Alcoholism & Drug Addiction or “Drugoholism.

” The 3 P’s, Some Facts and

Opinions - 08/10

Primary.

Today it is less common to find a “straight” alcoholic. “Better living through

Chemistry.” includes varying combinations and permutations of either alcohol,
street and/or prescription drugs. As an addiction M.D. wrote on
http://wiredin.org.uk/ - a substance recovery blog, “One of the most important
paradigm shifts might be dropping the artificial separation between drugs and
alcohol. The addiction is in the person, not the drug; I have almost never met a
chemically dependent patient who was only using one chemical.” So Drugoholism
is a more applicable general term. I would also include food addiction, plus the
process addictions, gambling, sex, and Internet addiction, the newcomer on the
block, because Dual Addiction is also as commonplace as Poly- Substance Abuse.

Once it takes hold, Drugoholism is self-exacerbating, self-perpetuating, and self-

reinforcing. To translate, Drugoholism produces a process of self-feeding,
(recursive, snake swallowing it’s own tail), cycles and spirals that strengthen and
worsen the longer it progresses, INDEPENDENT of however it was initiated. Once
a match starts the underbrush alight, the ensuing forest fire proceeds on its own.
In its later stages, this progression is totally impervious to resolution of initiating
circumstances or outside factors. This means attempts to resolve childhood
problems, (or current external issues), as the solution, have virtually no chance of
long-term success. The match is not the current issue; initially, putting out the
fire becomes a necessity. This will be difficult enough for most. Unless there is a
condition of Dual Diagnosis, i.e. other combined coexisting psychiatric conditions
as a source of/result of, or both, of an individual’s Drugoholism. This may be true
of a high percentage of those needing help, but the majority need sobriety first,
in order to address other issues. But if crucial, a small percentage may need to
be addressed concurrently. For many a Drugoholic, research has documented
that 50% of the problem is contributed to by an underlying genetic/biochemical
vulnerability. For example, if one identical twin is alcoholic, the other has a 50%
chance of being alcoholic, even if growing up in a different home, excluding mere
role modeling though this may be a compounding factor. Statistical methodology
of this nature is one of the standard methods for establishing genetic influences.
Research into large Drugoholic populations using several other common methods
of statistical analysis yields similar results.

Progressive.

As described above, this process becomes progressively worse. “At first glance it
seems as if a vicious circle has been established, but that is not the case, for it is
actually a more ominous downward spiral…” from, “The Booze Battle.” By Ruth
Maxwell. This is both a physical and psychological process. In the book, Alcoholics
Anonymous, it states something like, “Over any considerable period of time we
get worse, never better. At times there are brief periods of recovery, followed by
still worse relapse.” For alcoholism itself, as also cocaine addiction, there is a
recorded well-defined stereotypical sequence of stages and their symptoms.
Reducing major external stressors may often produce temporary, but rarely long-
term improvement, unless accompanied by treatment, due to the mental
component, the persistent delusions of denial, that are retained subconsciously,
that re-emerge after periods of abstinence, or as a default avoidance/coping
mechanism as a reaction to “stress”. In the later stages, these delusions become
a significant mental issue.

Drugoholism exists like all illnesses, in both varying degrees of intensity and
stages of progression. In advanced and/or intense addictions, the delusions and
other mental defenses described further on, and other forms of both voluntary
and involuntary large-scale repression, (i.e. pushing unacceptable realities
down/out of awareness), become then a full blown mental health issue. The
Drugoholic loses all connection to the reality of his addictions and their results in
his life, as this process of occlusion creates an eclipse of the original mind and
spirit. This is added and abetted by the chemical toxic poisoning effects on the
brain. Mr. Hyde takes over from Dr Jekyll, not only when loaded, but sober too, as
in that story. Often some form of controlled external environment is essential for
the Drugoholic to regain even a modicum of sanity, when it reaches these latter
stages.

Permanent.

Once the mental and psycho/physiological mind/body state, (the condition, illness
or disease), of Drugoholism is established, it never leaves, though
abstinence/sobriety may arrest the progression. It is a common experience that a
relapse takes a person rapidly back to where they left off, or even worse. This is
particularly so if the process has reached any of the developing levels of
increased physical tolerance. The body and nervous system have compensated
for previous dosages by adapting their metabolism to diminish the impact of
usage. Described in medicine as tissue adaptation. This is expressed simply in AA
parlance as, “Once a pickle, never a cucumber again!” As above, the mental
illness component of repression and denial becomes an impervious encapsulating
layer. The longstanding use of them by the Drugoholic, combined with their
chemical incorporation into the nervous system, produces something akin to a
personality disorder, these being notoriously difficult to treat. Later stage
processes undermine an afflicted persons beliefs, ethics, morals, and values,
resulting in a condition appearing similar to that described in Psychiatry as a
character disorder, also known to be hard to treat. In more advanced stages
Paranoia, Depression, and PTSD are often accompanying handmaidens of the
Drugoholic deterioration. This involves the psychology of Drugoholism, of the
addictive process itself, rather than normal psychology. It follows of course that
trying to work with any accompanying state, without stopping the ongoing
causative active addiction factor, is pretty much a lost cause. Hypnotherapy, with
its ability to “go under” defenses, is at times able to have more success. Self-
hypnosis, kissing cousin to meditation, is a non-chemical way of self-
management that can successfully fill many Drugoholic needs.

