Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease

Doug Thorburn has made it his life's work to study and learn about alcoholism, our society's most destructive disease. This book address the myths that still exist, (p.7) such as: Myth#1, "brain damage occurs only in obvious alcoholics." In truth, most recovering alcoholics admit their disease was triggered during their first drinking episode, usually at age 12 or 13. They often say (p.9) "I felt powerful." This feeling of power results in the inflated ego that accompanies alcoholism. Thorburn states that the buildup of poison on the brain results in brain damage that causes distortions of perception and memory. Thorburn debunks Myth#2, "the average age at which one becomes an alcoholic is 40." Many addicts began drinking alcoholically in their teens. Myth #3- Alcoholism is a spiritual disease: Recovering alcoholics (p.10) often confuse cause and effect, believing that loss of spirituality precipitated their alcoholism, when in actuality, the loss of spirituality is an effect of alcoholism. (I feel powerful, I feel like God). Myth #4- You can choose not to be an alcoholic: You can no more choose (p.11) not to have alcoholism than to have or not have, early-onset diabetes. All the alcoholic can choose not to do is drink. Myth# 5- The addict is in denial: "Denial" implies (p.13) a willful refusal not to admit to something. Since alcoholism causes self-favoring distortion of perception, and often no memory at all, there is nothing to admit. One cannot be in denial about something that he is incapable of seeing. These are just a few of the 118 Myths that Thorburn addresses. The information that he provides can make a huge difference to all of us. With a greater understanding of this devastating illness, we can save ourselves years of grief, befuddlement, and confusion. As with any illness, knowledge is power. This is especially true with alcoholism, due to the fact that the disease affects body, mind, and spirit, and causes such illogical, dangerous, destructive behavior. Just as an early diagnosis of cancer increases the chances for successful treatment, so too does the early diagnosis of alcoholism increase the chance for a successful recovery. This is Thorburn's mantra: Learn to spot alcoholism in its early stages, before it has the time and power to upend lives, break hearts, and destroy families. Thorburn covers every aspect of the disease. He is a proponent of using "tough love" with the alcoholic; letting the painful consequences of the disease finally bring the addict to the realization that he or she, needs help. This is a necessary book for anyone living in our drinking culture. Chances are you know someone right now, or might be living with someone, who is drinking alcoholically. With this powerful information, you may save a life. That life may even be your own. The book has an excellent index that makes it very easy to find pertinent subjects. This book is a great, updated addition to the many classics on the subject.

What Doug Thorburn's book "Alcoholism Myths and Realities" does is give solid answers to many of the questions a newly diagnosed alcoholic is asking.When an individual is confronted with the reality that they have a fatal disease, if left untreated, the mind is overwhelmed with questions like,why me,what's the treatment?Can I ever be cured? Will I be able to drink like normal people? This is really no different than a newly diagnosed cancer patient would feel. Being confronted with ones own mortality is indeed a sobering experience. Emotions come flooding out.Can I survive this?Why me?After all I am a well educated, prosperous business owner how could this happen to me. Your mind is spinning and clouded by emotions like guilt,shame and remorse just to name a few.After all aren't most drunks living in the gutter somewhere. That's certainly not my case, but here I am and the facts are overwhelming, I am an alcoholic.Most of all you have questions,questions,questions and very few answers.I literally thought about nothing else for months on end. Trying to make sense of what was happening to me. How could this possibly be? Sure, I enjoyed a cocktail as much as the next guy but doesn't everybody? Haven't I overcome every obstacle thrown my way my whole life? Into this highly personal drama/trauma a miracle was thrown. A thin little book,only 192 pages grabbed my attention; titled,"Alcoholism Myths and Realities". Maybe I could get some answers from this book. I bought it and started reading (It's organized and numbered Myth #4 etc.)and quickly found it was like a reference book to the myriad questions I had. I thumbed through the index, found the questions I was interested in and read the answers. I quickly devoured the material I found relevant and, for the first time since I realized I had this horrible disease, I felt some understanding. I came to understand my disease was inherited. That my brain reacts differently to alcohol than the average person. The only thing I could do was not drink. I found out lots of successful people had the disease. You find out about the alcoholic mind and get answers to many other questions. I CAN'T RECOMMEND THIS BOOK ENOUGH TO YOU IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE HAS THIS HORRIBLE DISEASE Buy it and it will open your eyes and answer your questions.

