Here's a pretty fascinating piece about treating alcoholism with pharmaceutical drugs. While a successful pharmacological cure does not yet exist, drug companies are starting to realize that there's money to be made, and it seems like a matter of time before a magic bullet is discovered or created. The possibility of this kind of treatment engenders controversy: Is it appropriate to battle a chemical addiction with another chemical? Won't the pharmaceutical companies "define alcoholism down" in an attempt to get the broadest possible consumer base for their products? Is life really worth living if you're sober all the time?
My interest in this subject is more than academic. I am, obviously, someone who falls into the category of "functional alcoholic." I drink a great deal. It has been several years since a day went by where I voluntarily went without at least one drink. In fact, it has been several years since a day went by where I voluntarily went without several drinks. This is slightly troubling for a couple of reasons, the very least of which is the nagging concern that I may be doing some sort of irreparable physical damage. There's a terrifying passage in Andy Beckett's When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies where Beckett talks with Joe Stone, who served as Prime Minister Harold Wilson's GP. By the time of his final term in office, Wilson's drinking was having a very noticeable effect. Says Stone:
Heavy drinking cuts off one layer of your thinking. You lose sharpness, facts, precision. And it's the sign of someone who's burning out.I feel this. It is perhaps the most motivating factor I might have to cut back on my consumption; the idea of losing whatever small functional edge I have mentally horrifies me.
One of the arguments against a medicine-based treatment of alcoholism is that while it may certainly curtail the physical addiction it does nothing to address the underlying reasons why someone might choose to drink-anxiety, depression, an unwillingness to be in the world without some kind of sedating agent to take the edge off of existence. It is rather disturbing to think that the same edge one uses alcohol to blunt in life is the edge that is removed, bit by bit, through the constant consumption of alcohol.
On the other hand, I'm not unsympathetic to the argument that a certain amount of drinking is just fine. I know plenty of folks who drink almost as much as I do and manage to keep it all together. Why castigate their actions or make them think they need "treatment" for what could be considered just another lifestyle choice? I tend to dismiss my own worries about my drinking with a combination of compensatory humor and uncertain reassurances that when the time comes I will have no problem in cutting back, but that's just me: There are many people who are nowhere near needing any assistance. Who are we to tell them different?
This is not meant to read as some kind of cry for help or monologue delivered at a meeting. Concerns aside, I am pretty sure I will continue to drink at the same clip I currently consume until something severe forces me to confront whatever issues I'm avoiding at present. And those of us who do drink know that there is almost nothing in this world so satisfying as the warming sense of satiation that slowly seeps through your body when that first rye Manhattan slips into your bloodstream and lets you know that everything is going to be okay. I guess, though, if there's an option for some kind of pill-based treatment, I'd like for it to be on the table. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but there you are. Cheers.
I would only take this if they also came out with pills that gradually made people more sexually appealing.
add in a decrease in your sense of shame and I think this wonder pill will take the country by storm
The decrease in shame they already took care of. They call it twitter.
a gramme is better than a damn
Eh, I think the only real issue here is how I'll abuse this fantastic drug once it's on the market in addition to my usual six to nine drinks.
Yeah, already happened to me. My shrink put me on Naltrexone, which didn't help with the drinking but gave me more energy. So now I tell him it's working great just to keep it coming.
Now that's what I'm talkin' about!
I assume the pill will also fuck you up.
I went from worrying that I needed this drug to worrying that someone out there thinks I'm a "cyber-millenial."
The vodka-infused watermelon at Boku on St. Marks is not something I want to ever not have in my life, so fuck this pill forever.
Guess we know what Balk's having for lunch today.
Weed is a more fun solution.
Agreed. Fewer calories, less Weltschmerz.
All this talk about anxiety, depression, and unwillingness to be in the world without some kind of sedating agent to take the edge off of existence is making me thirsty.
Drug companies would like you to think they have it all figured out, but they're so stupid.
They ought to make a pill that lets you drink as much as you fucking want without consequence, and want to take more and more of their pills to keep it all coming.
so... cocaine.
Meth!
"And those of us who do drink know that there is almost nothing in this world so satisfying as the warming sense of satiation that slowly seeps through your body when that first rye Manhattan slips into your bloodstream and lets you know that everything is going to be okay."
I'm on my floor moaning over this. Yes. (That is until you get to the bottom of the Manhattan, realize there's only one God damned cherry waiting for you and then NO NO EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY AT ALL.)
"WAITER!"
I usually respond with "WHAT THE FUCK? ARE YOU SIMPLE? I CLEARLY FUCKING ASKED FOR EXTRA FUCKING CHERRIES! *GLASSSMASH*" but sure, "WAITER" works fine too.
... Mom?
"And those of us who do drink know that there is almost nothing in this world so satisfying as the warming sense of satiation that slowly seeps through your body when that first rye Manhattan slips into your bloodstream and lets you know that everything is going to be okay."
Yes. Sigh.
I see I'm not alone in feeling this way.
"Is life really worth living if you're sober all the time?"
