On Alcohol - Part II

[Steven Budlong]

Dear Way Corps,Let me start this by pointing out some things that should be self-evident. We are all born with a different genetic foundation. Our genes give us our skin, eye and hair color. They give us our frame and our build. They have something to do with our intelligence and emotional balance and character. There is in fact very little they do not give us. Sometimes what we inherit seems to be unfair. Included in the list of “unfair” is a predisposition to different types of addictions. Geneticists have been looking for years now for markers that show we are prone to becoming alcoholic. Several years ago I spoke to a researcher at Yale University working on just such a project. She said they had found well over 20 such markers in human DNA. That my friend is a lot!Where did all of the genetic baggage we carry come from? Did it come when “sin entered in”? Did it have something to do with the drunkenness of Noah? Was it a simple mutation or was it somehow picked up or spliced in from another species? I have no idea; I leave that to the X-Files.Now, what is the difference between an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic? The difference is that one can stop while the other can’t, but why? Well, first you have to realize that alcohol is both a stimulant and a depressant. When you take a drink or two you get stimulated. You may feel a lift and your mind may suddenly break through the day’s lethargy and begin buzzing with a sense of well being, ablaze with profound thoughts. As you keep drinking and the liver begins breaking down the alcohol into sugar, you may begin to feel a little down, a little tired. If you are a “normal” drinker you do the natural thing, and that is you stop drinking. Yet there are those who have never had a “normal” drink in their lives. They drink to get high, and then they drink to pass out or black out. And when you ask them the next morning how much they drank the honest reply should be “all of it.”Let me describe this in a way I have heard medical experts describe it. But let me qualify this by saying I am not a Doctor, nor a medical expert. The information I am sharing though is not hard to find if you want to delve into it further. Here goes…We all have what some refer to as a “lizard brain,” or a limbic system. That is the where all the basic motives and emotions of survival are transposed into thoughts, feelings and actions like fight or flight and sexual urges. It is the pleasure center of the brain. The brain uses dopamine to regulate our sense of wellbeing. It is a natural compound that God created to help us get through the day without savaging each other. Now there should be in your brain a base line or level of naturally secreted dopamine. What happens with drugs and alcohol is that they create a chemical surge that nothing natural can. They spike up your dopamine level unnaturally and then when you come down lizard brain tries to reestablish the dopamine base line. Usually it does. However, when you keep repeating this behavior you will force havoc upon your limbic system. You are tampering with your dopamine base line, your ability to feel good about life and self. Like a trampoline, up you go and down you come, up you go and down you come, up you go and down you come, up you go and down, huh… oops… the springs give out, you drop through your base line, your floor of wellbeing, your dopamine level has given way. Ever wonder why people feel so bad when they are coming down off of a high? It is not just the poison they have ingested; it is the lack of dopamine. Your brain now must work overtime to restore the base line. THIS IS WHERE ADDICTION STARTS. Yes, did you hear me? THIS IS WHERE ADDICTION STARTS. Now you know.I have explained it to my children like this, "The greater your genetic predisposition is to alcoholism the less likely it is you will ever have a normal drink”. Again, the “normal” drink is the one drink you take and then you take no more. You voluntarily stop.If you drink or use, you may find yourself having a compulsion towards doing it again and again. When compulsion turns into a craving you have crossed the line into addiction. And hey stupid, good luck coming back!!!Say you do come back and you quit. It will now take your brain anywhere from two months to three years to feel normal. Most people think this is depression. It is not depression, it is dysphoria. Dysphoria has several meanings, but in this context is an adjustment disorder that feels like depression brought on by a chemical imbalance to the brain.Now your mind will tell you to DO SOMETHING about this terrible state of being. And that is why people frequently relapse. They are overwhelmed because the limbic system is stronger than the rational mind. It is saying “feed me, feed lizard brain, feed your head, feed me and feel good!” So now what do you do? Well, you can exercise. Exercise releases dopamine naturally. Or you can realize that the craving, like a storm, will pass and you can white knuckle it. Another thing you can do it talk to somebody about it. Hey, doesn’t the Bible say something about confessing our faults one to another? Isn’t that like talking about our problems? The funny thing is when we do that, when we verbalize what is eating away at us, it loses its power over us. Really.If addiction runs in your family, stay away from the drugs, the pills and the booze. The only sure fired remedy is abstinence. You heard me, abstinence!“You mean… I… can never… drink again?!?”Well, I might simply say “Yes,” but I am apt to add, “if you want to live, or live without destroying yourself or someone else you should never drink again.”“Uh, that is so unfair, so unimaginable!”“Is it now? What a deep handicap, what a great deprivation, what traumatic loss. Could it be that alcohol in your life is a god, an idol, something you put between you and others, something you put between you and your Lord? Could it be you spend an unusually large amount of time thinking about getting it, thinking about using it, thinking about hiding it?” Now, we are talking!See, part of the problem is that some people in The Way taught that true deliverance would come when the alcoholic would able to drink again. I think that is probably one of the most destructive lines of spiritualized drool I have ever heard. If your daughter was deathly allergic to peanut butter, would you keep sending her to school with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Is that how you would “cure” her? “Just woof that down dear one with a little milk and be sure to believe.” Tell that to the ER Doctor when she has suffocated on a bloated tongue and throat!Alcohol is an allergy too. By allergy, I mean that one’s body cannot process it the way most people’s bodies do. So why shame someone over their problem when they are trapped unwittingly? But that is what we have done. We have shamed people into thinking they are defective, broken, damaged, less-than-zero. Shame says “I am a bad person,” which is very different from guilt which says, “I have done something bad.” There is no shame in being an alcoholic or addict. There may be guilt, but no shame. And God forgives all, so hopefully everyone can get past the guilt as well.So next time someone tells you legalizing pot is a good idea because after all, “What is wrong with something that lifts you out of depression?” Just remind him or her that, “in the long run it puts you deeper into a depression that becomes a living hell to get out of.” It is another one of Satan’s unending lies of happiness. As long as you're not hurting anybody, right? Remember, drinking or using is all about loss and we will look at the cost of it in real measurable terms later. But for now may I would like to leave you with this:“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”(Philippians 4:8)Respectfully Yours,Steven C. BudlongRidgefield, CT 06877Copyright 2008 Sojourner Media, LLC

