The Cure for Alcoholism and Addiction
This is an excerpt from my book, Fuck Portion Control, which contains references to other chapters. This information is provided to help those suffering from substance abuse who cannot afford my book. I am also always available to chat with those needing help with this condition.
–––––––––––Chapter 28 The Cure For Alcoholism and Drug Addiction
One Saturday when I was fifteen our family was driving home from my Dad's office buildings doing janitorial work where we earned extra money instead of having normal summer jobs. I was staring out the window like a proper brooding teenager, dreaming of all the ways life could be better than it was while my five siblings, tired from the day’s janitorial effort, were silent and nodding off in the back. Actually, I clearly remember fantasizing about fighting a fire-breathing dragon flying along our car, I was just insecure about sharing that so I was going to lie.
"Nathan," my Dad's sudden authoritarian tone broke the hypotonic drum of the suburban's rolling tires, "we know what you do when you take long showers.” WHAT? I thought, completely in disbelief of what had just come out of his mouth in front of my whole family. “You’re no longer allowed to be in the bathroom more than five minutes."
My face turned red. I didn't reply. What could I say to something like that? Now I stared out the window to hide my embarrassment. "No long showers," agreed my mom, who then looked at Dad in a way which revealed this to be a premeditated attack. Why they thought a good time to address my masturbation habits was in the car with my entire family present seems insanity to me, unless they did mean to trap me and inflict the greatest level of shame possible, then it was pure genius.
This was just another example of the kind of constant emotional bombardment in which I grew up, not half of it from just my parents, full of religious threats and debasing shame for simply being alive. The irony was that I hated whacking off in the shower. Water is a terrible lubricant, as any boy knows. I did all my masturbation under the covers or while streaking naked around the forest behind our house under cover of darkness. No, I loved taking long hot showers because it was the only place in the house where I could get away from them. Unlike the rest of my life a shower was peaceful, quiet, a sanctuary. I found out later that children and adults with thyroid problems instinctively shower hotter and longer to self-medicate a reduced body temperature. It is literally medicinal. But wellness wasn't something that concerned my parents nor the community at large, and as is the experience of many teenagers my life seemed nothing more than one emotionally assaulting experience to the next. Real relief finally came when I was nineteen, on a date with a handsome, kind boy at his apartment when he asked if I'd like a glass of "red or white."
"Red or white, what?" I replied, was how little I knew of alcohol, how efficient my insulated upbringing. He chose for me and brought a glass full of red wine. I remember how acidic and fruity it tasted. I did not get a buzz, but there was something about it which felt instantly freeing, as if for the first time I knew what life was like without pain and inhibition, and all in a beautiful little glass of pretty red liquid. For a moment I was free and mature, happy, unencumbered by the neuroses and insecurities under which I suffocated. From that day out alcohol freed me every time, from ever-present stress. It made my life enjoyable, brought fun and companionship, the kind of life other people get to live without it—the kind of life I always wanted.
But even when alcohol proved detrimental to my life I was never able to connect the dots. Actually I was, but deeply in the back of my mind, inaccessible, a very real fear that alcohol was ruining my health, as though the person who knew this was trapped inside the body of a person who drank liberally. I would meet models and athletes who refrained from drinking even on a night out. I saw their example and longed to join their ranks—but the tequila was just too good. Actually, I longed for them to join me and prove that alcohol was compatible with such beauty. They never did.
When my life fell apart I was standing alone in our three-bedroom house in Palm Springs which we would soon have to vacate wondering why my life was in such a shambles. Of all the things a white male my age and privilege could have—a job, a car, a place to live, money, a lover, friends—I should have at least one. I had none. I was still sick from our last party a few days before during which I had drunk copious amounts of tequila. “I’m so hungover,” I had said to a guest. “Really?” He said. “We didn’t have that many drinks.” I was surprised by his response, as it was the closest anyone in my entire life had suggested I had a drinking problem. Not even when I ran a car drunk into a concrete wall did it occur to me that alcohol and not poor planning was the cause. I recalled the events of the previous night, and how I repeatedly snuck back to the kitchen pouring clandestine refills of tequila during moments when our guests were outside, or in the bathroom, or watching the TV intently, and continuing to refill from the freezer after everyone had gone to bed. Because I am so tall I always assumed that everyone was always watching me, but I was so good at sneaking my alcoholism that not even my partner knew the quantity of alcohol I put away.
Desperate for a way to hold on to my life as it was I asked for help from someone I had never met but knew was sober, who was a friend of my partner’s. My motivation was more that he might help preserve my relationship, but the conversation did not go as I had anticipated. He did not join in my commiseration, though he allowed me to vent. He then explained that there was nothing I could do except to help myself. But it was not his words which made an impression on me. Rather, he spoke with a calmness I had never heard before, as if he was familiar with pain and the secret of life and accepted its changeableness. I would later come to know this as serenity. But right there on the phone as he suggested I try a program for codependents I knew instead that I had a drinking problem. Suddenly the plagues of my life all made sense. “I am a drunk!” I thought with glee as we began to wrap up our phone call. My pain and desperation suddenly lessened. I hung up the phone and contemplated my situation. My problems became quite clear. It was not that I couldn’t manage a relationship, hold a job, be financially responsible, or avoid bad partners. I had a disease which made the accomplishment of these things impossible.