Reading one myth after another, I find them quite interesting. I especially like the chart of myth #7. While I already have a general idea about it, the chart makes it quite clear and easy to follow. The most educational part is about maintaining and increasing the BAL. At page 40, I started to get bored. Things started to be repetitive in a way. I flipped through the rest of the book, and was surprised to find that it is all myths! (not happily surprised at this point) As I flip through the rest of the book, while it appears that most of the myth headlines do not relate to people I know, but some do! Then I decided to just read the headlines, slowly this time. What I found out is by reading just the headlines; it started me thinking about things that I did not notice before. Headlines I did not think concerns me started to look very different. This book is like a dictionary for alcoholism. It helps one to look for clues of alcoholism when you don't even know what you are looking for. Then it helps you to understand and deal with it properly.

Anyone who has a drinking problem or is associated with someone who has a drinking problems will benefit enormously from reading this book. Many people who deal with alcoholics live in a world fraught with uncertainty and illogic. This book attempts and succeeds in making sense out of the senseless. Thorburn does a masterly job of identifying the problem and explaining the chain of events which occurs in alcoholics' livers, central nervous systems and brains. This book also does a great job of identifying the resulting behaviors and misbehaviors while explaining their underlying causes. To put it overly-simply: the alcoholic's behavior is the result of distortions in perception because he has turned his brain into a toxic waste dump. Once the alcoholic has gotten enough clean-time for the toxins to filter out of his system, many of the behavioral abnormalities disappear. Thorburn also offers practical advice on how to deal with alcoholics. Basically, get tough, stand your ground and be prepared for the alcoholic to try to manipulate anything and everything to his own advantage. Once you have a basic grasp of the inner-workings of alcoholism, you will know that the most helpful thing you can do for them is to let them reap the consequences of their delusional behavior. Beyond that, you really are powerless to do anything else. If for no other reason, this book is a priceless tool for spotting typically alcoholic behaviors. Many of the personality traits common to most alcoholics manifest themselves in surprising and subtle ways which most people would not suspect as being indicative of an addiction problem (e.g. - self-favoring memory recall). Recently I have avoided two potentially disastrous relationships (one business and one personal); subsequent events confirmed addiction problems which no one else suspected at the time. I am an alcoholic in recovery and I have learned more from this book than anything else I have read (and that's a long list). The complex concepts are explained clearly and simply without compromising the subject matter.

Alcoholism Myths and Realities contains and refutes over 100 incorrect statements about alcoholism, some of which you have probably said yourself. The two primary themes of this book are (1) alcoholism is caused by biology rather than environment or bad morals, and (2) alcoholism can explain a great deal, perhaps most, of the misbehaviors we observe in people around us. Even when alcoholism is obvious to all, people often do not identify alcoholism as the cause of the alcoholic's other misbehaviors, but instead take both to be manefestations of some immorality. However, the biology of alcoholism shows us that some people are born with livers that process alcohol differently than most people do, and consequently are able to build up a much higher concentration of toxic chemicals in their brains before they feel sick. These chemicals shut down and eventually damage the neocortex of the brain, leaving nothing to moderate the instinctive, aggressive impulses of the limbic system. With this in mind, it makes more sense to assume that the alcoholism is the cause of misbehaviors, rather than another kind of misbehavior. If someone repeatedly misbehaves but alcoholism is not obvious, it still makes sense to assume that alcoholism is the cause of these misbehaviors. For one thing, it gives that person the benefit of the doubt, and for another, 10% of people in the US are alcoholics, so you have a pretty good chance of being correct anyway. It may seem strange to suggest alcoholism for someone who may be young, charming, successful, or even idolized by millions; this confusion is resolved when it is understood that alcoholism is a progressive disease. It can take decades for chemical dependancy to develop to such a degree that the alcoholic can no longer hold a job or put up appearances of leading a healthy life. Before this, he likely would have been drinking copiously for many years but was able to keep his excessive use hidden. (Sometimes the distinction is made between "alcoholics" and "alcohol abusers", based on whether or not there is a chemical dependancy on alcohol, but these are really the same people in different stages of the disease.) When alcoholics drink, however, their behavior in ALL stages of the disease is characterized by reckless, cruel, or destructive misbehaviors, whereas when nonalcoholics drink, their behavior is not. Doug Thorburn shows that an astonishing variety of misbehaviors are associated with alcoholism. Not only were most cult leaders, serial killers, and mass murderers alcoholics (including political tyrants such as Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin), but alcoholism is also common among con men, embezzelers, politicians, racists, and ordinary violent criminals. It is estimated that 80% to 90% of incarcerated prisoners, as well as perhaps 50% of the prison guards, may be alcoholics. Alcoholism is also more common among policemen, doctors, lawers, and actors. This and other of Doug Thorburn's writings have changed the wa