Addiction and Alcoholism - What is it?

Addiction: A Neurological Disorder

Addiction is a neurologically based disease. For many years' recovery specialists have compared alcoholism or addictions to a physical disease: like diabetes.  In reality addictions are more closely related to a neurological disorder like *Tourette's syndrome than they are to diabetes. If the problems you suffer stem from severe alcoholism or addiction, you must accept that these problems are not primarily mental or free will issues. Addictions are not about will power. The problems facing addicts, alcoholics, and their families are miserable, disgusting, and infuriating. They are often hopelessly discouraging. But to imagine that an addict "could change if he wanted to" is a serious misunderstanding of the long-term dynamic of addictive disorder. The fact is precisely that an addict cannot always change in the long run even if he wants to. That is the definition of addiction: "the loss of control over the use of a substance."

It is important to understand that this loss of control is manifested not in terms of days or weeks, but in longer term behaviors: terms of months and years. The reason addicts have lost control is because they have suffered permanent physical neurological changes based in their brains and nervous systems. The disorder manifests in long term obsessive-compulsive behaviors outside the realm of the addict's own control. It is true enough that the use of chemicals begins with chosen behavior. But if alcoholism or addiction develops, the problem has moved outside the realm of free choice. It has developed into a long-term mental and physical neurological disorder. All the emotional 'feelings' involved in drug or alcohol seeking is based in neurology.

Addiction is based in physical dependency created by altered neurotransmitter balances, and driven by millions upon millions of new living, functioning active neurological pathways that have been established to sustain the condition in the addicts brain. The new neurological pathways are permanently established, and they will not just disappear. The primary neurological disorder is only complicated by physical dependence on the substances. The physical dependence on the substances is secondary. Physical drug withdrawal does not change the underlying neurological addictive disorder. After drug withdrawal, long-term overpowering cravings are predictable. These cravings are, in reality, spontaneous nerve impulses. Even in the longer term, overwhelming cravings are outside the addict's control.

Example of a Nerve Pathway

It is difficult for people to grasp the meaning of a nerve pathway, or why this is related to addiction. Often when people hear a new idea like: an addictive impulse is the result of a nerve impulse " they are left unsympathetic. Addicts and non-addicts alike have a hard time believing that drug or alcohol use is anything more than a choice that is made in response to a habit. Deep down inside, most people believe that at its root " the behavior is always a choice. They are very, very wrong. This author was stuck in addiction for over a decade, so completely was he convinced that the mind was an immaterial spiritual power " and that to call alcoholism or addiction a disease was a cop-out for the weak-willed. This author believed that " each and every time " free choice was at the root of addictive behavior. Until one day, in rehab he began to understand that while his mind " his intellect " was indeed an immaterial power, the overwhelming cravings for drugs or alcohol were based in his body. He came to believe that addiction really was a neurological disease.

Consider the following: Most people cannot wiggle their ears. The wiggling of the ears is really nothing but flexing the muscles of the scalp above the ears. The reason most people cannot wiggle their ears is because they are not familiar with the neurological pathway which controls the muscle of the scalp above their ears. However, without exception, everyone can be trained to wiggle his or her ears. Simply by applying electrodes to the muscles of the scalp above the ears causes the muscles to flex, or spasm. Once the person feels where these muscles are, he finds that in fact he can wiggle his ears. The only reason he could not wiggle his ears before, was because he had not established the neurological pathway that enabled him to do so. Like turning on a switch " a neurological pathway can be established simply by passing a charge of electrical current into the nerves of the body. Once a person has learned to wiggle his ears " he might actually do it spontaneously and unintentionally " just because the words are mentioned.

This example is intended to illustrate how a simple neurological pathway is established. Before the electrode " there was no neurological pathway. After the electrode " the pathway has been established. The addictive neurological response to drugs and alcohol on the brain is infinitely more complex than this, but the physical basis is the same. The overwhelming craving for drugs or alcohol that endlessly defeats addicts is in reality a neurological impulse " and they have absolutely no control over the craving when it is triggered. All they know is that they want; they need; they feel they must have the drug. This "desire", this craving is not a free choice. This desire is an electro-chemical neurological brain impulse. A person, who suffers from these cravings to the detriment of his own life, and the lives of others, is suffering from a physical, neurological disease termed addictive disorder.