Initially I thought that identifying as a drunk would save my relationship. On Valentine’s Day I had prepared a warm welcome for my partner who had returned to get some clothes and apologized for my self-centered behavior, revealed my alcoholism, and promised that I would no longer drink. “That’s great,” he said in a chummy tone not used between lovers. “Are you going to meetings?”
Meetings? I thought. Oh, he means Alcoholics Anonymous. “I don’t need them,” I said. As the words left my lips I knew I was lying. I was not good at life. I had failed utterly. How was I going to get my life back in order when I did not even know where to begin? Sure, things could be yet worse but that was no standard to live by. I had no idea how to be an adult, how to run my affairs, how to find success in relationships and business or to deal with the suffocating uncertainties which are the garb of mortality. I would not survive if I did not learn how.
I didn’t say as much, though. Suddenly I did not want him there anymore. I felt it was a real chance for me to get out of old patterns of behavior entirely, if I only reached out and grabbed it. My misery turned to excitement, and as soon as he left I ran to the computer and looked up the very next meeting I could find. A few hours later I walked into a small building with no signage in a half-empty commercial development. Blinding florescent lights made the few old men gathered appear decades older than they were. None of them looked at me. After I sat down, a crazy lady sitting to the side asked me why I was there. I told her my fiancé had left. She said it was not a good reason to be there. It was obvious that she was no person to take advice from, so I ignored her. Then a man twenty years my senior walked in. He saw me and paused, then stepped toward me with an outstretched hand and introduced himself, and asked if I was new. I nodded and introduced myself, my emotions an equal mix of overwhelming joy and sadness made it difficult to speak without my voice catching. He offered his help and phone number. The meeting started. The attendees went around the room declaring their names and length of sobriety. They did not care that I cried when I said I was an alcoholic. They knew how to treat me, encouraging me to return but not indulging my self-pity, giving advice on good meetings and encouraging me to pursue the program. I stuck with it, and within a few months found myself on the way to an entirely better future. One day while working on my cancer situation, when I had been sober for some time, I was reading an article written by Dr. Peat on the nervous system and suddenly realized that a lot of the things I had been using to treat my cancer had also been helping my alcoholism. I thought I was just good at being sober—I had been having an amazing time in the program, having incredible and life-changing experiences, with no trouble staying sober and happy though others who entered the program at the same time were depressed, despondent, and relapsed at very high rates. The more I looked into possible causes for alcoholism and addiction and experimented with therapies to address it I soon discovered what causes this condition and thus how to treat it. In attempting to share this cure with other alcoholics and addicts I found absolutely none to be receptive. This greatly perplexed me, assuming that like me people might be eager for a resolution to their torment. Many people sometimes do not actually want to get better, but I also realized that some subconsciously understand the concept of a cure to mean only the removal of therapeutic relief from the substances they require to feel well instead of the conditions for which they are used in the first place. To be clear, this chapter discusses the effective and total relief from the underlying conditions of pain and suffering which are the cause for abuse, and is not actually concerned with use of substances. I also find it poorly effective to prescribe this chapter directly to those who are very ill, their cognition and will compromised as it is are not in a position to make great use of this information, let alone consume it, and as such this chapter is best utilized by those who might assist those in recovery, persons with more mild cases, medical professionals, policy makers, and for those wishing to prevent such afflictions in their children. As the underlying mechanisms also relate to other metabolic pathologies, it is valuable to anyone with an interest for their own health to understand this information whether or not they have the disease.
To understand why we use drugs and alcohol we must first understand the most basic nature of these substances. Because alcohol is a type of sugar it helps cells make huge amounts of energy, and this why we so often use it, especially if we are stressed or want to feel better, since alcohol helps to run fatigued cells. Because of ridiculous ideas on health and wellness I met a lot of stupid alcoholics and addicts barely sober who thought they should also give up sugar. Guess how well that worked out for them? I mean, if eating sugar means you’re going to have an easier time staying sober, shouldn’t you probably eat the one which doesn’t promote blackout driving? Unlike sugar, alcohol is largely incompatible with the human body, not only because alcohol kills beneficial gut bacteria, but is itself highly estrogenic and causes a suppression of metabolic integrity and the absorption of excess iron. This does not mean that total abstinence is necessary to get well, but it does mean that alcohol use comes with consequences. The other, more harmful metabolites into which alcohol degrades during consumption such as aldehyde are the real reasons why alcohol can be so harmful to the health, destroying cellular structures and flushing spare vitamins and minerals from the body. People who don't want to believe alcohol is bad for their health, even if they're already sick, immediately hail the witless tripe of stuff working differently for various persons, as if they are different species or something. One dolt commented on an article of mine that Europe had a strong tradition of drinking and was an example of a peaceful, functional society. Um, holocaust? Albanian genocide? Brexit?
The reason alcohol can harm our health has nothing to do with morals, religion, or spirituality, and many of us who should probably stop drinking do not want to because those people who hurt us deeply, who also told us not to drink would then be right, not only about the drink but about our character, while also depriving us of a very useful and widely available therapeutic tool. Unfortunately, alcohol is incompatible with health, but only because of chemistry and not because our abusive parents or religious leaders say so. As a former alcoholic no one wanted this to be untrue more than I did, but if I’ve learned anything it is precisely how much life absolutely does not care what I want to be true. Sure, maybe you won't get cancer from alcohol. Maybe, like me, you can manage your drinking for many years, but that doesn't mean you are a superman with your own laws of chemistry. It's okay. Alcohol helped me think I was exempt from life a time too, and the good news is that alcoholism and addiction are real physical diseases which have nothing to do with self-control or will-power.