Until emotional surrender to the fact that control will not be regained, i.e. an
admission of defeat, (not just the intellectual knowledge of this, though that may
be a start); the mind of the Drugoholic is mainly focused on struggles to control
intake and minimize “collateral damage.” The psychological defenses as
elaborated below otherwise reconstitute themselves in a period of what proves to
be temporary sobriety, and rapidly re-emerge in full force; often even prior to the
physical relapse, if one is coming. This emotional surrender is expressed in the
First Step of the Twelve Steps Programs as, “I am powerless over (whatever
addiction) and my life has become unmanageable.” It is also included in the idea,
“One is too many and a thousand’s not enough.” My version is, “I’m addicted to
something that’s killing me,” which equals, “I’m screwed,” or a still more vulgar
parallel. True acceptance of this powerlessness opens the door to giving up the
struggle to control Drugoholism, initiating the new process of shifting energy and
focus towards the goal of learning to live life without chemicals.

Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists have expressed to me repugnance towards

the idea of teaching persons powerlessness. Mostly because they are uninformed
as to the structure of the denial/excuse/alibi system as follows, and misinterpreting
the description of the need for it’s collapse. This first step is a paradox that opens
the door to sobriety, and subsequent regaining of power and control of their lives
by Drugoholics. Other attempts focused on assisting persons to regain control of
their chemical consumption end badly for the most part. Alcoholism and addiction
imply by definition that this control is no longer an option. (I don’t know of many
social heroin addicts). This latter is the first needed surrender for helping
professionals. Of course, the underlying genetic/biochemical physiological
vulnerability, and/or the ensuing or concomitant psychological vulnerability, for
those so affected, certainly never goes away. This step therefore becomes the pre-
requisite solid foundation for all further progress.

Recognition.

Drugoholism may or may not include physical dependency, especially in its initial
stages, but develops a specific group of psychological defenses and attitudes to
the addictive usage, so it may be easily recognized by these defenses long before
any actual physical dependency sets in. This is especially so with the common
longer term, more slowly growing types of addiction to alcohol. These can be
seen as various components of the denial process. They are intertwined,
overlapping and fused mechanisms.

1) Flat out Denial :- “I don’t have the problem.”

2) Fall back Denial :- “I have the problem, but I can handle it on my own.” By
the time things have reached such a pass as to prompt this last kind of
defensive statement, the probability is very low of it ever being true.
 3) Defocusing :- (focusing on where the problem isn’t), “I didn’t drink for a
week, so I can’t be an alcoholic.”
4) Proving one doesn’t have a problem and proof of control statements in
general. “I can’t be an alcoholic because… “ If a person is engaged in
proving they have control, what are they controlling, if not a problem?
Another paradox. Drugoholism, (and recovery), are full of them.
5) Rationalization :- making wrong things right. “I had a stomach ache, and
the whisky soothed it.” (No mention that it took a pint!).
6) Minimization: - reducing the significance of negative events connected to
addictive consumption, the aforementioned, “collateral damage.” “Yes, I
did hit my wife when I was high, but she has forgiven me.”
7) Projection :- Blaming other externals, like the time honored, “You’d drink
too if you had a wife like mine.”
Blaming on childhood difficulties/trauma, etc. As described, these may have
been a source, but past a certain point they become irrelevant.
8) Defense/defiance of the right to drink/use, “Nobodies going to tell me how
much I can or cannot drink.”
9) Justification :- “All real men drink heavily where I come from, you don’t
understand, it’s a masculine thing.”
10) Euphoric Recall :- the good old days, “You can’t remember how bad it
got, you can only remember how good it felt.”
11) Alibis & Excuses :- “I was late because the traffic was so heavy.” Not
mentioning, or even perhaps being even aware of the fact, “I was so loaded
I passed out for half an hour,” being the real cause of the delay. “I was
overwhelmed, so I couldn’t focus and couldn’t do well on the exam.” Rather
than, “I was so hung over and/or still loaded from yesterday, that I was in
no shape to succeed.”

Once one “tunes in” to the flavor, the sense, (and nonsense!), of these defensive
responses, Drugoholism becomes obvious, easily visible to the educated eye; and
detection/identification of its presence is now relatively simple exercise, even in
its early stages. The person’s attitude to their consumption of chemicals reveals
far more than the physical factors. This was true even of the Dual Diagnosis
teenagers I worked with in a Psychiatric Unit. Those that were manifesting the
addictive process of Drugoholism were displaying and maintaining this kind of
thinking already. This is very important for helping professionals, as Drugoholism
presents in every area of human problems, but often masked by a veneer of
these very problems, producing a confusion of cause and effect. This is only the
more true, when the effect of Drugoholism, say loss of employment,
homelessness etc. often feeds back cyclically as a “cause.” (Which can be
cynically deliberately fed back to manipulate helpers by “system abusers.”)

Drugoholism affects almost 10% of the population, and recovery is far too huge a
topic to deal with in this one article. It also affects adversely all those closely
connected to a Drugoholic, spreading the effects of the problem. I have seen this
huge affected segment of the rest of the population described variously as from
40% to 70%. Suffice it to say that recovery is possible, and early diagnosis may
increase this possibility with any given individual. The increasingly of widespread
recognition and understanding of the condition is an advantage; although the
lack of understanding of addiction to medical drugs, prescribed with an ever
increasing frequency, is a step back. For further information and recovery
resources, visit Holistic Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy – Los Angeles the website of
Brian Green, CDS. CHT.