A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
nytimes.com
A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
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Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#2This is a great article.
It doesn't ever mention quantities.
In England "binge drinking" can be a surprisingly small amount. Risky drinking can be as little as 2 glasses of wine a day. (One large glass of wine (200 ml) at 13 % would be about 2.5 units - two of those is 5 units. That over 5 days is 25 units).
We use a "unit of alcohol" as a public health measure. One unit is 125 ml of drink at 8% ABV (Alcohol by Volume).
There's a handy chart at wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Units_of_alcohol_chart.sv...
Advice about sensible drinking says "no more than 3 to 4 units per day (men) 2 to 3 units per day (women), with some days drink free, and don't save up units to drink at once".
But problem drinking is much much larger quantities of alcohol. NICE guidelines say that 15 units per day get assisted withdrawal and 30 units per day (that's 750 ml of 40% vodka every day) is the threshold for medically supervised intervention.
The current English guidelines do not strongly recommend total abstinence, especially for people at the milder end of alcoholism. There are a variety of psycho-social interventions that are recommended.
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#3Drugs 'train your brain' and we have many techniques for training our brains now that seem to actually work -- now under names like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and meditation and brain games. This stuff used to go under names like hypnosis or mindreading.
It's amazingly underused and it's great to see modernizing approaches to the "command line" to the brain.
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#4As I read these techniques for fighting addiction - "solving emotional and behavioral problems, rather than having abusers forever swear off the substance", "hourlong meetings once a week at which they discuss their goals for moderate drinking, as well as tips, challenges and progress on avoiding triggers" and "motivational interviewing, a goal-oriented form of counseling" I thought it bizarre that they are considered new and an alternative. Perhaps I found them an obvious improvement to the AA model simply because we now have the hindsight to see how ineffective AA is.
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#5As I read these techniques for fighting addiction - "solving emotional and behavioral problems, rather than having abusers forever swear off the substance", "hourlong meetings once a week at which they discuss their goals for moderate drinking, as well as tips, challenges and progress on avoiding triggers" and "motivational interviewing, a goal-oriented form of counseling" I thought it bizarre that they are considere…
>to see how ineffective AA is.
Please dont speculate on recovery unless you have first hand experience. I know many people who have improved their lives from AA and other meetings of the same type.
There are many people with addiction problems who do not trust doctors or religion and a place of like minded people is the only option for them (AA).
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#6Someone who suffers from "binge drinking" may not be a candidate for AA. I think a lot of people could benefit from programs that catch addiction in the beginning phases.
Most addicts dont start out abusing substances heavily from day one, if we had more programs that focused on the early addiction phase then we may be able help many people who are teetering on the edge.
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#7As I read these techniques for fighting addiction - "solving emotional and behavioral problems, rather than having abusers forever swear off the substance", "hourlong meetings once a week at which they discuss their goals for moderate drinking, as well as tips, challenges and progress on avoiding triggers" and "motivational interviewing, a goal-oriented form of counseling" I thought it bizarre that they are considere…
They're not necessarily new, but addiction (even for alcohol or gambling) is closely tied to drug use and thus it's sub-optimally political.
That's a shame because research is difficult and also ignored if politicians find it doesn't suit their view.
Substitution therapy (eg, methadone instead of heroin) has strong supporters and detractors and it's hard to get good quality research to see whether substitution is better than abstinence.
Indeed, Russell Brand (comedian, actor, addict) has been talking about the benefits of abstinence based treatment and asking why it's not more available in England, which suggests to me that most people don't get abstinence based treatment. (Although he's talking about drugs and not alcohol).
It is weird that cognitive behavioural models are really old now and are only just starting to get a lot of use.
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#8As I read these techniques for fighting addiction - "solving emotional and behavioral problems, rather than having abusers forever swear off the substance", "hourlong meetings once a week at which they discuss their goals for moderate drinking, as well as tips, challenges and progress on avoiding triggers" and "motivational interviewing, a goal-oriented form of counseling" I thought it bizarre that they are considere…
Not what the research actually shows: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/09/h...
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#9As I read these techniques for fighting addiction - "solving emotional and behavioral problems, rather than having abusers forever swear off the substance", "hourlong meetings once a week at which they discuss their goals for moderate drinking, as well as tips, challenges and progress on avoiding triggers" and "motivational interviewing, a goal-oriented form of counseling" I thought it bizarre that they are considere…
>to see how ineffective AA is. Please dont speculate on recovery unless you have first hand experience. I know many people who have improved their lives from AA and other meetings of the same type. There are many people with addiction problems who do not trust doctors or religion and a place of like minded people is the only option for them (AA).
Agreed. (I don't know why you're being downvoted.)
I've never been in AA but I am close to someone who has. The primary benefit I see AA provide them is a group of like-minded people who will do fulfilling non-drug-related activities with them.
Addiction is as much social as it is physiological. It's very difficult to quit an addiction if you continue to hang out with the same people in the same environment in which you developed your addiction. Replacing that social environment with a new one composed of people who are sworn to avoid those substances and which is filled with fulfilling activities unrelated to your addiction is a superb way to keep from slipping back into old habits.
Re: A Different Path to Fighting Addiction
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
>to see how ineffective AA is. Please dont speculate on recovery unless you have first hand experience. I know many people who have improved their lives from AA and other meetings of the same type. There are many people with addiction problems who do not trust doctors or religion and a place of like minded people is the only option for them (AA).
Agreed. (I don't know why you're being downvoted.) I've never been in AA but I am close to someone who has. The primary benefit I see AA provide them is a group of like-minded people who will do fulfilling non-drug-related activities with them. Addiction is as much social as it is physiological. It's very difficult to quit an addiction if you continue to hang out with the same people in the same environment in which…
> (I don't know why you're being downvoted.)
I didn't downvote but I have a knee-jerk reaction to want to downvote people using anecdotal evidence to support medical treatments.