In the mid nineteen-hundreds a man by the name of Curt Richter was studying rats and their response to stress. He noticed that when rats were subjected to a painful stimulus (torture) while being restrained, the rats would quickly surrender and cease to struggle. Rats given even one chance to escape during the torture continued to attempt escape every time. The rats with no chance to escape suddenly stopped trying to escape, and would not even attempt to escape when given a later opportunity to do so. They had acquired an inability to perceive hope, and when put in a swim test where a healthy rat would swim and stay afloat for two or three days without drowning (and the rats allowed to escape), the rats who developed hopelessness had heart attacks within an hour and drowned, overcome by stress. This acquired response to stress, marked by an inability to perceive hope and which resulted in the permanent inability for rats to survive challenges to their physical ability was termed learned hopelessness.
When I was twenty I could not bring myself to attend college even though I really wanted to go, and had applied and been accepted for a second time. I was not yet drinking regularly, but I would look forward to occasions when one of my friends threw a good house party. I wanted to be sociable, affable and charismatic, and able to hit on guys and be good at my job (and be able to stay at one) and face life and people without fear, without feeling paralyzed. I wanted to have hope for the future. But as hard as I tried I could not. I could only be any of these things when I'd had a drink (or had one not too long ago). I was not conscious of the connection between drinking and my desires until my drinking reached epic levels. Drinking had been an unconscious reaction for much needed self medication just like my long showers as a kid. When I did finally become aware of it I was without explanation, or recourse. How do I acquire the ability to function the way I wanted when it had proved so beyond my physiology to do so? Of course I sought help. I tried therapy, both psychological and psychiatric, I got into yoga and mediation, tried antidepressants and nutritional approaches. Read books. Asserting my willpower. None of these approaches came close to the freedom afforded by alcohol. Even a small drink would relieve me of the bondage of this condition, yet it was also limiting. I couldn't drink at work, or in the morning (not yet anyway) or for too long without some kind of side effect. I was trapped between a rock and a hard place. Eventually I developed cancer, and lost important parts of my life.
The condition of learned hopelessness exhibited by the rats happens when our natural learning process becomes a negative feedback loop. Normally, the parasympathetic nervous system and a chemical called acetylcholine are responsible for the imprinting of learned behavior. When functioning rightly, acetylcholine is integral to our development. A pianist becomes good at controlling ten separate fingers simultaneously because of acetylcholine. Repeated exposure to a piano, music, and instruction trains the pianist's mind and body to respond while being exposed to the stimulus of the keys, sounds, sights, instruction, etc. Because of acetylcholine, when the fully practiced concert pianist lifts their hands over a keyboard, their body instinctively knows how to respond. In the same way, a basketball player learns to instinctively control a bouncing ball without even looking at it. Chefs learn to distinguish between foods and more deftly form works of art. A teacher also learns how to better control and inspire their students because of acetylcholine. But acetylcholine functions in even more subtle ways. It teaches us what body posture to adopt when among friends, and which to adopt among enemies, things which we aren't always conscious of learning, like how fast to move when crossing the street or which kind of dogs make us relax and which make us nervous.
In the condition of learned hopelessness, the parasympathetic system (or in other words, us) has learned that escape (or hope) during broad stimulus like life and people is nonexistent. I must always hide who I am or be rejected by my friends and family. My parents do not love me. I was abandoned as a child and no family will take me in. Men will take advantage of me and I must always be on guard. Physical violence is everywhere. Paying this bill will make me afraid of my bank account. When these and other perceptions of life are the lesson learned from this disease, the reaction to life is quite simply emotional and social paralysis. This also happens because acetylcholine is more pronounced during stress, and acetylcholine also increases the expression of other stress hormones, hormones which induce torpor, malaise, fatigue, and pain, which further amplifies the suffering and physically destructive conditions of the disease, and the elevation of stress hormones in turn increase acetylcholine sensitivity so a person with the condition becomes stuck in a negative cognitive feed back loop that is in effect, a paralysis of their vitality. Stress increases acetylcholine. Acetylcholine increases stress. Because it involves the nervous system and its excessive activation by stimuli, learned hopelessness is thus a neurological disorder.
