The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

Addiction

Anybody can succumb to addiction, as addiction is a human condition, and we are all human. Addiction knows no bounds of nationality, sex, race, creed, culture, socio-economic, intelligence, etc... Addiction is a big problem for the person addicted, their loved ones, their family, their neighbors, their co-workers, and society as a whole. Addiction can take the forms of substance abuse or psychological abuse. It is easy to become addicted, as it often occurs gradually and a little bit at a time before you realize you have become addicted. In any way, shape, or form addiction needs to be confronted and overcome for the benefit of all those who are impacted. Here are some facts from the website of Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and my perspective on addiction:

Facts About Common Substance Addictions:

Alcohol

What are the street names/slang terms?

Booze, Brew, Hooch, Juice, Sauce.

What is Alcohol?

Alcohol is a depressant and contains ethyl alcohol or ethanol. Ethanol is an intoxicating ingredient in beer, wine and liquor, and produced by the fermentation of yeast, sugars and starches.

What does it look like?

Alcohol is a liquid.

How is it used?

Alcohol is consumed in beverages such as beer, wine, and liquor.

What are its short-term effects?

When a person drinks alcohol, the alcohol is absorbed by the stomach, enters the bloodstream, and goes to all the tissues. The effects of alcohol are dependent on a variety of factors, including a person’s size, weight, age, and sex, as well as the amount of food and alcohol consumed. The disinhibiting effect of alcohol is one of the main reasons it is used in so many social situations. Other effects of moderate alcohol intake include dizziness and increased sociability; the immediate effects of a larger amount of alcohol include slurred speech, disturbed sleep, nausea, and vomiting. Alcohol, even at low doses, significantly impairs the judgment and coordination required to drive a car safely. Low to moderate doses of alcohol can also increase the incidence of a variety of aggressive acts, including domestic violence and child abuse. Hangovers are another effect of large amounts of alcohol are consumed; a hangover consists of headaches, nausea, thirst, dizziness, and fatigue.

What are its long-term effects?

Prolonged, heavy use of alcohol can lead to addiction. Sudden cessation of long term, extensive alcohol intake is likely to produce withdrawal symptoms, including severe anxiety, tremors, hallucinations, and convulsions. Long-term effects of consuming large quantities of alcohol, especially when combined with poor nutrition, can lead to permanent damage to vital organs such as the brain, heart, pancreas and liver. Drinking too much alcohol can also weaken the immune system and can increase the risks of developing cancers. In addition, mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy may give birth to infants with fetal alcohol syndrome. These infants may suffer from mental retardation and other irreversible physical abnormalities. In addition, research indicates that children of alcoholic parents are at greater risk than other children of becoming alcoholics.

Tobacco

What are the street names/slang terms?

Cigs, Squares, Smokes, Cancer Sticks

What is Tobacco?

Tobacco is an agricultural crop.

What does it look like?

Brown cut up leaves.

How is it used?

Tobacco is usually smoked. Sometimes tobacco leaves are “dipped” or “chewed” so the nicotine is absorbed via the gums.

What are its short-term effects?

When a person smokes a cigarette, the body responds immediately to the chemical nicotine in the smoke. Nicotine causes a short-term increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and the flow of blood from the heart. It also causes the arteries to narrow. Carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen the blood can carry. This, combined with the effects produced by nicotine, creates an imbalance in the demand for oxygen by the cells and the amount of oxygen the blood is able to supply.

What are its long-term effects?

It is now well documented that smoking can cause chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke, as well as cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and bladder. In addition, smoking is known to contribute to cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys. Researchers have identified more than 40 chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have deadly consequences, including lung, larynx, esophageal, and oral cancer. The harmful effects of smoking do not end with the smoker. Women who use tobacco during pregnancy are more likely to have adverse birth outcomes, including babies with low birth weight, which is linked with an increased risk of infant death and with a variety of infant health disorders. The health of nonsmokers is adversely affected by environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Each year, exposure to ETS causes an estimated 3,000 non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer and causes up to 300,000 children to suffer from lower respiratory-tract infections. Evidence also indicates that exposure to ETS increases the risk of coronary heart disease.

Marijuana

What are the street names/slang terms?