[Steven Budlong]

Glenn,

Really wonderful hearing from you. High School was chalk full of amazing days. I still hold those years and our time in Columbus as sacred. Monkeyshines are part of life, a great part. I think of kids today whose lives are completely structured and sheltered and wonder what they're going to look back on and laugh about.

I trust you are doing well. My email is [e-mail], drop me a line anytime brother.

Truly Yours,

Steve

[Glenn McCaw]

You know, I forgot what a terrific writer you were way back in high school. And the years have only made you better. You write in shirt-sleeve English with a strong command of your subject, and I can honestly say I learned several things just by reading your last two blogs. And you've made me think - which seems to occur less frequently anymore.

My grandfather was a preacher during Prohibition. He was a leader in the Anti-Saloon League, The Women's Christian Temperance Union and several other organizations. I heard many family legends from my aunts and uncles of the violence his Illinois church and home suffered from gangsters every time they shut down another saloon.

When Prohibition was repealed, my grandfather never got over it. He wouldn't even call it "root beer" because of the word "beer - he called it "sassparillo." In 1963 Nat King Cole had a big hit called "The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer," and my sister and I would hear it on the radio and sing along normal until the line "Those days of pretzels, and popcorn and BEER!" and we'd shout the word BEER! at the top of our lungs because it drove the old guy nuts. We'd look all innocent - 6 and 8 years old - and say "What? We're just singing that song." My mother would give us THAT LOOK but the next time it came on the radio we'd do it again. Finally they just quit playing the radio. I still instinctively shout BEER! everytime I hear that song, which is sort of embarassing on a crowded elevator with piped in Muzak.

Anyway, it blessed me a whole bunch to see your face and read your words again. I don't regret any of the monkeyshines we did when we were teens. Those were just growing pains. What I do remember and really miss is the sweet fellowships you had in your lower level and the way you made me think about the Word and more important, the way you helped me to think the Word.

That was 35 years ago.

Yikes.

