Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselling Thread

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Agreed.

Alcoholism has two parts: an allergy and an obsession. Now consider ...

My older daughter has a physical allergy to penicillin. Her body chemistry cannot tolerate it without having an adverse reaction.

As far as I know, nobody calls that a disease ... and there is really no difference between my daughter's allergy to penicillin and my allergy to alcohol. Her body cannot tolerate penicillin without having an adverse reaction that can lead to death, and my body cannot tolerate ethyl alcohol without having an adverse reaction that can lead to death.

But as an alcoholic, my overall dilemma concerning alcohol is greater than my daughter's dilemma concerning penicillin. To the best of my knowledge, my daughter has never felt any need to prove she is like other people who can safely handle a shot of penicillin, and neither has she ever had any "strange mental blank spots" where she forgets about her allergy and gets a shot just as liesurely as if it were ginger ale.

My daughter knows penicillin can do good things for her when indicated, but she also knows it will do much harm. So, she stays completely away from it and accepts sufficient substitutes.

I know alcohol can do good things for me when indicated, but I do not always recall the harm it will do. But now that I have found a substitute that far exceeds even the very best effect alcohol ever gave me, I am no longer "strangely insane" concerning drink.

Do cigarettes count?

I let go of the caffeine about 48 hours ago. Feeling good about that. I've lived exclusively on caffeine and sugar so long, I didn't think I could do it. I use it to self-medicate the ADHD so I'm a little spacy and not getting my paperwork done.

On the other hand, I cleaned most of my apartment today. Since I am in a wheelchair and eligible for help with cleaning, I haven't cleaned since 1995.

Will try to let go of obvious sugar (junk and desserts) and restaurants this week. Sometimes a financial set back can be a good motivator.

God willing, I will celebrate my 18th sobriety birtthday from alcohol next month.

Keeping our wills aligned with His is all it takes, eh?!



Some people can drink without experiencing great harm and some cannot, and some people can smoke without experiencing great harm and some cannot. I have never heard of someone having an allergic reaction to tobacco, but its nicotine certainly can be addictive and the stuff in its smoke can eventually kill.

If you or if someone you know has a desire to stop smoking and is finding that impossible, physical "detox" might be required to get past the addiction. Following that, and if the former smoker finds himself or herself insanely obsessed with smoking and powerless to leave tobacco alone, the Twelve Steps can lead to a complete removal of that obsession.

Last edited by leejosepho on 05 Oct 2009, 5:20 am, edited 2 times in total.

Oops! Duplicate.

I'm not sure if I'm an alcoholic - yet.

But I did go through a whole fifth of 151 rum in the last 24 hours. I don't usually drink that much - in fact, I don't usually have more than one or two drinks a month. What was different about this time? Who knows?

I'm still very much drunk at the moment. Not looking forward to the hangover, but I get what I deserve. Heh.

I have been so depressed the last couple of weeks at the fact that I have no real local social ties. All of my friends are long-distance. Figures.

I suspect that when I come down from this, there will be at least one message telling me never to do this again. Frankly, it only made me feel a lot worse when the bottle was finally empty and I am now so tipsy that I can't play video games properly. Not as tipsy as I was a few hours ago, but still. It was $25 dollars down the drain. Ack.

I would guess you are not, or at least not yet, for:

"... what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
"Here is the fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control." ("A.A.", the book, page 21)

However, the Twelve Steps could still be useful in helping to address the matters over which just about anyone might ever drink at all:

"... because they like the effect produced by alcohol ...
"... restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks ..." ("The Doctor's Opnion", in "A.A.", the book)

Seeing as this experience has given me the exact opposite of a positive experience, and the exact opposite of ease and comfort..... Guess I won't be doing this again. I enjoy the occasional bourbon, but I enjoy being in control of my mind and motor skills more than the feeling of being tipsy. I suppose most people have an experience like this at least once in their lives. At least now I can say I got it behind me and out of my system. I didn't really get why anybody would want to do that to themselves after I did that to myself.

If this overall experience now keeps you from ever again taking more than your usual "one or two drinks a month", you are almost certainly not an alcoholic. But if you might yet prove to be someone of the "restless, irritable and discontented" variety when sober and all of this eventually happens again, well ...! !