Bud, Blunt, Chronic, Dope, Ganja, Grass, Green, Hash, Herb, Joint, Loud, Mary Jane, MJ, Pot, Reefer, Sinsemilla, Skunk, Smoke, Trees, Weed

What is Marijuana

Marijuana, the most often used illegal drug in this country, is a product of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana, also present in other forms of cannabis, is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Of the roughly 400 chemicals found in the cannabis plant, THC affects the brain the most.

What does it look like?

Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa).

How is it used?

Many users roll loose marijuana into a cigarette called a “joint.” Marijuana can also be smoked in a pipe or water pipe (called a “bong”) or vaporized using a “vape” pen. A single intake of smoke from a joint or pipe is called a hit. Marijuana can also be mixed into food or brewed as tea and ingested. It has also appeared in cigars called “blunts.”

In states where marijuana has become legalized, more and more marijuana “edibles” are seen in retail establishments where marijuana is sold, including baked goods and candy that closely or even exactly resemble well-known foods (example: brownies, chocolate, cookies, pizza or gummy bears). It may also come in a “wax” form that resembles lip balm that can be eaten or smoked.

What are its short-term effects?

Short-term effects of marijuana include disrupted learning and memory, difficulty with thinking and problem solving, distorted perception (sights, sounds, time, touch), loss of motor coordination, increased heart rate, and anxiety. These effects are even greater when other drugs (including alcohol) are mixed with weed. A user may also experience dry mouth.

What are its long-term effects?

Marijuana increases the risk of chronic cough, bronchitis, and increases risk of schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals. May increase risk of anxiety, depression and a series of attitude and personality changes, known as “amotivational syndrome.” This syndrome is characterized by a diminished ability to carry out long-term plans, a sense of apathy, decreased attention to appearance and behavior, and decreased ability to concentrate for long periods of time. These changes can also include poor performance in school. Marijuana, just like any other drug, can lead to addiction. It affects the brain’s reward system in the same way as all other drugs of addiction – and the likelihood of addiction increases considerably for those who start young.

Hard Drugs

These are types of drugs which are considered more harmful than ‘soft’ drugs and can lead to addiction. They include:

• Heroin
• Cocaine
• Crack
• Amphetamines
• Crystal meth
• Hallucinogenic drugsPrescription Drugs
• These are medications that are utilized to treat illness, disease, and pain under a doctor's supervision. When utilized without a doctor's supervision they are considered addictive drugs for the effects they have on the human body and mind. Prescription drugs should only be utilized under a doctor’s care, and in the manner proscribed by the doctor. Otherwise serious consequences could result in their misuse.
• However, there is often a blurring between what constitutes a hard drug or a soft drug. Many people would argue that most drugs are harmful and can be fatal - not just the ones listed above. All hard drugs have horrendous short and long term effects, and should be avoided at all costs.

My Personal Perspective on Addiction:

My Own Addiction

I can provide a personal perspective on addiction, as at one point in my life I succumbed to alcohol abuse. It was an all too typical journey of family-related stress, work-related stress, and physical aches and pains. It started with the occasional drinking to alleviate these problems, to the regular drinking to relieve these problems, to the heavy drinking to ignore these problems. I found myself drinking heavily every day, rather than confronting and solving these problems. I hated what I had become, but was unable to stop myself. I went into treatment twice to try to overcome my addiction. The first time was involuntary, as I have become publicly drunk (but not disorderly), and the second time voluntary with the assistance of a good friend. Neither of these treatments was of any help in overcoming my alcohol addiction. The first treatment involved personal psychological counseling which helped solve a few of my problems, but not enough to stop my drinking. The second treatment was at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) facility that also required my attending group therapy sessions and AA meetings. I realized very quickly that the AA program was not going to work for me, and the group therapy sessions were just crying sessions that did not seem to result in solving its member's problems. Indeed, when I tried to provide solutions to some of the members I was chastised by the group therapist for doing so.

