Re: Alcoholism seen as a Nutritional Disease

You say there are lots or people who have recovered from alcoholism without therapy but statistics given in this regard are always pretty rubbery and controversial.

In this regard it is interesting to read:

A New View of Addiction: Simple and Complex by Frank Riessman and David Carroll at:

http://www.selfhelpweb.org/addiction.html


who regard those who recover without any therapy whatsoever usually suffered from "simple" addiction, as distinct from "complex" addiction.

You say: "but my experience tells me, again, that someone trying to stop who is a true alcoholic will not be able to stay stopped for any length of time if they try to treat the physical craving alone -- which can be treated by not picking up the first drink, which leads me back to a point in an earlier post -- the real problem faced by the alcoholic lies in the mind, which will tell him or her that a drink might be a good idea!".

Why pick up the first drink if you have no craving? Thus you are saying that if you can stop the physical craving for alcohol, then the alcoholic will still relapse, because the craving is " in the mind". How can you have a craving for something in he mind, if you don't have physical craving? A craving is always physical, unless you want to use the term in a poem of romantic story.

I have no intention to be argumentative with you, but I always object to anybody advising other addicts, that addiction is "really in the mind". This is perpetuating the misconception about the nature of addiction and will eventually add to the dismal failure of addiction treatment centres who continue to propagate this popular myth.

I am perfectly willing to accept that the alcoholic may experience a craving, and that this will delude him into believing that it is is in his mind. This is just like any other person with a mood disorders who may believe that demons are making life miserable. The point is that whenever a person experience "cravings" it is easy to demonstrate by medical tests that the person lacks certain nutritional substances that cause him to "crave".

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman BA (Psych) Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.

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Author of "Getting off the Hook"
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