Since acetylcholine is a chemical it can also be influenced by environmental and nutritional factors and an excess may not even be related to social dynamics. Some things like dioxins, pesticides, and phytotoxic compounds in grains and nightshades can increase the expression or impact of acetylcholine, at disproportionate amounts for disproportionate amounts of time. Nutritionally, nightshades which include potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, contain a powerful toxin called solanine. Solanine is meant to deter pests like nematodes. By inactivating an enzyme which is supposed to regulate acetylcholine it kills the nematodes by overloading their nervous system with acetylcholine. Since we are much larger than nematodes the poison does not kill us, and in fact is hardly noticeable except that it still effects the enzyme which is supposed to inactivate excess acetylcholine, and so elevates it artificially. This problem is also compounded by excess dietary nitrates which occurs most commonly from industrial agriculture as discussed in the chapter on gut health, since the production of excess nitric oxide in the gut from nitrate respirating microbes inhibits mitochondrial respiration and thus conflicts with the metabolic stimulation caused by acetylcholine, and there are pesticides used in industrial agriculture which also block this enzyme to kill insects! Since stress then increases the expression of acetylcholine, a child in an abusive home will be more effected by acetylcholine than a child in a peaceful home, and a child in an abusive home will be more effected by the abuse if also fed a diet which increases the effect of acetylcholine. But a child in an abusive home with a great diet can grow up without the disease, and a child in a peaceful, loving home with an incorrect diet can still succumb to it. Either way, a child developing learned hopelessness becomes more and more sensitive to stress, and every stress reaction, environmental or nutritional, increases acetylcholine until the point that acetylcholine is chronically elevated, chronically learning that stress is everywhere and everywhere creates stress. A child who grows up with threats of rejection from their family because they are attracted to the same gender is a child who is constantly exposed to elevated acetylcholine, even when the abusive parents aren't present. When the child becomes an adult, just like when the concert pianist encounters the conditions of sitting at a piano and acetylcholine stimulates their mind and fingers to do their thing, the alcoholic and addict (or learned hopelessness adult) experiences their conditioning, which is not to impress adoring crowds with soaring music but that there is no hope of escape.
At this point you may have guessed what alcohol does to acetylcholine. That's right, it turns it off. In fact alcohol inactivates acetylcholine so well that in excess it completely erases acetylcholine, and since acetylcholine is what creates memory and learning its absence causes a blackout. With enough alcohol memories cease forming at all, both mental and physical, and a person wakes up to find themselves lying on an unfamiliar lawn in an unfamiliar neighborhood with no recollection of where they are or how they got there. And this is also why Alcoholics constantly return to the bottle in spite of negative experiences, because the very presence of it entirely reduces the effect of acetylcholine and there is very little, if any, impact of acetylcholine and thus no imprint of learning. Alcohol is thus its own cloaking device. Little or nothing is learned or retained while it is present. But since the majority of acetylcholine is eliminated so is the state of learned hopelessness, and thus relief to the sufferer. Since acetylcholine can also be effected by diets, cultures which traditionally have a high rate of nightshade consumption like the Midwest (potatoes), Russia (potatoes), and Mexico (tomatoes and peppers) have correspondingly higher rates of alcoholism because their diets are higher in nightshades, and thusly elevated levels of acetylcholine. Alcohol just happens to be the most powerful antagonist of acetylcholine, cheap and widely available. Alcohol is the medicine alcoholics use to relieve themselves of the symptoms of learned hopelessness. Alcoholism and addiction are thus a neurological disorder.
Drug use, both prescription and recreational, is also a form of self-medication for sufferers of learned hopelessness. That boy who gave me my first glass of wine was murdered in his adulthood. Also a victim of this disease, he was in a situation no sweet, loving person such as him would ever willingly place themselves in if we weren't suffering a debilitating illness. No person, even homeless and destitute from addictions would chose to be there if they weren't victims of this disease. That this even has to be explained is incredible to me. Though drug abusers may or may not also use alcohol do suffer from the very same neurological condition, but where alcohol works by directly antagonizing acetylcholine the way in which drugs like marijuana, Xanax, methamphetamine, or heroin ease the suffering of this disease is by increasing other hormones which antagonize the effects of acetylcholine rather than acetylcholine directly. Acetylcholine, for instance, lowers dopamine, which is the hormone that makes us happy. Methamphetamine and many other drugs directly raise dopamine, reversing the debt caused by acetylcholine. By increasing the neuroinhibitor GABA, heroin and opioids suppresses the release of acetylcholine and that associated suffering of learned hopelessness. Marijuana relieves the inducement of stress caused by acetylcholine and also interferes with acetylcholine production. All forms of substance addiction center around the activity of this neurological chemical to relieve sufferers of its negative effects, regardless of the substance used.
Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol only work while they are in the body, which is why sufferers or this disease continually turn to them for relief, and eventually cause social and physical consequences. For years I had believed I was no longer suicidal. But then I saw that I had been committing suicide long and slow by alcohol, the only two choices available to me was to either drink or to die, because to live with things as they were was not possible, literally, for the disease which I suffered would not allow other options. The biological systems which construct a life and personality had for me formed an ugly view of the world, and no matter how much I tried and wanted my perspective to be different, no matter how many pleasant things went on around me or much I wrested, fought, and pleaded with God, the world, or my own self control, there was no way I could ever have treated such a disease on my own.
There is an article in The Atlantic magazine decrying Alcoholics Anonymous for being the only primary treatment of alcoholism, given that there are some adjunct medical therapies available as well. The subtext from the author was really a beef with the concept of God, and one could strip everything about A.A. from the article and not have lost the message he was putting up. I get it. God was an integral part of the torment which I was subjected to as a helpless child. Not actually a God, of course, but adult men and women who hurt me in the name of God. A more patient person might frame them as well-meaning, but I know adult behavior and people who use God to control their children are just lazy fuckers who resort to fear and intimidation because they are powerful tools, with little regard to the eventual outcome of their actions and are more concerned with their own benefit than that of their charges. No, that author is not wrong to despise the concept of God when authority is tied together with the very nature of learned hopelessness. It is from these very people who were Gods to us small children that the excruciating condition from which we suffer came.