Yes! It's great!
This from a man who spent his entire weekend huffing cat. Erm, huffing Cat.
Cheesing.
++
Lock him in the office w/IJ for a week?
Nice ads for this article. Sober College and Passages Malibu indeed.
Dear, dearest Mr. Balk (140% sincere!)--
A friend of mine (yeah, that's it!) has done this research already. The only current options available are:
--Disulfiram: Makes you barf violently if you try to drink;
--Naltrexone: Harshes your buzz and makes it no fun.
And the winner is...: kudzu [pueraria lobata], 'the plant that ate the South', and which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for millenia (as è‘›æ ¹) to curb/treat alcoholism. I have no vested interest in this, but suggest if you want to try it, you should watch for dosages and interactions.
There is also, apparently, baclofen? See the Clancy Martin article:
http://www.theawl.com/2009/07/drinking-possibly-good-for-you-up-to-a-point
Will check, and FWIW:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/05.19/09-kudzu.html
The problem, as Doctor Amiesen discusses in his book, is that it's very hard to get anyone to do clinical trials of an existing drug that's out of patent. Now, an organization like Alcoholic Anonymous might fund such a trial, except that organization is generally suspicious of medical solutions to alcoholism (though founder Bill Wilson did do a lot of LSD in the sixties, thinking it might offer the sort of spiritual catharsis that he attributed to inspiring his recovery). They also aren't big fans of lots of statistical research, since to be honest, the success rate of all treatment programs is pretty terrible (on the order of five percent) and not much different from no treatment at all.
At least in theory, since baclofen is not a controlled substance, you might be able to convince a doctor to prescribe it for you.
Also, supposedly natto does the trick. Some people may fing that particular cure more unpleasant than the disease, though.
As is, fermented soy beans?
Ugh, a friend of mine used to order that in sushi restaurants.
For me, the buck stops with tempeh. It is seriously snot-like, that natto.
+1, to every word.
We (either as a culture or a species - unclear which) have a pretty terrible track record of being successful with quick fixes. Gastric bypass patients figure out how to eat nearly as much with smaller stomach, heroin addicts get hooked on methadone... it'd really just be a race to figure out how to best get around the effects of the drug (i.e. ways to drink but avoid puking when on Disulfiram). But hey, pharmas will still make $$$ on this!
Some people I know who took Antabuse would just take the drug, then drink, barf (horribly)till the drug was out of their systems, and keep on drinking.
Exactly! My dad asked his doctor about taking Antabuse (oops, that just sounded like a pharma ad), and his doctor laughed.
I would think that taking pills to curb alcoholism would be akin to taking aspirin for a snake bite. It may curb the pain, but doesn't really get to the heart of the problem, does it?
Far be it for me to lecture anyone on drinking, but whatever the chemical support (antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, etc.)obviously some type of behavior therapy is needed. You've used the example of Harold Wilson. Let me share with my MY personal mantra to help ward off the desire to drink: just keep repeating....
"Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens...."
Over the past three years I've morphed from an occasional drinker to someone who has two drinks just so I can go to sleep. I went on a diet for a month which required me to abstain. I didn't make it the whole month (I think I had two drinks at a party) but I did end up doing a fair amount of detox. I can't recommend it enough. I dropped a few pounds, got more sleep, and remembered that although I love the booze, it is possible to get through a day without taking a drink.
Only 2?
i got off the several a day thing thanks to some friends who dragged me out of a party where i was making an ass of myself (what they didn't know is that i'm always an ass. that's the real me, right there)and down a gravel driveway in such a way that it wore half the skin off one butt cheek. made me think. on the other hand, i'm getting back to the one a day thing, so who knows.
me, i think the desire to drink is a reaction to a kind of anti-aspergers -- a thing where you notice everything about other people's emotional reactions and feel totally responsible for it. sometimes you just want to turn that shit off.
see also: internet.
You might investigate milk thistle, too.
I had to quit drinking when a pharmacutical they brain washed me into thinking I needed permananently fucked up my liver. I haven't had a drop in a long long time, and let me tell you, alcohol is better for you than any of that shit they're cooking up in their freaky labs. They are some twisted son's of bitches, and they convince you you have a problem they can fix, so they can sell you something, well, I will tell you this: drinking, smoking sex with someone you just met, and will never call again (and sometimes cocaine) are the finest things in life. I'd give my eyed teeth (that's right) to be able to get housed like I used to. So don't give it up till you have to.
And yes drinking has a down side, but so does life, or were we all such happy little automotans when we started drinking in the first place?
Bollocks!
This country needs to drop the puritanical histrionics and hipocracy, and stop sending these professional buzz killers and social rejects in their white coats out to hygenify everyone. And keep their weird little minds off the inner working of my brain...
That;s it, I;m reaching for my emergency gin!
I think this is a good idea for me and some. Pop some pills when you know you are at your weak point. Kinda like letting your angel battle your devil so that it's a clear cut decision. It'll be good for certain situations is all i'm saying...