmly believe that all these phenomena are legitimate fields for neurological and genetic research, though needless to say, there are some serious privacy issues which impede conventional medical research methodology.
More on the Begleiter-Porjesz experiments here:
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-2/153-160.htm
From the article:
"For many years it was assumed that the P3 deficit observed in alcoholics was the consequence of the deleterious effects of alcohol on the brain. However, after a sufficient period of abstinence, many of the clinical abnormalities characteristic of alcohol dependence, as well as electrophysiological measures of hearing deficits, return to normal, but the P3 amplitude abnormality persists (Porjesz and Begleiter 1985). This protracted deficit in longterm abstinent alcoholics suggests the possibility that P3 deficits may precede alcohol use and dependence. Indeed, a number of studies have reported low P3 amplitudes in young people at high risk for developing alcoholism, such as young sons of alcoholic fathers (Begleiter et al. 1984; Polich et al. 1994)."
I got Hep C from IV injecting. My doctor said most Hep C cases don't progress. It is the alcohol that does it.
I dunno
Night
When I came to DS there were many helpful articles like yours that made sense to me and helped me reach an acceptance level that completely convinced me that I can NOT drink alcohol PERIOD. For myself I do not think of Acohol as a physical addiction because NOT drinking caused no physical withdrawal symptoms. By definition highly addictive substances such as Heroin, coke, nicotine etc DO cause physical symptions when you withdraw.
night, mindlight. sweet dreams!