ALCOHOL-THE DRUG AND THE POISON (The below are excerpts from God's Linchpin)

Alcohol is a drug (a sedative) one most frequently used and abused. The drug ethanol (alcohol) can be classified with other sedative drugs doctors normally prescribed, such as Librium R, Valium R, or barbiturate, such as Phenobarbital, Seconal R, Nembutal R, or minor tranquilizers, such as Equanil R, Miltown R, or bromide sedatives, such as Miles Nervine R.  When alcohol is taken with other drugs, the combination may produce an effect which is greater than the sum of what the effect of each individual drug might be.  An effect known as supra-addictive interaction or “Synergism.”  This synergistic effect may be two to four times greater than the effect of alcohol alone or the pill alone.  This greater effect can be very dangerous if the quantities consumed for each drug is high.  The synergistic effect depresses heart action and respiration which frequently leads to death.  One expert suggested that “...Alcoholism is the name of a disease that should more properly be called “sedativism.”  It doesn’t matter which sedative you use, including alcohol, they all do the same thing to the brain...you could take one away and replace it with another and the brain wouldn’t know.  A patient with a drinking problem may hide that fact from his doctor.  He will complain of feeling anxiety, tension, pain, and sleeplessness.  Doctors know from drug companies that sedatives and tranquilizers are made to treat these symptoms.  What doctors may not know, nor are they informed by suppliers, is that most sedatives have what is known as a “half-life”.  This half-life of a drug is the length of time it takes the body to excrete or metabolize half of the given dose.  One of the most frequently prescribed drugs in use has an average half-life of twenty four hours.  The average prescription is for 10mg to be taken four times a day.  A simple computation reveals on day one, the user consumes 40mg.  On day two, there is still 20mg of the drug active in the body.  This amount added to another day;’s 40mg leaves the patient with 60mg on day three-a dosage not contemplated by the doctor.  Many doctors are unaware of this half-life action or of the addictive potential of sedative drugs.  No one informs them.  Most education on sedative drugs comes from the manufacturer who, in many cases, is silent on the subject.

 ALCOHOL AS A POISON

 In sufficient quantities alcohol is a cell poison which is capable of bringing all life functions to a halt in any organism.  In smaller amounts alcohol depresses the functions of living cells.  In animals like ourselves the depressant effects of alcohol are most readily apparent in the case of the cells of the central nervous system.  In the activity of the cells which produce blood, bone, or skin is temporarily diminished there is no way whereby the owner of these cells can subjectively identify this fact.

ALCOHOLISM THE DISEASE

In Las Vegas, Nevada, 1966, the American Medical Association drafted the official resolution that was passed a year later, in Houston, Texas, declaring alcoholism a disease.  The official 1967 resolution introduced by the Colorado delegation, resolved that the American Medical Association identified alcoholism as a complex disease and as such recognizes that the medical components are medicine’s responsibility. Alcoholism and addiction are no longer concepts, they are facts of life.  Alcohol addiction (alcoholism) as a disease is marked by a group of characteristics (symptoms and signs) which define a recognizable entity.  This disease has a predictable course characterized by remissions and recurrences as well as a predictable outcome of increasing disability and death if left untreated.  Illness and death may be related directly to the primary disorder as in overdoses and motor vehicle accidents or related to a host of secondary disorders such as cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), pancreatitis (inflamation of pancreas), bleeding disorders and heart or brain disorders.  All of this evidence would indicate that alcoholism is a disease not unlike diabetes or hypertension with an inherited vulnerability activated by host and or environmental factors.  This concept of alcoholism as a disease has created a remarkable although, at times, subtle changes in attitude of non-alcoholic toward the alcoholic and the alcoholic toward him/herself.

NCADD ADOPTS NEW DEFINITION OF ALCOHOLISM

·        Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal.  It is characterized by continuous or periodic; impaired control over drinking; preoccupation with drug alcohol; use of alcohol despite adverse consequences and distortion of thinking, most notably denial.

PRIMARY refers to the nature of alcoholism as a disease entity in addition to and separate from other pathopysiologic states which may be associated with it.“Primary” suggests that alcoholism, as an addiction, is not a symptom of an underlying disease state.

DISEASE means an involuntary disability. It represents the sum of the abnormal phenomena displayed by a group of individuals.These phenomena’s are associated with a specified common set of characteristics by which these individuals differ from the “norm”, and which places them at a disadvantage.

OFTEN PROGRESSIVE AND FATAL means that the disease persists over time and that physical, emotional and social changes are often cumulative and may progress as drinking continues.  Alcoholism causes premature death through overdose, organic complications involving the brain, liver, heart and many other organs, and by contributing to suicide, homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and other traumatic event

IMPAIRED CONTROL means the inability to limit alcohol use or to consistently limit on any drinking occasion the duration of the episode, the quantity consumed, and/or the behavioral consequences of drinking.

 PREOCCUPATION in association with alcohol use indicates excessive, focused attention given the drug alcohol, its effects, and/or its use. The relative value thus assigned to alcohol by the individual often leads to a diversion of energies away from important life concerns.

 ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES are alcohol related problems or impairments in such areas as: physical health (e.g., alcohol withdrawal syndromes, liver disease, gastritis, anemia, neurological disorders); psychological functioning (e.g., impairments in cognition, changes in mood and behavior): interpersonal functioning (e.g., scholastic or job problems): and legal, financial, or spiritual problems.

DENIAL is used here not only the psychoanalytic sense of a singled psychological    defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, but more broadly to include a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of an individual’s problems.  Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and a major obstacle to recovery.