I decided to take matters into my own hands, and being a computer geek, I started researching about addiction on the Internet. I spent many hours reading articles and viewing videos on addiction, from many different Internet sources. I finally zeroed in on a few people that I thought were making sense of addiction causes and treatments. One expert, in particular, recommended about a half dozen different treatments that he thought were effective in overcoming addiction. I visited the websites of these different treatments and read about their treatment plans and techniques. One, in particular, seemed advantageous for my situation, and I purchased their book, read it very carefully, and followed their technique for overcoming my alcohol addiction. I am happy to inform you that I overcame my alcohol addiction, without much difficulty, and have not had a drink or desire to drink since I implemented their treatment techniques.

One further note on Alcohol or Drug Addiction. It is fashionable in today’s society to state that addiction is a physiological problem, and not so much a psychological problem, and the addict has little control over their addiction. It has also been said that addiction is a disease that must be cured. But addiction is not a disease. If it were a communicable disease you could associate with someone who had an addiction disease, and you could contract addiction disease from them. A party with friends or family, a swim in a community pool, a walk in the park could expose you to the addiction disease, and you could come down with addiction. If it were a non-communicable disease but a physiological problem, you could wake up one morning and discover that you had contracted addiction. There would be medical symptoms and medical tests to determine if you contracted the addiction disease, and there would be medical treatments to eradicate your addiction disease. As can be seen from the previous absurd scenarios addiction is not a disease!

But addiction is big business in America. The additional premiums that insurance companies collect from all Americans, to cover those that require addiction treatments, then the payments of insurance benefits to those who treat addiction is hundreds of millions of dollars. The hiring of doctors, therapists, nurses, support personnel and the construction of treatment centers is more hundreds of millions of dollars spent. The effort, and employment, of therapists and their support personnel and facilities are more hundreds of millions of dollars. The additional taxes upon all Americans to support grant money, spent by Federal and State agencies, to research and find cures for addiction is again hundreds of millions of dollars. The state and local governments support for addiction treatments and the welfare for the addicts are again hundreds of millions of dollars. All told we spend billions of dollars a year in addiction-related activities. And yet, addiction continues to rise in America. More people endure the ravages of addiction, and the secondary illnesses and premature deaths that can result from addiction. No cure is in sight for addiction, and hope for the addicts and their loved ones is at an all-time low.

So many dollars, so many tragedies, and so few results. Could it be that we are approaching the addiction problem in the wrong way? I say the evidence of our failure demonstrates this to be true. We need to redirect and refocus our treatment of addiction. Stop treating it as a disease, and start treating it as an individual problem. While there are physiological and psychological problems to overcome to break the addiction, it is primarily an individual responsibility problem.

I would say to the addict that you are responsible for your addiction, and only you can overcome your addiction. You choose to consume alcohol or drugs, you choose to increase your alcohol or drug consumption to abusive levels, and you choose to remain addicted to alcohol or drugs. And only you can choose to end your addiction. When you are ready to end your addiction you can do so. But you cannot do so until you truly wish to end your addiction. Those that say you are helpless in overcoming your addiction are only providing you a crutch to allow you to continue your addiction. Throw away the crutch, take responsibility for your actions, and take back control of your life. You can do it!

Remember -

Addiction Is Not a Disease,

It Is A Choice!

Choose Wisely!

In many cases, Addiction leads to serious mental and physical health problems, the shortening of your life, and possibly suicide. So, my message to all Americans is:

If you are Addicted,
Or you have family or friends who are Addicted,
Get Yourself or Them the PROPER Professional Help that is Needed and Deserved,

– Now –
Before it is too late!

I realize that I will face a tidal wave of criticism for taking this stance. After all, viewing addiction as a disease absolves someone from the responsibility for their addiction, and excuses them from their actions. It also supports the raising and spending of all of these monies for the treatment of addiction, and to find a cure for addiction, by all those businesses, private institutions, and government agencies. The big business and big government forces do not wish to have the money flow from addiction treatment and research severely constricted or cut off. Many will attempt to demonize, disparage, or denigrate me so that my message will not be heard. To them, I say stop the nonsense, and start the real treatment for all those afflicted by addiction. So I will endure this tidal wave of criticism, for as President Abraham Lincoln said in his Second inaugural address

"with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right"

And I am firm in what I see as the right. For those who think I may recant some or all of this I would remind them of what Martin Luther said in defending his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences", which came to be known as The Ninety-Five Theses:

"I cannot and will not recant anything,
for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.
Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.
Amen."