And yet twelve-step programs do work to relieve alcoholics and drug addicts from their enslavement, if actually done (doing six steps of a twelve-step program is not doing a twelve-step program, it's doing a six-step program and there is a reason no six-step programs are around). So if alcoholism and drug abuse are a neurological disease, why do twelve step programs work? Because learned hopelessness is a process created by the neurological pathways in which we learn, it can be unlearned. This is especially effective if therapies are used to support the physical health and proper function of the nervous system. A.A. intuitively tapped in to the process by which the condition is created in the first place, by repetitive lived experiences, and uses it to associate the conditions of the first case, which is life, with lessons of a positive social nature, thus reversing the condition. Twelve-step programs show the sufferer of alcoholism and drug abuse how to accomplish real hope by empowerment, and so reverses the symptoms of the disease which was the inability to perceive hope. This impact is further cemented by abstinence because concomitant drug and alcohol use destroys acetylcholine which is still needed to form new replacements of positive associations with the previous learned associations. Of course, there is some dogma in such programs which is misunderstood and misused by certain adherents, and to be clear, the value in such programs are the therapies of personal and fear inventory, which helps alcoholics and addicts understand that they are truly valuable as human beings and how life experience differs from who they are as a person, as well as being supported by a community of likeminded individuals. My own experience within the program was a mostly positive one which exposed me to the practice of personal inventory and helped me tease apart the trauma of my past from my individual worth and thus learn to have a deeper connection to myself and the world around me.
But a behavioral program is not the only way to attack the problem of alcoholism and learned hopelessness (because many people do suffer learned hopelessness who are not also addicts), and often the program may be successful in removing the abusive use of alcohol but may not successfully reverse the condition of learned hopelessness, because of the severity the condition and the nature of acetylcholine. Because acetylcholine is a physiological substance it can be altered the way it is with alcohol but with healthier strategies. One of the best and easiest available are antihistamines. I find this hilarious, as will anyone familiar with the program, because the program regards alcohol as an allergen. Antihistamines work to combat alcoholism by blocking the destructive effects of excess acetylcholine, and have been used for years in rehab clinics and medical settings to protect against the effects of withdrawal without understanding the mechanism behind its effectiveness, which is that the rebound of acetylcholine during withdrawal during severe alcoholism can be so intense it can actually cause death (also because the body of the sufferer is weakened and more susceptible). But since antihistamines only block the destructive effects of acetylcholine rather than eliminating it like alcohol they also help facilitate the relearning process of undoing learned hopelessness, and unlike alcohol, the worst side effect is drowsiness. This is precisely why recovery was so relatively easy for me, because all the while of practicing inventory and being supported by the program I was using antihistamines, to address my cancer, but which was also blocking the negative effects of acetylcholine. Incidentally, first generation antihistamines also function as sleep aids and can be very useful for alcoholics who suffer insomnia. At the outset of my recovery from alcohol I was taking doxylamine succinate to help combat my cancer and aid sleep. Not all over-the-counter antihistamines are actually antihistamines, though. Some are steroids or other compounds. Diphenhydramine is another type, and there are yet more which are available by prescription. Excessive use can overload the liver, and isn't necessary, and antihistamines also block the function of GABA so they should not be used long term, but are fine until the person is healthy. Small doses also do huge work and usually I would break a tablet in half. An antihistamine will relieve an alcoholic of the activation of their learned hopelessness while recovering from it. On taking one you may noticed a slight reduction in the severity of the emotions which can lead to relapse. After several weeks the real benefit will start to kick in, which is sort of a sense of the pattern of negative emotional cues starting to vanish altogether, and moments are taken as they come, rather than in anticipation.
Acetic acid, the end metabolite of alcohol ingestion, is supposed to be produced by our gut bacteria and is the substrate for many bodily processes including cholesterol and steroid formation. When alcohol is taken it produces the effect described that relieves an alcoholic of their emotional suffering, and this in large part is also because the amount of free acetic acid generated as the end product of alcohol metabolism helps to synthesize steroids and other hormones which support an alcoholic or addict’s metabolic health and the stressors of a lifetime of elevated acetylcholine. Alcoholics often have disturbed gut function and so have less production of the short chain fatty acids, especially acetic acid. Alcohol is antibacterial and the excessive use of it also destroys the balance of gut bacteria and reduces acetic acid production, making the self-medication of alcohol even more dependent for normal bodily function. In tackling alcohol use it is extremely helpful to restore the gut as discussed in the chapter on gut health, and to use supplemental sources of acetic acid to replace that which is otherwise found through alcohol, which can severely relieve the impulse of cravings, and I have had many of my readers relate to me their reduced desire to drink when regularly using sodium acetate, which is a generous source of supplemental acetic acid. I was sober for several years, and started drinking again two years ago (if you can call one drink every two or three months drinking). In that time I did have a return of the cravings due to a supplement I was trying which overstimulated my nervous system, but I silenced the cravings in a few hours by administering a single course of antihistamines and sodium acetate, and it’s been about five months since that and without a social life I haven’t had a single drink since. Because acetylcholine is an ester of acetic acid and choline, and alcoholics and addicts present with reduced quantities of acetic acid and other short chain fatty acids in the gut, the excess production of acetylcholine at the root of alcoholism and addiction also helps deplete what acetic acid might be available, which makes sodium acetate equally necessary in the treatment of this disease. Additionally, vinegar can be used in foods such as salad dressings and sauces or supplemented in milk or orange juice to get yet more acetic acid, and thence the production of cholesterol and steroids which will not only relieve suffering but help ease cravings and aid in restoring the general health of the individual. Interestingly, many alcoholics take a liking to kombucha, which is traditionally made with acetic acid producing bacteria. Some brands add lactic acid bacteria to their brew to control excess alcohol, and lactic acid can work against efforts to restore health and fight alcoholism, so commercial kombucha isn't a best source of acetic acid but can be an option if a source of low-alcohol, no-lactic acid can be found or made.
