Description

Alcohol is often not thought of as a drug - largely because its use is common for both religious and social purposes in most parts of the world. It is a drug, however, and compulsive drinking in excess has become one of modern society's most serious problems. The beverage alcohol (scientifically known as ethyl alcohol, or ethanol) is produced by fermenting or distilling various fruits, vegetables, or grains. Ethyl alcohol itself is a clear, colorless liquid. Alcoholic beverages get their distinctive colors from the diluents, additives, and by-products of fermentation.

How Alcohol Works 

Alcohol- is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, and less rapidly from the stomach and colon. In proportion to its concentration in the bloodstream, alcohol decreases activity in parts of the brain and spinal cord. The drinker's blood alcohol concentration depends on:

Once the alcohol has passed into the blood, however, no food or beverage can retard or interfere with its effects. Fruit sugar, however, in some cases can shorten the duration of alcohol's effect by speeding up its elimination from the blood.

In the average adult, the rate of metabolism is about 8.5 g of alcohol per hour (i.e. about two-thirds of a regular beer or about 30 mL of spirits an hour). This rate can vary dramatically among individuals, however, depending on such diverse factors as usual amount of drinking, physique, sex, liver size, and genetic factors.

Alcohol is any of a class of organic compounds with the general formula ROH, where R represents an alkyl group made up of carbon and hydrogen in various proportions and OH represents one or more hydroxyl groups . In common usage the term alcohol usually refers to ethanol . The class of alcohols also includes methanol ; the amyl, butyl, and propyl alcohols; the glycols ; and glycerol . An alcohol is generally classified by the number of hydroxyl groups in its molecule. An alcohol that has one hydroxyl group is called monohydric; monohydric alcohols include methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol . Glycols have two hydroxyl groups in their molecules and so are dihydric. Glycerol, with three hydroxyl groups, is trihydric. The monohydric alcohols are further classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary according to the number of carbon atoms bonded to the carbon atom to which the hydroxyl group is bonded. Many of the properties and reactions characteristic of alcohols are due to the electron charge distribution in the COH portion of the molecule (see chemical bond ). Chemical reactions involving the hydroxyl group in an alcohol molecule include: those in which the hydroxyl group is replaced as a whole, e.g., reaction of ethanol with hydrogen iodide to form ethyl iodide and water; those in which only the hydrogen in the hydroxyl group is replaced, e.g., the reaction of ethanol with sodium, an active metal, to form sodium ethoxide and hydrogen; and those in which the carbon-oxygen bond becomes a double bond to form an aldehyde or ketone depending on whether it is a primary or secondary alcohol. Alcohols are generally less volatile, have higher melting points, and are more soluble in water than the corresponding hydrocarbons (in which the OH group is replaced with hydrogen). For example, at room temperature methanol is a liquid, while methane is a gas.  

If you are addicted to a substance or a behavior you are in trouble and you are scared. Worst of all, you have probably isolated yourself from everyone. You have trusted your drug or addictive behavior to meet your needs. It’s hard to even think of doing without it. To look forward into the future without the chemical or behavior makes you shutter. But you picked up this recovery journal, and that is the first step toward freedom. You can do it. Ninety percent of the people who work a good program of recovery stay clean and sober. Isn’t that wonderful? You can be free of the slavery to addiction.

Addiction comes from a Roman word, adictus. In Rome, if you owed somebody money and couldn’t pay them back, the judge sold you into slavery to that person. In Rome, a slave wasn’t a person, he or she was an object to be used in anyway the owner pleased. Addiction is very much like slavery. We are trapped into a lifestyle that we hate. Trapped and we can’t get out. We promise ourselves that we will not engage in the behavior anymore, and we mean that promise. But later that day, when we are tired, we give in to our addiction, promising ourselves that tomorrow we will stop. And we mean that too, until the next time comes, and the next, and the next. The truth is, we can’t stop.

In this text, addiction will mean a maladaptive pattern of substance use or behavior that leads to significant impairment as manifested by three (or more) of the following occurring at any time in the last twelve months:

These criteria can fit many addictive behaviors such as alcoholism, drug addiction, pathological gambling, compulsive spending, eating disorders, or sexual addiction. Let your therapist or counselor be your guide through this program of recovery. He or she will help you determine if you will benefit from keeping this journal. Don’t try to do this by yourself. This is a program where you need help and you need to help others. 

Don’t think that your addiction was a choice. In addiction, there is no choice. You lost the choice a long time ago. Early use was a choice, yes, but addiction is a brain disease. You can’t feel normal without the addictive behavior or chemical. All addictions stimulate neuronal systems in the brain that cause pleasure. Some are connected to the mesolimbic dopamine system, and cause the release of endogenous opioids, like endorphins and enkephalins that kill pain. These chemicals are many times more powerful than heroin. If you are seriously injured in accident, you will feel no pain for quite awhile because these pain-modulating chemicals are released. All addictive behaviors seem to work the same way. An addict’s brain is permanently changed. New chemical compounds and structures are developed that cause an intense neurobiological need. Without the drug or addictive behavior of choice the addict bathes in pain. With the drug or behavior the addict feels normal.

Don’t think that your illness occurred because you have a weak will or had a bad childhood. This illness is a biological phenomenon caused by chemical and structural changes that occur due to chronic exposure to a biological agent. Addiction has strong genetic links. It seems that forty percent of addictions are caused by genetic factors, and sixty percent are caused by factors we don’t understand. This disease is no more your fault than if you had heart disease or cancer. Yes, you did make a choice to drink, use drugs or gamble but you did not choose to become an addict. People with heart disease and cancer made choices too. The wrong diet and exercise habits caused their disease.

So the illness is not your fault but you are in trouble and you need help. Trust me, you cannot recover from your addiction alone. I know that this is what you want to do, but this is not possible. The illness is too tricky. You have to get out of the great idol of  “I” and into the “we”. What we cannot do alone, we can do together.

Naltrexone, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994, blocks opioid receptors in the brain, thus weakening alcohol's rewarding effects and helping prevent alcoholics from returning to heavy drinking after a small relapse.

Acamprosate, which has been in regular use in Europe for 14 years under the brand name Campral and is under review by the FDA, works differently. Although its action is not wholly understood, scientists believe the drug normalizes abnormalities in two other neurotransmitter systems in the brain, called the glutamate and GABA systems. The drug appears to ease the discomfort of long-term abstinence from alcohol, reducing the risk of relapse.

At the same time, behavioral scientists have identified several promising psychosocial interventions. In particular, in 1996 NIAAA's Project MATCH found three approaches to be effective in helping people remain abstinent from alcohol: