Sunday Support Group: Myths About Alcohol (OT)

["Sunday Support Group" is a weekly article in support of projects, aspirations, resolutions, self-help and self-reform. Although not always germane to photography, SSG was inspired by the insight that photographers tend to be happier if they have a project and/or a purpose.]

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We all have those touchstone books—the ones that were important experiences for us and became part of the story of our lives. Today I'd like I to recommend a book that was important to me, and that I just found out is "still good" you might say.

I'm an alcoholic—sober 29 years, one month, and ten days, plus part of today. The book I want to recommend, Under the Influence by James Milam and Katherine Ketchum, was part of the "welcome package" inpatients received on arriving to the rehab center where I first got sober.

I wouldn't normally recommend a nonfiction book on a scientific topic that was published way back in 1981. But I spoke on the phone the other day to Beth Kane-Davidson (right). Although neither of us remembers the other, she was working at Suburban Hospital's Addiction Treatment Center when I was there ("so our paths crossed," she said). She is now its Director. And she endorsed Under the Influence. I asked whether things haven't changed since 1990, and she said, "the cellular science hasn't changed." We had a nice conversation—she was happy to speak to a successful "alum." The book helped change my life at the time, so I was happy to learn that it's still well regarded by an expert in the field. Now I'm reading it again...for the third time, but the first in more than a quarter-century.

There's a fascinating short section about myths and realities at the beginning of the book that I wish I could quote in its entirety. (To do so would be a copyright violation.) Here are a few as a sampling:

MYTH: Alcohol is predominantly a sedative or depressant drug.

REALITY: Alcohol’s pharmacological effects change with the amount drunk. In small quantities, alcohol is a stimulant. In large quantities, alcohol acts as a sedative. In all amounts, however, alcohol provides a rich and potent source of calories and energy.

MYTH: Alcohol is an addictive drug, and anyone who drinks long and hard enough will become addicted.

REALITY: Alcohol is a selectively addictive drug; it is addictive for only a minority of its users, namely, alcoholics. Most people can drink occasionally, daily, even heavily, without becoming addicted to alcohol. Others (alcoholics) will become addicted no matter how much they drink.

MYTH: All sorts of social problems—marriage problems, a death in the family, job stress—may cause alcoholism.

REALITY: As with psychological and emotional problems, alcoholics experience all the social pressures everyone else does, but their ability to cope is undermined by the disease and the problems get worse.

MYTH: If people would only drink responsibly, they would not become alcoholics.

REALITY: Many responsible drinkers become alcoholics. Then, because it is the nature of the disease (not the person), they begin to drink irresponsibly.

MYTH: An alcoholic has to want help to be helped.

REALITY: Most drinking alcoholics do not want to be helped. They are sick, unable to think rationally, and incapable of giving up alcohol by themselves. Most recovered alcoholics were forced into treatment against their will. Self-motivation usually occurs during treatment, not before.

MYTH: Some alcoholics can learn to drink normally and can continue to drink with no ill effects as long as they limit the amount.

REALITY: Alcoholics can never safely return to drinking because drinking in any amount will sooner or later reactivate their addiction.

MYTH: When the alcoholic is drinking, he reveals his true personality.

REALITY: Alcohol’s effect on the brain causes severe psychological and emotional distortions of the normal personality. Sobriety reveals the alcoholic’s true personality.

That's skirting the upper limits of what's allowable to quote without permission, but there are more.

The book is chock-full of insights and information that are absolutely fascinating. Did you know, for example...

• That alcohol is the only drug that is also a food...but that all alcoholics are malnourished no matter what they eat? (Because active alcoholism interferes with the body's ability to absorb nutrients.)
• That alcohol is one of very few substances which can penetrate the brain's primary defense in the body, the blood-brain barrier?
• That alcohol's very first victim is the organism that creates it? (Yeast, a microscopic fungus, which voraciously converts sugar to alcohol in the fermentation process, is itself killed off when the alcohol concentration reaches about 14%, which is why that's the upper limit for the alcoholic content of naturally fermented, i.e. non-distilled, beverages such as wine.)
• That alcohol's most surprisingly quality is its ability to relieve the very distress it creates? (It's the cure for a hangover and it offers relief from the harrowing symptoms of withdrawal.)
  
• That alcohol is a very poor painkiller, because palliative effects are only evident when the dosage is dangerously close to being lethal? (So much for all those movies where a wild west desperado is given whiskey before having a bullet dug out of his side or a Civil War soldier is having his leg sawn off—if the movie is realistic, the patient will still cry out in pain. The whiskey wasn't helping.)

It's a very readable book despite a few stretches that will be tough for the less scientifically literate. Those don't go on too long, and you can still get the gist, even if you don't come to it knowing things like what MEOS stands for (the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system, if you're curious). The whole book doesn't go on too long either—256 pages, short and sweet and to the point.

One of the book's priorities is to clearly distinguish alcoholism from problem drinking. So if you happen to be curious about that—either in your own case or on behalf of someone else—then it could be what you need to answer that question.

Alcoholism is a subject worth learning about. It's a very dangerous disease. It's especially dangerous for alcoholics, but for many others too. First of all, the majority of alcoholics either die of the disease or die drinking, an average of 11 years earlier than they would have died otherwise—statistically speaking. But you don't have to be an alcoholic to die of drinking. Many problem drinkers and recreational drinkers who are not alcoholic die of acute alcohol poisoning—like the two perfectly healthy young friends who bet each other one night in a bar to see who could down a fifth of vodka the fastest. Both chugged their bottles. Both passed out—but unconsciousness didn't stop the alcohol from continuing to pass from their stomachs and intestines into their bloodstreams, and their blood alcohol levels continued to rise. Both were dead within hours.

It's pretty amazing that in our booze- and wine- and beer-soaked culture, most young people don't even know that it's possible to die pretty much on the spot from merely drinking too much too fast. (Tell your kids.) That's undoubtedly one of the reasons why six people die of acute alcohol poisoning every day in the U.S., according to current data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One hundred percent of those deaths are needless and pointless and a waste.

It should be obvious to most intelligent people that many non-alcoholic people get drunk and die from accidents of all sorts, too. Automobile accidents are only the main and best-known of these. The leading cause of deaths at college fraternity houses is falling out of windows or falling off roofs, for example. How often do you think a stone cold sober 20-year-old falls out of a window?

It's a disease that kills non-drinkers, even, because alcoholics impaired by drunkenness sometimes kill other people—most often with a motorized vehicle of some sort weaponized by an alcohol-addled operator. Even sometimes when they're in "blackouts," periods of time they'll have no memory of later.

Were so many of these deaths not masked by the descriptions of their more immediate causes—from liver failure to suicide to falling out of windows to car wrecks—alcoholism and long- and short-term alcohol consumption would rank much higher than it does among all causes of death in the U.S. It might even be first.

If alcohol affects you, your family, or someone you know—or if you're just interested in coming up to speed on the subject—read Under the Influence. It's the kind of book I like: a clear discussion of a cloudy topic.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

c.d.embrey: "Very interesting. I'm not addictive. If I want to quit, I just quit—worked with cigarettes and beer. Never did drugs or had GAS. My son is NFL linebacker big. If it wasn't for friends he'd have died from acute alcohol poisoning. He thought that with his body mass he'd be OK chugging...wrong! Thanks for posting this!"'

Lynn: "Alcohol is also a major contributor to drowning deaths. It's a significant problem in Australia where waterways and backyard pools are the ideal place to hold a party in the warmer months. Drinking alcohol and going for a swim in the ocean to celebrate or sober up often has tragic consequences. Alcohol and water don't mix! It impairs judgement about when and where it's safe to swim or when to get out of the water. It can accelerate hypothermia. Young people are particularly vulnerable—the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia says alcohol contributes to at least 41 percent of drownings in the 15–29 years age group, compared to 20 percent of all adult drowning deaths.

"I've always liked wine with meals, but after a family member almost died from alcohol poisoning I gave up in support. That was at the beginning of 2018. I've never regretted it, or felt better."

KeithB: "Re 'Most drinking alcoholics do not want to be helped. They are sick, unable to think rationally, and incapable of giving up alcohol by themselves.' When a person close to me was acutely mentally ill, I was amazed at how the illness worked to prevent the sufferer from recognizing the fact that they were ill."

adamct: "While I cannot claim that the European model is perfect, I do think that there is something deeply flawed about how many young people encounter alcohol in this country. Many (though certainly not all, given that not everyone goes to college and many students begin drinking in high school) young people first encounter significant quantities of alcohol in college, specifically as freshmen. Think about what kind of an environment that is:

• Far away from family and trusted friends
• Absence of responsible supervision
• Peer pressure to fit in and be accepted
• Illegal to drink at that age

"The last point has significant consequences, in terms of (i) legal jeopardy (fake IDs, etc.), (ii) how and where people drink (in hiding), (iii) reluctance to call authorities or for help when someone drinks too much (see the case of the fraternity that waited too long to call an ambulance after a pledge had clearly consumed a life-threatening amount of alcohol), and (iv) in terms of what students wind up drinking. What is the cheapest form of alcohol, and also the easiest to conceal? Hard alcohol. Per unit of alcohol, beer and wine are both more expensive, and harder to hide (try walking back to your dorm with a case of beer without people noticing). And unfortunately, students (and many adults, for that matter) are ill-prepared for how quickly hard alcohol can become dangerous, especially given that your blood alcohol level can continue to rise after you have stopped 'drinking.' (Which shouldn't be read to imply that drinking beer and wine are safe. They're not.)

"I believe all of this means that we introduce young people to alcohol under the absolute most dangerous circumstances possible. I hesitate to recommend introducing students to alcohol earlier, while they are still at home, although it is at least worth considering. Another option would be to permit drinking at official college 'bars,' where students could be monitored and consumption could be limited (or at least the forms of alcohol offered could be restricted). None of that would prevent alcoholism or abuse, but it might help at least some students."

Dave Sailer: "Left out: Alcohol is also a type 1 (or group 1) carcinogen. I.e., it has been proven to cause cancer in humans."

Comments

[Weekes James]

So true. My stepmother was an alcoholic. We had an intervention and she went to Hazeldon and made great progress. Before you can leave there you must pass a full physical. Her chest x-ray found a lot of lung cancer that had spread. Not surprisingly, she went back to drinking and died, of a stroke soon afterwards.

On a brighter note, both of my brothers were alcoholics and got sober about the same time you did, and remain sober. It can be overcome, it takes a village.

[Richard Parkin]

That’s a bit unfair to alcohol — to accuse it of killing the yeast that creates it. It’s only when we put the yeast into captivity that it happens, in the wild the alcohol concentration won’t usually reach such high levels :-) .

[paul In AZ]

Years ago I saw an estimate that 10% of our population was addicted to alcohol. Add in the numbers of addictions to all other mind-altering substances and the tally would be staggering.

The corrosive effect of addictions on families, associates and productivity in general is incalculable.
Addiction to alcohol is a generally ignored public health issue that is buried under a societal barrage of glamorization of drink.

Nice post.
Congrats on your sobriety. My date is 7/28/81 [you can calculate the # of days].

[13,963 days as of today, Sunday. Good work! --Mike]

[Ranjit Grover]

Alcohol is NOT a stimulant in any quantity.
The function of higher centers of brain is to keep the next lower level in check, to keep them going wild, so to speak. In other words, it maintains our civilization.
Alcohol depresses those higher centers, liberating the lower ones from the control of the higher centers. That might appear as a stimulation of the brain but in fact it is the effect of depression of the higher centers.

[Ray Maines]

"How often do you think a stone cold sober 20-year-old falls out of a window?" Probably not many, but alcohol may not be the only cause of such activity.

I was in the red light district of Amsterdam one pleasant evening and watched a young man fall out of a coffee house window. Fortunately, the window was on the ground floor and he wasn't badly hurt. The whole thing was kind of funny to watch because his reaction time was so slow he seemed to fall in super slow motion and he hit the ground in pretty much the same posture as when he sat on the window ledge, only 90 degrees and three feet later.

[William Poole]

Mike:I would be grateful for this post even if I didn't live in a home touched by alcoholism. So much good info. Thanks.

[Mike Ferron]

I lost a friend last year due to his drinking. Pretty much drank himself to death. He was found dead in a local park.

Likeable guy. He was a co-worker and was everyone's best friend. He finally could not function at work anymore and quit. I'd see him occasionally and would be shocked to see how old he now looked. I miss him and wish I could have done something to help.

[John Camp]

As a former newspaperman, I know a lot of alcoholics. One of them told me that the wonderful thing about alcohol is that when you're drinking, all things seem possible -- it alters the conditions of the world.

[Wtlloyd]

Hi Mike - I always enjoy your AA posts; my mom had her 50th AA birthday a couple years ago and my siblings and I all grew up well informed of the perils and pitfalls of substance abuse. Although informed, our individual response was...mixed.
Related to one of the myths you listed, whether Alcoholics can ever safely drink again - One of the 12 Steps is accepting you are Alcoholic and powerless to control your drinking. It did occur to me as I was questioning my own relationship to alcohol, that once having struggled to achieve sobriety, only an Alcoholic would risk that sobriety by testing its "limits".

[Bruce Cooper]

Congratulations. Your example is inspiring.

[Mike Potter]

A good post, Mike, thanks. As I've written you before, both of my Grandfathers were addicts, one to alcohol and the other to self-prescribed narcotics (he was a licensed physician) plus alcohol. I don't believe I have inherited those tendencies, but I often wonder.

[Jack]

Thanks Mike,
It wasn’t until I stopped selling beer that I took the time to try to better understand the varied dangers of the product I had been selling.
I recommend this book, along with “The Big Book” by AA, to everyone who works in the Alcohol Industry.

Jack

[Matthew]

Thank you for sharing this. So important to talk about the terrible personal and social impact of alcohol use. I come from a family of alcoholics and no longer drink.

[Daniel]

Must disagree on the "real person" not coming out when one is drunk. That is what the really are when the inhibitions are gone. Saw it with too many family members over the years. Without booze they were one person, with it they changed and what was in the background came out - seldom pretty.
Worst is knowing someone gets drunk and beats kids and family - and those who know it happens do nothing about it. They are as guilty as the drunk child/wife beaters.

No matter what they do to get sober the memory of drunken bastards beating kids never, ever goes away.

[Arg]

There seems to be some debate over whether the body is irreversably damaged by even the tinyest amount of alcohol consumption. i.e. "unsafe at any speed".

Does the book opine on that?

[Lynn]

Alcohol is also a major contributor to drowning deaths. It's a significant problem in Australia where waterways and backyard pools are the ideal place to hold a party in the warmer months. Drinking alcohol and going for a swim in the ocean to celebrate or sober up often has tragic consequences. Alcohol and water don't mix! It impairs judgement about when and where it's safe to swim or when to get out of the water. It can accelerate hypothermia. Young people are particularly vulnerable - the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia says alcohol contributes to at least 41 percent of drownings in the 15–29 years age group, compared to 20 percent of all adult drowning deaths.

I've always liked wine with meals, but after a family member almost died from alcohol poisoning I gave up in support. That was at the beginning of 2018. I've never regretted it, or felt better.

[Rob]

"it is addictive for only a minority of its users, namely, alcoholics."

"Others (alcoholics) will become addicted no matter how much they drink."

Do you have peer reviewed evidence for these two claims? Is there scientific consensus about these claims?

[Read the book? --Mike]

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Just imagine how beneficial it would be if all broadcast advertising for alcoholic beverages was banned in the same manner as tobacco ads were banned (in the U.S.) long ago.

Of course "imagine" is about as close as we'll get to that, as there's way too much money involved to ever make this dream come true.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

Thanks Mike,
Data suggests encouraging kids to delay starting drinking as long as possible.
See this from Australia:
https://drinkwise.org.au/parents/is-it-appropriate-to-let-children-try-alcohol/#

[Jnny]

Dopamine Blockers are showing potential to turn one myth into reality. In some testing addicts report being able to drink socially and not fall back into addictive behaviors. Truly a stunning outcome if it proves to work in the long term.

[Tim Auger]

Is there a distinction between alcohol dependency (I should probably plead guilty to that, getting through half a bottle of wine probably most days), and alcoholism? In particular circumstances I can give up alcohol for days on end without any ill-effects or unpleasantness. But like many people I find a regular glass of something a prop in stressful times. I certainly get through more than the medically recommended level of alcohol, but by the standards of many of my friends I am only an average drinker.

On a separate aspect of this complicated subject, I think there is a serious cultural problem in the UK (and maybe also Australia?), where people go out with the express intention of getting smashed. My impression is that this is less the case in Continental Europe, certainly the Latin countries; maybe it happens more in Northern Europe. It's true that drunken Dutch football supporters are indistinguishable in appearance and behaviour from the British counterparts. I will never forget an encounter with them in the railway station at Den Haag ... Is public drunkenness less common in the US?

[mark l]

I and my partner gave up drinking 15 years ago and life has never been better. I very much appreciate this article and only wish more people could read it. My father told me just before he died that alcohol was the invention of the devil. Now I don't have a religious bone in my body so do not really believe in the devil, but I suspect he could have been right.

[Richard Parkin]

Regarding “ See this from Australia:
https://drinkwise.org.au/parents/is-it-appropriate-to-let-children-try-alcohol/# “
I don’t see any data on that site (maybe I just didn’t find it) , just assertion. May be true maybe not. Of course it’s true that if you never drink you will not suffer alcohol poisoning but it’s not a helpful statement :-(.

[Chris]

I have friends whose son is a terrible alcoholic. He literally becomes psychotic when he is drunk. He is in his thirties and is waiting for yet another court date regarding some trouble he got into while intoxicated. They feed him wine to keep him quiet when he shows up at their house desperate, but I know they have given him his vodka in desperate times. I do not understand why his parents do this.

I have a family member that is addicted to illicit drugs. They too have become psychotic at times. I would never give them a drug to quiet them down. Alcoholics are drug addicts and should be identified as such. I pity my friends with their son. He has been in and out of treatment and was sober for ten years they say, but they also say it started in high school. I think he is mentally ill and needs to be away from those that provide him his drug.

I am afraid to say anything as I will probably lose their friendship. I pray the courts do the right thing and incarcerate him into care. I do not drink alcohol and glad my parents would not allow it in the home when I grew up. I never seem to miss what I did not have.

[Ricardo Hernandez]

Mike you should absolutely check out a guy that runs a website on internet porn addiction that has updated it. The big revelation is that all addictions (GAS, internet porn, drugs, video games when addictive) all show the same pattens in frying the reward center to the brain.

Interesting, scary but holds some interesting keys.
https://www.yourbrainonporn.com