Many vitamins are either inhibited by drug and alcohol abuse, are not present in the diet, or are used up quickly during intoxication. Vitamin C is especially helpful for recovery, and always depleted in those with severe progression of the disease. If an alcoholic/drug addict is not getting at least 300-400 mg of vitamin C every day from natural foods it is unlikely to do much good. Vitamin C deficiency is actually an underlying contributor to heroin and opiate abuse, and is a primary driver behind the current opioid epidemic in the United States. I once suggested vitamin C to someone recovering from heroin addiction. Like many people, he had decided to become sober because his addiction was finally taking a serious toll on his physical health. But in taking vitamin C he recovered very quickly, and promptly returned to abusing heroin since he no longer felt ill and had not committed to a recovery program. But for this reason, vitamin C can be a powerful tool in addressing addiction and alcoholism. As mentioned in previous chapters, vitamin C expressed during digestion results in the formation of a small amount of nitrous oxide from nitrates which occur naturally in food and make normal, healthy people constantly at a low-grade high all the time. This also helps induce normal sleep, GABA expression, calmness, promotes a healthy libido, and other benefits that non-addicts incorrectly assume to be characteristics of superior moral fortitude. Using a small amount of vitamin C with any food which contains nitrates as discussed in the chapter on GABA will downregulate NMDA activity, calm the nervous system, promote sleep, and promote normal nitrous oxide opioid activity to thus restore one of the primary deficiencies which alcoholics and addicts suffer.
Similarly to what is discussed in the chapter on depression, anxiety, and PTSD the area of the brain which is directly involved in the development of learned hopelessness and the development of addiction is called the dorsal raphe nucleus. The raphe nucleus is the center of neurological serotonergic function, and during events of inescapable stress the function of the raphe nucleus becomes irreversibly altered and begins to chronically elevate levels of serotonin which in turn cause chronically elevated levels of acetylcholine and a decline in the metabolic rate. This in turn down-regulates dopamine, GABA, and calcium functions, and other beneficial processes. I think this response is actually a protective mechanism against painful death, since its occurrence is most likely to occur in animals during the act of succumbing to predation. I think it’s nature’s way of sparing the prey animal excessive suffering. But in animals such as ourselves, and those experimental rats, we live through the stress only to find ourselves permanently changed, because the parameters for causing this condition are merely biochemical it does not require actual predation to occur but simply the same levels of stress hormones which elicit the response, which in terms of us humans comes from long-term neglect, abuse, and/or promoted by chemical intervention from natural or industrial antagonists. Studies on learned hopelessness have shown that it can be reversed by exposure to bright light, which suggests involvement of the raphe nucleus. The therapy to remove learned hopelessness is so surprisingly simple I was even more giddy when figuring it out (but also because I had removed my own condition). This involves the same light therapy described for treating the dorsal raphe nucleus in the chapter on depression, where by directing a bright light such as from a 300 watt incandescent bulb or even a 500 watt halogen lamp onto the back of the head can stimulate the affected areas of the brain to increase their metabolic rate. Many people assume that light does not penetrate to the brain, but this is totally incorrect and studies show that even when blindfolded parts of the brain respond to light directed at other parts of the head. Our cells are designed to refract light, and one of the reasons for the internal red color of our tissues is that the skin filters out all but the red side of the spectrum so that red light penetrates deep into the body. As long as the light source is fairly powerful, the light waves will travel through the skull and stimulate the proper calcium pathways of the dorsal raphe nucleus (and also the pineal gland) and thus reverse the excessive serotonergic condition of learned hopelessness. This also requires vitamin C and food to support an increase in the metabolic rate of the dorsal raphe nucleus stimulated by the light, administered within 30 minutes of beginning light therapy. An hour or two every day for fourteen days is required to permanently remove the physical symptoms of learned hopelessness. This therapy does not remove the perceptions which have been created over a lifetime, such as a fear of people, finances, remorse, guilt, shame, etc., as a recovery program is needed for that (such as the therapy in the chapter on God and spirituality). What this therapy does is remove the chemical depressors which facilitate the overwhelming negative emotions which impair healing and promote substance abuse. If done correctly, results will be noticeable within just one or two sessions as the body begins to feel more relaxed and less urgency felt around life. If antihistamines and acetic acid are practiced in conjunction with a recovery program and supportive nutrition, this light therapy will guarantee a complete recovery.