Glenn

[Kata Billups]

yep. well written. Steve! jeepers, you must have taken like 26 minutes to write all that! Having had lots of "alkys" in my family line, (although I turned to the addiction of food deprivation called anorexia)...I've learned a few cool things. 1. how cruel it is to label (saying "label" I see I am loosely referring to another thing you wrote, Steve....) anyway, to say..."Oh he's (or she's) an alcoholic" is cruel. The way we define ourselves or other people has such a lasting impact - doesn't it? 2. How prayer (ie. GOD hearing and benevolently responding to our prayers ) REALLY changes people...and situations. I counted my brother as "gone", soon to die, or lose all his brain cells...and so did some of my relatives who worked within AA and NA....Then, I met an old friend who used to be one of the most unhealthy drinkers I'd EVER met---He used to continuously pick fights, he stole, he had the smell of death on him. BUT NOW this guy had stopped drinking, and his face was bright like an angel's...and his mind was SHARP, and he laughed and was so real and warm....and I realized that if HE could change, so could my brother....WAKE UP CALL TO SELF:... I felt so bad for practically giving up on my brother...that I began to pray for him. I'm not giving my SELF any credit for the change that shortly after happened in my brother, just telling a story here....and WHAT IS the story for now? My brother has been clean and sober for over 9 years, and his emotional age is catching up to his actual age, and we can kind of get along for longer periods of time now, and it's lovely to have my brother back. Now I pray he will be in eternity with me too...3. nutrition. I hear and have read that many clinics now place clients on mega doses of vitamin B. first thing. Vicious cycle. The alcohol strips the body of B's. The body craves B's and energy, and so craves the sugar in the booze, The sugar high slams the drinker down, and he/she craves more booze...The nerves get shot to heck...Hence the D.T.'s....You get the picture....Gotta go now, Love, KATA

[dick michaud]

Steve, I enjoyed your post. alcohol killed my dad at the young age of 46. My dad was just like you stated, one drink and it was all over. I foolishly and ignorantly told a friend that God had delivered him from alcoholism and that he was in control not the alcohol and that he could handle a drink. I bought him a couple of beers while we ate our pizza. Well to make a long story short he went on a drunk that landed him in the hospital. Man did I feel terrible. Just cause you come from an alcoholic background doesn't mean you understand it, at least I didn't understand. Thanks for sharing

Dick

[Steven Budlong]

Thanks John,

One of these days we will have to meet up. I enjoy your feedback. Denial is like insanity, it leads to doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome but always getting the same results. And it manifests itself so many ways -- from gambling to sex addiction to shopaholics and workaholics. Channeling that negative energy into a positive endeavor can take the handicap and turn it into a longsuit. People can't see beyond the problem though. If you put that energy into Christian Service, AA, others or even personal ambition you have a drive that few ever obtain. It beats waking up somewhere and wondering how you got there! I have a friend who woke up completely naked on Fifth Avenue one morning. His first thought wasn't "How did this happen to me?" (he had no clue), but "how do I get out of this???" And he drank yet again.

Steve

[John Richeson]

Well written, Steve. I have seen alchohol ruin people's lives. I have a friend who is an engineer. Very intelligent, very capable. Never smoked pot or did drugs, never rebelled much, was a good kid and a good student, never commited any crimes. But his whole life has been ruined by alchohol. He just got out of prison after serviing 3.75 years of a 5 year sentence for felony DUI. He is in his 50's no children, no relationships, no career or decent job, no savings, and plenty of debt to pay restitution to the older woman he hit while DUI, It was his 4th arrest for DUI. It was escalated to Felony DUI which carries an auto 5 years here in Florida.

He claims he is cured and done with that part of his life. He told me that "all he would ever do now is have an occasional glass of wine". When he said that alarm bells went off in my head. I knew he still did not get it. He is still an alchoholic in denial. He has moved away and is no longer in touch with me at all. Not good signs. I hope he does not end up under an overpass in his retirement years.

I agree that complete abstinence is the only key to an effective cure for an alchoholic. I think it is also an effective plan for many who drink who are not alchoholics. THere is not much good about alchohol in general.

If your article inspires even one person to action it is worth it. Thanks for writing Part II.