Here is the "test" suggested in "Alcoholics Anonymous", the book:

"As we look back, we feel we had gone on drinking many years beyond the point where we could quit on our will power. If anyone questions whether he has entered this dangerous area, let him try leaving liquor alone for one year. If he is a real alcoholic and very far advanced, there is scant chance of success. In the early days of our drinking we occasionally remained sober for a year or more, becoming serious drinkers again later. Though you may be able to stop for a considerable period, you may yet be a potential alcoholic. We think few, to whom this book will appeal, can stay dry anything like a year. Some will be drunk the day after making their resolutions; most of them within a few weeks." (page 34)

Self-medicating topic

Today I am taking my youngest NT daughter for substance abuse counseling.

I know other issues are going to arise--my AS, the method of payment for such substances (No, I did not fund this or provide it), choice of friends, falsehoods, betrayal, etc.

This is going to be difficult. I have no substance abuses issues (except for coffee--which i drink to keep awake during the day) and do not take any physician prescribed meds. I do not smoke or keep alcohol in my home. I worry and love my youngest child.

This is going to be difficult and exhausting. I need all the courage I can muster.

There is a lot of conversation here about AA and it being religious , I dont think that is the biggest obstacle for aspies in AA its the fact that success is based on your response to peer pressure from the group and your sponsor . I was in a group home at 19yo and they shuttled the drinkers to four AA meetings a day don't discredit an alcoholic just because of age
I started at 8 yrs old so it was serious by 19 . I hated every minute of it and considered myself atheist at that point , but as an adult I still draw from the things i learned there and other peoples stories. The 12 steps force you to be accountable for your actions also and the serenity prayer has helped me keep walking past the mini mart on angry late night walks . Alcohol is seductive if you are a true alcoholic you are fooling yourself to think you can control it and just drink on occasion as long as it is in your head it can always regain control of you.

You might already know there are actually two parts to that. Alcohol can be “seductive” in the sense of drinking sounding good within a mind unable to raise an effective defense against any such idea or thought, and then the THIQ already physically accumulated within the brain can again demand ever-more alcohol after a drink has been taken.



That is actually an obstacle for just about anyone, and it exists because people either do not understand or they simply ignore Step One and its dynamic of “mutual vulnerability, openly shared” (Ernest Kurtz).



In my own case, it was the lash of alcoholism that forced me to learn about myself and how to become accountable as well as rightly dependent as mentioned in that prayer:

“Wisdom to know the difference between the things I can change and the things I cannot.”

By seductive I mean sometimes its like another entity that rationalizes the reasons why you should let it back in . Regardless of the fact you feel like crap afterwards somehow it sounds like a good idea. I didnt continue AA as an adult but went 5yrs sober then one fourth of july I decided I was doing so well i could handle a beer, I kept a strict limit of no more than 2 whenever I decided it was a safe and appropriate time to drink 1-2 times a month . This went on for 3-4yrs then I began a cycle of late night having those 2 alone after doing this 4 times in one month I realized , crap it will take just one bad thing happening in my life and this will get out of control again!. This decision was made in front of the beer case at the mini mart , I realized I was wearing my medicine pouch and literally jumped back a foot, it was really a higher power speaking to me and I was ashamed, so now I just don't let it into my life or my head.

i havent gotten drunk since last month. and i really have no desire to, the game was revealed to me and now i know how its played so i dont need alcohol anymore.
i was fooled by a savvy enemy

Yeah ... like, "My alleged mind was out to get me!"

"If hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it he takes that one drink? Why can't he stay on the water wagon? What has become of the common sense and will power that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters?" ("A.A.", the book, page 22)

oh wow i'm glad this thread's here, i've been worried this week. so i discovered what it's like to get drunk the sunday before last, and since then i got drunk 6 of the following 8 nights. it's always vodka cuz it gets me drunk fast. it feels so good, and i think being autistic i have a special appreciation of it because i'm usually so worried and self-conscious and inhibited and it's amazing to find something that helps it all go away. i really crave it now, i feel like...i wish i was drunk all the time. maybe it's just cuz it's a new thing i'm so enthusiastic about it, i dunno. i got way too drunk at a party yesterday...i feel a bit embarrassed. and i didn't do nearly enough schoolwork last week. i think i'll have to put limits on it from now on. i hope i can control it.