There are other things which can help a sufferer of learned hopelessness and thence alcoholism and addiction in similar ways, such as naltrexone and thyroid medication. Both of these substances lower or block the destructive effects of elevated acetylcholine and have been shown to aid recovery from alcohol, although they were not crucial to my recovery which can be done without them. A good antihistamine and generous supply of acetic acid is an easy way for suffers to find real relief from the suffocation of learned hopelessness, and providing positive personal experiences during recovery such as practicing the fear and trauma therapies in the chapter on God and spirituality can help empower those with this disease whereby the simple act of living will cause new and positive associations with the conditions of life which previously caused them social paralyzation. Antihistamines used simultaneously with alcohol is dangerous, however, and should not be used in place of abstinence since both reduce the action of the excitatory amino acids which run the active state of metabolism. Many drugs which are now illicit like LSD and MDMA, drugs which currently plague many people suffering from substance abuse, were originally developed specifically to treat many of the symptoms and conditions similar to or involved in learned hopelessness, and mainly work by increasing factors which combat the effects of elevated acetylcholine rather than targeting the chemical directly. Unfortunately those ended up having too many side effects to be considered by doctors as viable for standard treatment, though the properties of which still help sufferers of learned hopelessness escape their condition for a time much the way alcohol does, and thus the abuse. Because in reality, alcoholism and addiction is merely the self-medication of the condition of learned hopelessness.
There is always the possibility of regressing back to the condition during times of high-stress or insufficient light exposure such as during the winter or with excessive sequestration indoors, but all that is required then is to merely repeat this process to prevent its redevelopment, and recurrence can be entirely prevented by guaranteeing a good diet, high metabolic rate, sufficient natural light exposure, and having some compassion for your mind, body, and spirit by avoiding excess stress. After the body has fully healed drinking may even be resumed safely, and amazingly a former alcoholic or addict will find more than one drink to be excessive and undesirable, such is the effect of this therapy. Of course it is also important to maintain a diet which supports the biochemical healing of the physical disease, otherwise recovery is not assured or will continue to be unpleasant, difficult, and lead to or sustain other mental health issues. One such problem is caused by microbes which respirate on nitrates as discussed in the chapter on gut health, and in fact a low-nitrate diet strongly prevents cravings that might normally occur from consumption of nightshades since without the suppressive effect of excess nitric oxide cells are actually able to respirate when stimulated by extra acetylcholine. Lithium can also be used to help combat ammonia where ammonia can stimulate extra acetylcholine production. A prescription isn’t needed to get lithium either, and the amounts in prescription tend to have too severe of side effects anyway. Lithium has been shown in studies to increase sobriety, and because lithium has a direct benefit to neurological health this makes a lot of sense since alcoholism and addiction are a neurological disorder. While lithium has not been shown to reduce the expression of acetylcholine it has been shown to reduce the body’s receptivity to it, which means it probably has a protective effect similar to antihistamines, preserving the function of acetylcholine while limiting its destructive effects, and lithium deficiency could have some role in the development of the disease. I would avoid one of the available forms, lithium aspartate, as aspartate is a stimulant and can overtax the nervous system (I prefer lithium orotate). Lithium also helps repair the gut, which is often damaged in alcoholics and addicts. Vitamin B1 (thiamine) also lowers ammonia and lactic acid by increasing CO2 production, where CO2 is the healthier way to remove ammonia from the body, and can also increase feelings of relaxation when taken in high doses. Before alcohol metabolizes into acetic acid it is first metabolized into highly toxic aldehydes, and it is these aldehydes which are mostly responsible for the toxic effects of alcohol. Because we have evolved alongside yeasts for millions of years we have the innate ability to detoxify alcohol, which is why we can even drink it in the first place without immediately dying, but these detoxification pathways require certain nutrients like B vitamins and zinc. The trace mineral molybdenum is the most important, of which a deficiency is quite easy to acquire, especially if its use is increased through heavy drinking. Molybdenum is needed specifically to detoxify those aldehydes and in long-term drinkers or those with a preexisting molybdenum deficiency aldehyde levels remain elevated and thus account for most of the physical decline of alcoholics, so all drinkers or anyone in recovery must supplement molybdenum in order to avoid the specifically destructive effects of aldehydes. High doses aren’t necessary nor helpful, and is better taken in a low dose once or twice a week. Because alcohol promotes the oxidative destruction of polyunsaturated fats, which is the mechanism by which alcohol and its aldehyde metabolites actually cause physiological damage, it is also helpful and advisable for anyone who does or has used alcohol to supplement extra boron with a low dose boron supplement. Studies on the medicinal use of boric acid show a beneficial effect on a toxic marker of oxidative stress in the body called malondialdehyde, which results from the lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fats and damages DNA. One rat study which examined the protective effect of boric acid on alcohol toxicity showed a slightly lower malondialdehyde level in boron treated rats than even the control rats not exposed to alcohol.