We have spent billions of dollars and failed to help millions of people to recover from addiction utilizing current treatment programs, both public and private. More people are becoming addicted, less people are being cured, and relapses are frequent. To quote several famous phrases "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore", "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is Insanity", and "Stop the Nonsense". Stop the current nonsense on addiction treatment, stop the insanity, and begin to implement effective treatments!!!  The technique that I utilized to overcome my alcohol addiction is named Rational Recovery, and a brief recap is as follows:

Rational Recovery

The New Cure for Substance Addiction

You may be skeptical when you hear the word cure, but what I am about to present to you will forever change your thinking about addiction and recovery. Rational Recovery - The New Cure for Substance Addiction lives up to its promise by introducing the Addiction Voice Recognition Technique -- the revolutionary approach to overcoming alcohol and drug dependence. Here are just some of the discoveries you will make:

• Anyone -- yes, anyone can quit an addiction for good: all you need to do is to decide to quit.
• You can take care of the problem yourself.
• How to apply Addiction Voice Recognition Technique.
• Recovery = Secure Abstinence.
• How to eliminate "white-knuckling" the struggle that can wear you down.
• Unlearning traditional disease concepts of addiction.
• No Relapses, No Enablers, No Codependents, No Triggers, No Warning Signs, and No "STEPS".
• You become a normal, healthy person who simply never drinks or uses drugs.

To find out more please visit the website of Rational Recovery.

 

Good luck to you who have an addiction and wish to overcome your addiction. The following is an article on AA Efficacy Rate from cbtrecovery.org that I found helpful in my investigations.

AA Efficacy Rates

Here is some information, analysis, and links to the common question: “how effective is AA?”

Some information about AA's success rate comes from its own membership surveys. In particular, the rather famous 'Comments on AA's Triennial Surveys' document cited by Charles Bufe in Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure is AA's ID # 5M/12-90/TC, which was produced for internal purposes. It is also summarized in Vince Fox's Addiction, Change, and Choice (1993). The document is not listed in AA's 'Conference Approved Literature' but Fox was able to obtain a copy from AA.

AA's own analysis was that 50% of all those who try AA leave within 90 days, which they describe as cause for 'concern'. Their own data shows that is actually optimistic. In the 12-year period shown, 19% remain after 30 days, 10% remain after 90 days, and 5% remain after a year.

The retention rate of AA is 5% after one year.

So do we define the success rate as the retention rate? You'd have to tell me if you believe that success in AA is measured by whether people are still attending meetings.

Other observations:

60% of those surveyed were getting outside professional help. This means that any success (or failure) rate, however it is defined, can't be attributed entirely to AA.

One way to measure the success of AA would be by comparing 12-step based treatment with other treatments. A 1997 study found that 93% of American drug and alcohol treatment programs follow the 12-step model. So it would be pretty easy to tell, at least, whether 12-step programs work.

An extensive study (Hester and Miller, Handbook of alcoholism treatment approaches) shows that peer-based 12-step alcohol treatment programs do NOT have a higher success rate than no treatment at all. Facilitated 12-step treatment (trained facilitators guiding subjects through the twelve-step process) were marginally better. "The two tests of AA found it inferior to other treatments or even no treatment but were not sufficient to rank AA reliably."

Brief, non-confrontational interventions and motivational interviewing were found most effective.

If you define success as reduced drinking, absence of alcohol dependence, or a reduction in problem drinking, then you see different results. Success in AA is presumed to be total abstinence. But follow-up to many treatment programs finds people have done some drinking, or drink moderately (defined by the researcher, not the patient!). They would be considered failures in AA--but the behavior has changed. So if one wants to improve the statistical success rates of 12-step treatment, just broaden the definition of 'success' to include moderate drinking!

Here's psychiatrist George Vaillant, an advocate of the standard hospital and AA treatment program, reviewing his own studies of his own program in The Natural History of Alcoholism:

"It seemed perfectly clear that . . . by inexorably moving patients from dependence upon the general hospital into the treatment system of AA, I was working for the most exciting alcohol program in the world. But then came the rub. Fueled by our enthusiasm, I and the director . . . tried to prove our efficacy. Our clinic followed up our first 100 detoxification patients. . . . [and found] compelling evidence that the results of our treatment were no better than the natural history of the disease."

