Ways of dealing with addiction... AA versus personal therapy

12 Step Programs have been criticised in the past for reinforcing the            'addict identity'. 

Members are encouraged to think of themselves as recovering addicts. Sobriety is treated in the same way as remission from any incurable disease. The understanding is that the individual could relapse at any time. The problem is that the individual’s sober self image is still tied up with alcohol or drug abuse. Some people who break away from programs like 'AA' claim they want to give up the addict identity as well as the substance abuse. Members of 12 Step groups would claim that such criticisms are unfair and that the program helps many people achieve lifelong abstinence.

Dave became alcohol dependent after working in London for 3 years, previous to that he hardly drank alcohol or had any addictive traits. Dave was surrounded by his colleagues and felt he wanted to fit in. A drink at lunchtime and after work each day became the norm and the way to do business and feel accepted.

Dave eventually realised he had a problem after logically adding up all the units he drank every week compared to the recommended amount a male should consume. He was also starting to have arguments and problems at home with his wife as she was feeling neglected.

Dave attends an AA meeting, they tell him he is powerless against this addiction and that he will always be a recovering addict... Is this correct? Is he getting the right help... the right message? 

Does Dave need to stay away from alcohol forever?... Or learn to deal with the emotions behind the drinking? Or even just stay away from the group of colleagues that he felt pressure from?

Should Dave instead discover his self-esteem and confidence so that the risk of peer pressure doesn’t affect his decisions?

Many people in re-habilitation would argue he must be treated the same as all people with addictions regardless of how it started, what triggered it, their upbringing, whether they are surrounded by it, peer pressure, emotional stresses past and present, learnt behaviour and learnt mentality regarding substance abuse and for how long they’ve had the problem.

In my opinion, there are too many grey areas with addiction whatever form it takes, but one commonality is that it’s linked to emotion. What has worked for many of my clients is focusing on the emotion and just exploring how life would be without the addiction. With motivated interviewing and investigation of their thoughts, emotions and memories that the addiction tends to numb for them, they begin to realise that they CAN face their issues, and generally the addiction starts to fade along with the emotional healing.    

Dave was stuck in a vicious cycle where he felt emotionally drained from his wife being constantly upset and angry and the pressure from the boss to go for another drink. Dave felt threatened that he may lose his job if he didn’t conform. Dave was drinking to numb and forget the pain and pressure but ultimately the alcohol was a big catalyst towards Dave’s unhappy marriage. Dave was afraid to face his wife and face his boss with his low self-esteem and confidence. With work in therapy, he learned to recapture his confidence and felt he could say no to his boss and spent the extra time at home reconnecting with his wife.

Therapists: Always take a record of how much substance the client is taking for their safety and others around them, and suggest they seek help from their GP for safe reduction and quitting. If the client is heavily taking substance, the best route might be to enter a facility for their own safety.

If you or someone you know is suffering, don’t hesitate to contact Sam at www.therapyforlife.co.uk

Just the smell of alcohol can make it difficult to maintain self-control, new research has shown.

The smell of alcohol may make it harder for people to control their behaviour.

Just the smell of alcohol may trigger the cognitive response in the brain to want and need to consume it.

An experiment was carried out by a research team at Edge Hill University.

participants were asked to wear a face mask that was either laced with alcohol, or a non-alcoholic citrus solution. Participants were then instructed to press a button when either the letter K or a picture of a beer bottle appeared on their screen.

The researchers measured the number of times the participants incorrectly pressed the button causing a 'false alarm'. These false alarms indicate a reduction in the participant's power to inhibit their behaviour when they were expected to.

Dr Rebecca Monk, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Edge Hill University said that she and her fellow researchers found that the number of these 'false alarms' were higher in participants who were wearing the alcohol treated mask.

In other words, their behaviour was altered from the smell of alcohol alone.

Things that trigger alcohol consumption might be our state of mind and emotions, the environment we are in or the people in our company. This is the first investigation into other kinds of triggers - such as our sense of smell.

Although this was only an early lab based experiment into further triggers regarding alcohol, during the experiment it seemed that just the smell of alcohol was making it harder for participants to control their behaviour to stop pressing a button.

Imagine someone faced with the daily torment of wanting to drink but had faced health problems from alcohol consumption and depression resulting in drinking, they had been sober for weeks, months or even years, when one day their cognitive trigger is set off by just walking past a busy pub.

People who have suffered from alcoholism and addiction problems (if this test is proven further), would need to avoid pubs and bars and many other social occasions not only to resist temptation from environment and peer pressure, but now also for protection from just the sheer smell of alcohol alone!

If you or someone you know is suffering from substance abuse, please contact Sam or Jackie at Therapy for Life for immediate help and support.

source