Good whole food at regular intervals and generous use of sugar can replace some of the therapeutic benefit of alcohol without any of the side effects (no one has ever crashed their car from driving under the influence of Coca Cola). Grains, which cause a lowering of mood and energy should absolutely be avoided by those in recovery as they also elicit many of the stress responses which an alcoholic suffers then remedies with alcohol, especially common wheat as discussed in the chapter on bread, which causes inflammation and then irritability, depression, and even mania by promoting inflammatory and torporific hormones. There is no scenario where a person in recovery eats pasta and normal bread and does not also continue to persist in depression, agitation, and restlessness. The family of nightshades, potentially contributing to the exacerbation of learned hopelessness and excess acetylcholine, are best left uneaten until some recovery has been made. Good fats such as butter (especially grass-fed butter), coconut oil, and cocoa butter can help to dampen the stress response and repair the tissue damage and premature aging caused by alcohol consumption, because these fats resist the physiological deterioration which both causes and contributes to the disease in the first place. Bad fats like soy, canola, corn, fish, etc, which are not stable in the high heat, high oxygen environment of the human body should absolutely be avoided forever and always, even after recovery has been made. Daily natural carotenes from foods like peaches, nectarines, pumpkin, or carrots, by directly supporting the production of steroids, will also go a long way toward helping the affected individual feel happy, healthy, energetic, and regenerate their physical health.
The condition of learned hopelessness was later renamed by an enterprising psychologist to the less appropriate term learned helplessness, and indeed most of the current literature available refers to it by that name. I take issue with this for a number of reasons—that the condition as I have experienced it has nothing to do with helplessness. The sufferer of this disease is no less aware of the options and ability to overcome stress or to rise to the challenges which come easy to healthy individuals. The condition truly is one of hopelessness, where the very point to go on is lacking rather than the means of doing so. In addition the term helplessness implies a sense of personal responsibility for the condition, which could not be further from the truth as it is a disease and largely beyond the control of those who suffer it, and in fact the major contributors to the work on this condition continue to regard the solution as one of personal choice, which completely fails to comprehend the nature of our biological function and the root source of the condition as well as the nature of reality itself, which is often beyond our control. The terms do not fully encompass the nature of the disease and distract from the causes and solution. In addition, the researchers who renamed it experimented by torturing dogs, and while all animal abuse and experimentation unsettles me I find it impossible to believe that a person capable of electrocuting dogs could possibly comprehend the condition. I propose that the collection of symptoms of learned hopelessness be classified and renamed to something which appropriately and succinctly describes the disease, defined as the excessive and chronic elevation of acetylcholine causing impairment of social and personal wellbeing as arises from an overactive parasympathetic nervous system. Levels of acetylcholine and acetylcholinesterase can be measured objectively in a doctor’s office to establish morbidity, supported by outward manifestations of behavior and suffering and history of abuse, trauma, neglect, or dietary factors which contribute to the condition. Such a term could encompasses the true nature and effect of the disease, most importantly remove stigma, and provide a singular and specific path for achieving cure and treatment of all symptoms. While alcoholism and drug abuse are considerable manifestations of this disease, they are only some outward symptoms, so this term also includes those who suffer the disease but haven’t passed to the self medication of it. Symptoms are an impairment of a person’s perception of social dynamics and personal wellness which results in self-defensive behavior which harms their own personal wellbeing, marked by excessive agitation, restlessness, irritability, isolation, resentment, instability, and a failure to connect to friends and loved ones, which may but does not always include self-medication through excessive drug and alcohol use. Treatment being as simple as the use of antihistamines, sodium acetate, improved diet, and appropriate trauma therapy help the person learn positive associations with the conditions of life.
Fixing the disease which underlies drug and alcohol abuse is really a lot easier than it has seemed, it has only been that the pathways involved were very elusive. When I did start drinking again I was delighted to find that only one or two drinks satisfied me (and more were repelling), and I would go for weeks and months without the thought of alcohol even popping up in my head. Cravings can start to return if stress becomes excessive or certain dietary or gut conditions are not fully remedied, but these therapies effectively eliminate the need to overindulge, and careful practice of them can help reduce and eliminate cravings if they should start to recur. By fully understanding the factors which contribute to its development, a person may be empowered to help themselves since a true healing can finally be made through easy, actionable steps.
If you would like more information on this or other health problems like depression, erectile dysfunction, insomnia, and even cancer you can get a copy of my book. Many people who struggle with addictions or alcoholism also feel addicted to sugar, but this is not a true addiction and in fact we need and can use sugar to help us recover from real addictions, which you should read about in my article Fructose and Sugar Addiction. Depression always accompanies alcoholism and addiction problems, and curing depression works along similar pathways. You can read about How to Cure Depression or Six Quick Tricks to Interrupt Depression.
SODIUM ACETATE
I discovered the use of sodium acetate for gut problems, and it can help supplement extra acetic acid in a form that is a bit easier to use than caustic vinegar. For more on it's health benefits you can read my book.
SODIUM ACETATE
*never mix in a sealed container, reaction is
volatile and will burst container.
1 tsp baking soda
3 tablespoons vinegar (plus more if needed)
Place baking soda in an open cup or bowl, slowly adding vinegar until foaming stops. Once reaction slows add small amounts of vinegar until all sodium bicarbonate has disappeared or fizzing ceases (swirl or agitate the solution to react all bicarbonate). Dilute this remaining solution with water, orange juice, or milk, and divide into two or three doses separated by at least an hour when starting sodium acetate. Adding too much vinegar makes it taste acrid, too much bicarbonate makes it salty, balancing the two is key to a mild taste and may take practice. The benefit of this comes from repetition, and excess can be unhelpful or cause sodium overdose, so please don’t do that. It is also best used after or with a meal. Some conditions like Crohn's disease are believed to be an excess of acetate so please consult with a doctor before using sodium acetate.