One interesting observation: a long-term study of over 4,500 subjects found that more treated alcoholics than untreated alcoholics had been abusing or dependent on alcohol within the previous year! It is really difficult to draw any conclusions from that bit of information!

So, is AA or 12-step treatment useful, or is it harmful?

First of all, to any individual who has succeeded at getting sober by means of AA it is successful. You are not a statistic. Your advice can be useful to someone who is thinking about quitting drinking, and nothing in any study diminishes the value of that experience.

But to generalize from your experience, and make predictions about what will happen to another person? Alcohol abuse is so variable in its nature and effect that it just isn't reasonable to do that.

And some believe that there are other ways AA can be harmful.

Coerced treatment is often harmful, resulting in depression, mental illness, and increased substance abuse. Most coerced treatment in the US is into 12-step programs, and is often simply mandatory attendance at AA meetings. Failure to accept the coerced treatment results in loss of employment or prison, so the outcome is undesirable either way.

If in fact AA was as effective as no treatment at all, then AA attendance would not be harmful. But if it delays those for whom it is inappropriate from seeking alternatives which may be more effective for them, then it is harmful. If it is, in fact, less effective than other treatments or than no treatment at all, it could be harmful.

In that regard, the simple phrase 'Keep Coming Back' is harmful to someone who is not finding AA helpful.

To tell them that they are somehow responsible for the program not working is harmful.

If someone who questions the tenets of AA is told to 'take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth' or to 'stop thinking, stop talking, and start listening' -- they are being harmed.

They should simply be urged to look elsewhere, not blamed because AA didn't work for them. It doesn't diminish the effectiveness of AA for you that it didn't work for someone else.

Recommending the program for someone who may have abused alcohol but is not alcohol-dependent, and who may have depression or other mental illness, is potentially very harmful. I would consider sending a depressed teenager to AA for an episode of substance abuse to be very irresponsible. A trained professional is appropriate, not a peer-based program for what may simply be an ancillary problem. Don't think it hasn't happened. Coercing teenagers into 12-step programs for simple experimentation with drugs or alcohol is not uncommon.

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For more information about the success rates of AA vs. spontaneous remission:

General discussion of success rate from AA source (Lets Ask Bill W.)

http://www.silkworth.net/ask_billw/Q&A33.html

Repeats the 50 - 75% figure often cited.

Analysis from a hostile source (More Revealed: A Critical Analysis of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve Steps):

http://www.morerevealed.com/mr/table-of-contents.html

Reviews two studies of referred users, Vaillant's study, and Peele's review.

An extensive scientific review from a neutral source (American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse) describes the problems of defining remission, and gives extensive data on remission rates. As this is a scholarly study with limited availability to the general public the hyperlink is to the abstract.

Briefly, the rate of spontaneous (self) remission for alcohol:

Defined broadly--31.4%

Defined narrowly--24.2%

This study does have a useful description of the abstinence process from this last source:

"Stall and Biernacki proposed a three-stage model of spontaneous remission ...

The initial stage of the model involves finding the resolve or motivation [from] a handful of initiating factors--medical problems, pressure from family and friends to stop using, extraordinary events, financial problems--that account for over half the reasons cited by self-remitting alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abusers ...

The second stage consists of a public pronouncement to quit. … Finding substitute activities, replacing old associations with new ones, developing nondrug recreational/leisure interests, and changing one's place of residence ...

The third or maintenance stage … [is] ongoing social support, a growing sense of self-confidence and willpower, and the discovery of life meaning through religion, education, physical exercise, and identity."

I think all of us can find something to relate to in that outline.

The only statistic that matters to you is your own personal success rate! I agree that there is no right and sure fast way--that's my point, really. The main objection people from other recovery groups have to AA is when people imply that it's the only way, and make sweeping generalizations about the likelihood of success of it or any other approach. And sloganeering just irritates me.

Many people take principles from more than one recovery program, and there are areas of agreement among them. People who come to SOS, LifeRing, or SMART Recovery often attend AA meetings for the group support, and I'm sure that's true of most of the other programs as well.