Recovery from Addiction

Withdrawing from physical dependence on the drug does not change the fundamental addictive disorder. The whole neurological, chemical and emotional being of an addict, or an alcoholic has become permanently disordered. An addict or an alcoholic has developed a very, very severe disease. He must take the matter very, very seriously. A quick seven-day "detox" will never be an answer. The alcoholic-addict in the longer term is like a rat that has become habituated by a scientist to choosing cocaine over food. The rat in the short term cannot control the neurological impulse to choose the cocaine! The rat will continue to seek it, ignoring food and water, until he dies! The rat's nerve impulse to use the cocaine has nothing to do with free will. The addict-alcoholic suffers from an identical disorder in the long term. The addict cannot control these spontaneous overwhelming neurological impulses to use any more than the rat can on the short term (The neurological impulse is called a craving.) Just by examining an addicted rat you can't see the obvious problem. But the new neurological pathways that have now been established are permanent and life threatening! These are just as physical and real as any disease. Addiction is a self-contracted neurological disease. It IS a 'created' disorder. Nonetheless, it is also a physical problem on a neurological level, and it is very real. A chemically dependent person cannot stop the over-powering cravings for the substance in the long term, any more than someone with Parkinson's disease can stop tremors. "Self knowledge avails us nothing."

The addiction will never somehow go away without intervention of some kind.  An addict will not ever recover if he can just "kick" for a few days. The whole emotional, physical, and neurological system has already been altered too drastically for any temporary kick to even scratch the surface of the underlying disorder. At the very minimum, an introductory 30-day dry-out period must somehow be enforced. Minimizing, hoping, or rationalizing that the problem might be somehow be overcome by more modest measures is wishful thinking. Addictive impulses are generated physiologically. They often lie dormant for many days or weeks as the addict attempts to recuperate from the painful physical or emotional trauma the addictions themselves have inflicted. But, the underlying neurological conditions remain very much intact. Neurologically based impulses to use or drink require at least 4 weeks of enforced abstinence just to begin to dissipate enough to be manageable. Then another 6, extremely critical, weeks are required to adjust to living without the chemical. Depression, anger, boredom, and then "happy-excited feelings" are predictable. These feelings always follow initial detox. During this period the addict needs help. With the help they need, the chemically dependent person can improve dramatically, if he can work through the initial weeks of mandatory depression, cope with reoccurring anger, and maintain at least 10 weeks of abstinence. Seventy days seems like an eternity in early recovery, but shorter periods of abstinence do nothing to subdue the underlying neurological conditions.

With this in mind, it is essential that an addict prepare himself for almost 3 months of initial recuperation. It's precisely when the addict feels that his system is stabilizing that he is in the gravest danger. This usually occurs at about 45 days clean. It is then when the addict must begin to resolve underlying emotional and social conflicts. To become free of addiction, an addict must resolve the conflicts in his life! He can do this by accepting responsibility for his actions, and by facing and resolving his deepest anxieties. He must make amends to himself, to his family, and to society. The only way for an addict to relieve the stresses that cause him to use is to identify the interior and exterior conflicts in his life and resolve them. When conflicts are resolved serenity becomes possible. By achieving new levels of interior serenity, compulsive behaviors can be overcome. It is serenity that enables an addict to be relieved of compulsions. Serenity can only be achieved by the resolution of conflict. Over time, and the resolution of conflicts, addiction becomes manageable. Most addicts are not consciously aware of many of the conflicts from which they actually suffer.

For permanent relief an outside support system is the most helpful. According to Alcoholic's Anonymous, the alcoholic must come to accept that the underlying condition of the disease consists precisely in always being defenseless against taking the "first one." His only defense against 'the first one' must come from a power greater (or other) than himself. The complete healing process comes from an internal dependency shift.  Ten weeks of abstinence are required to subdue the strong neurological impulses to use. After a minimum ten week neurological pacification, (detox), the reoccurring compulsion to use the chemical can be permanently relieved. This is accomplished through a neurological "re-wiring." The alcoholic-addict must stop imagining that they can somehow permanently stay clean by themselves. He must psychologically shift away from relying on the validity of his own thought process about his addiction! To effectively "re-wire" his disordered nervous system, he must come to rely fiercely and absolutely upon the directions provided from an external support system. By mentally changing what he relies upon, his nervous system undergoes a profound change.

Addiction as Disease (Hughes, 1997)* Tourette's Syndrome is a neurological disorder manifested by uncontrollable ticking, or body twitching. Years ago, Tourette's syndrome was recognized by unintentional, inexplicable verbal outbursts, (sometimes cursing), in the middle of normal conversation. Today, it is well recognized that Tourette's syndrome is a much more comprehensive disorder. It affects millions of people and is often manifested by forceful eye blinking, mouth twitching and other spontaneous gesticulations. The addict or alcoholic, who just suddenly calls the dealer, or whose car drives itself to the liquor store, is exhibiting uncontrollable neurological compulsion similar to Tourette's syndrome. Though sufferers of Tourette's, or addictive disorder can exercise temporary control, the nervous impulse inevitably overpowers them. That is why they cannot stay sober on their own will. Therefore, external help is needed.

Contact Go4Rehab now for advice on the most suitable help for your circumstances.