The Dry Drunk Syndrome

I consider a "dry drunk" to be a person who has withdrawn from alcohol, but still suffers from depression. anxiety, or is still very unhappy.
In my opinion this is because abstaining from alcohol may leave you with an underlying biochemical abnormality that brought to drink alcohol in the first place. In other words addiction to alcohol, or for that matter to any other addictive substance, is due to a biological illness, that has remained untreated, where the addictive substance gives you a temporary relief from a "psychological" symptoms caused by the underlying illness.

The idea that alcoholism is a medical disease seems to be very unpopular among alcoholics, who flock to AA. AA may be alright, for at least an alcoholic would have to admit he has a problem. Unfortunately AA, being a faith based organisation, cannot help overcome an addiction if that addiction is due to an underlying biochemical disorder.

The trouble is that as soon as you mention a "medical problem", people immediately think of drugs, because medical practice has now been associated with the prescriiption of medications to the extend that "it is not medicine, if it cannot be treated by drugs".

However the practice of medicine is much wider than just drug therapy, or operations. Unfortunately, most medical practitioners are not trained in nutritional biochemistry, and hence have no clue as to the causes of "mental illness" or mood disorders, of which alcoholism or addiction in general is just a few examples.

The connection between nutrition and mood disorders can be explained, because all our neurotransmitters - such as serotonin - are manufactured in our body from nutritional forerunners such as tryptophan and so on .

The metabolism of nutrients into feel good neurotransmitters are very very complex and so is difficult to reduce to such things as "tryptophan is the precursor of serotonin". It requires a whole orchestra of other nutrients - enzymes, co-enzymes - in order for the body to produce serotonin, to make a person feel happy an content. Furthermore, we cannot prescribe a menu of nutrients for serotonin production to apply to all people, not only because other neurotransmitter may be required, but also because each individual has a unique biochemistry that could render one man's meat another man's poison.

In addition people seem to overlook that for the body to convert one set of molecules into another set of molecules - as in the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin - biological energy is required as fuel to power the biochemical machinery of the body and brain. That fuel is mainly derived from carbohydrates (especially glucose) in food and the brain is disproportionally dependent of glucose as its only source of energy.

Hence if a person has problem converting glucose into biological energy it cannot produce the feel good neurotransmitters, even if the body is supplied with all the necessary nutritional ingredients. It just happens to be the case that most alcoholics - as well as most other addicts or people suffering from mood disorders - have been found to suffer from insulin resistance. This means that the body cannot use glucose in an efficient way for conversion into biological energy.

This also explains why alcoholics who withdraw from alcohol, suddenly find themselves being addicted to Sugar cravings.

If you are interested in this approach of addiction treatment please read:

Why Alcoholics Drink? at

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/WAD.html


Drug Addiction is a Nutritional Disorder at:

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/drug_addictions_nutritional_disorder....


Alcoholism (Addiction) is a Treatable Disease at:

//www.curezone.org/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/alcoholism_treatable.pdf


Depression is a Disease of Eenergy Production at:

//www.curezone.org/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/depression_energy3.pdf


Self-help Personal Growth Psychotherapy at:

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/self-help_personal_growth.html


and discuss with a Nutritional Doctor, a Clinical Nutritionist or a Nutritional Psychologist if you want to.

Edited 7/27/2008 2:39 am by Jurriaan Plesman (jurplesman) Tweet