This Naked Mind. Annie Grace

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СКАЧАТЬ Amputees with prosthetic limbs can now control the prosthetics’ movements with their thoughts, which are translated to the limb by electrical signals from the brain.²⁶ Dr. Sergio Canavero, an Italy-based neuroscientist, is preparing to transplant a human head.²⁷ Recent advances in medicine blow our minds. If there is a specific physical or mental defect responsible for alcoholism, I find it hard to believe that we can’t, in this day and age, diagnose and prevent it.

      Am I saying every person responds the same way to alcohol, no matter their genetic or physical disposition? Not at all. Like the way one glass of wine affects two people differently, long-term exposure to alcohol has different effects on each of us. I am not debating this. Nor am I saying there is no evidence for a gene that increases a proclivity for alcohol addiction. We have discovered many loose relationships between genes and alcohol use but none definitive enough to declare responsible.

      The genetics lab at the University of Utah, a department that studies the role of genes in addiction, says that someone’s genetic makeup will never doom them to becoming an addict.²⁸ Polk confirms that, despite any genetic connections, someone cannot become an alcoholic without repeatedly drinking alcohol.²⁹

      It seems strange to use the term “alcoholic.” We don’t have cigarette-o-holics but rather people who have smoked and therefore become addicted to cigarettes. Similarly, you don’t hear about people who are cocaine addicts suffering from cocainism.³⁰ If you consider yourself a regular drinker, you probably take issue with this sentiment. Why? Because if we agree that no specific, diagnosable physical defect separates alcoholics from the population of “responsible” drinkers, everyone who drinks is susceptible and perhaps on the path to alcohol dependence. I assert that over time, with the right level of exposure, anyone can develop a physical dependence on alcohol. And since we are all built differently, no one can determine at what point an individual will develop dependence. This message isn’t popular; it flies in the face of our thriving alcohol industry, our societal dependence on the drug, and the attitudes of “regular” and “responsible” drinkers who pride themselves on maintaining control.

      The Blame Game 2.0: A.A. and the Alcohol Allergy Theory

      I used to accept the notion that alcoholics were different than regular drinkers. Why not? The alcoholics I knew said they had a disorder or defect, so who was I to argue? Since that time I have done a tremendous amount of research. It took me some time to find out where the belief started and why it was accepted. I discovered at once how genetics play into the diagnosis. Neuroscientist Thad Polk says, “There is no single addiction gene; dozens of genes have been identified that affect addiction susceptibility, and most of them only have a small effect by themselves.”³¹ We have not yet found a way to diagnose or prevent addiction based on genetics.³² Understanding why alcoholics themselves believe they are different from the normal population proves more difficult.

      We accept this theory for a handful of simple reasons. Regular drinkers like it because it allows them to believe they are in control— safe to continue drinking without any worry that they will cross the arbitrary line into alcoholism. Alcoholics like the theory because once you “come out” as an alcoholic, your friends make an effort to help you abstain, rather than pressuring you to drink. They mix you mocktails and support your journey to fight the disease. It is easier to abstain when no one offers you alcohol. Also, physical difference means you receive less blame. We don’t blame people who get cancer; disease allows for forgiveness. Finally, it is easier to maintain sobriety if you believe one slip will bring a fatal disease out of remission.

      A.A. is the world’s most prolific approach to treating alcoholism, with more than two million members in 175 countries.³³ Let’s examine A.A.’s approach to alcoholism to understand what assumptions we, as a society, have made and how these assumptions translate into beliefs about alcoholism. A.A.’s primary documentation is informally called “The Big Book.” Its official title is Alcoholics Anonymous, the Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. This book describes Dr. William D. Silkworth, who treated but did not cure Bill Wilson, founder of A.A. Dr. Silkworth specialized in treatment of alcoholism, and in 1934 he unsuccessfully treated a patient who he concluded was hopeless. When A.A. later cured this patient, Dr. Silkworth wrote this letter to Bill Wilson:

       We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside of our synthetic knowledge.34

      Here, Dr. Silkworth recognizes that the solutions A.A. forwarded are successful beyond what the medical profession was able to offer. And the “ultra-modern” medicine of 1939 is still in use today.

      The letter goes on to speak about how, where medical procedures fell short, the “unselfishness and community spirit of recovered A.A. members, who want to help those afflicted, has been an astounding success.”³⁵

      I will quote the most important part of the letter directly:

       We believe . . . that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class [of people] and never occurs in the average temperate drinkers. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit [they have] found they cannot break it, once having lost their self.36

      The letter discusses the inadequacy the doctor feels in helping these alcoholics and that he is astounded to see how a psychological change—like inclusion in A.A.—allows alcoholics to heal. You may notice this letter contains a contradiction. How can alcohol be an allergen that is only activated once the habit is formed? It seems to indicate they believe alcohol to be a manifestation of an allergy but that they also must “form the habit” for that allergy to manifest. It makes more sense to believe that alcohol is an addictive substance to which any human can become addicted once enough is consumed.

      The idea that alcoholics differ physically from the rest of us was hypothesized without any corroboratory lab findings by a doctor who suspected some people suffered from an allergy to alcohol. Allergens are relatively easy to diagnose, and 76 years later we have not found an allergy to be responsible for the disease of alcoholism. But Dr. Silkworth needed an explanation for A.A.’s success in helping alcoholics for whom medical prowess failed.

      How did this belief, that a physical flaw differentiates regular drinkers from alcoholics, become so widely held? A.A.’s response to Dr. Silkworth’s theory is telling:

       In this statement he [Dr. Silkworth] confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe—that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.37

      What a relief the pioneers of A.A. must have felt. It is wretched to feel that your mind is not strong enough to resist alcohol. How much better to believe something is wrong with your body, something out of your control. A physical flaw, in a sense, lets us off the hook for our inability to maintain control when drinking. The A.A. literature of today continues to perpetuate the theory that alcohol is an allergen. A booklet that is distributed at today’s meetings states,

       As far as we are concerned, alcoholism is an illness, a progressive illness which can never be ‘cured,’ but which, like some other СКАЧАТЬ