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Just came across this interview on the BBC Archive Instagram account, but here's the Youtube version, as it embeds better.
Matthew Perry repeatedly telling a unwilling-to-learn-or-listen Peter Hitchens that his argument "it's just will power" is wrong.
Coming up next, Peter tells people with clinical depression that they just need to cheer up a bit.
How many of us - not addicts - have gone out for "a drink" and staggered home shitfaced at 2am? Alcohol's USP is that it lowers inhibitions so, as Matt said, the first drink is a choice but much beyond that the next drink is the last one talking. He lost the room when he started talking about allergies though, wholly unsurprising that Peter leapt on that nonsense.
Never trust the opinion of anyone with a book to sell.
l don't know about the allergy concept for alcoholism. My brain wasn't sure and just said we'll skip over that part! Plus I can partially frame my experience of alcohol leading largely to me being ill when drinking to points where others appear fine as maybe allergy. Maybe useful conceptually for looking at ones relationship with the stuff. It's not like saying it's an allergy lessens the seriousness of alcoholism, plenty of allergies are life threatening.
I'm not arguing that it is, as I don't know without actually dedicating time to researching it, so can't just take your word for it either (nor dismiss it).
It was more the impassioned argument against alcoholism being merely subject to will power in which i found value in the clip, and the comedy of their reactions to Hitchens.
There are some useful links to articles in this thread that explain the effects of “that first drink”
Sorry, link doesn’t want to present itself-
it’s The STW Sobriety Thread
I found the articles useful..
It's not like saying it's an allergy lessens the seriousness of alcoholism
No, but it gives people like Hitchens a fulcrum in a debate.
I read an argument over linguistics the other day where one party went "I think I'll trust my French degree thanks, love." The other replied, "I AM French." That's what I'm seeing here too.
I'm not arguing that it is, as I don't know without actually dedicating time to researching it, so can't just take your word for it either (nor dismiss it).
If you're allergic to anything as an alcoholic, it's not drinking.
I've read a few things about addiction (and successfully quit a couple of things), and in a lot of cases the psychological addiction is harder to shift than the physical addiction. As long as you feel like you're "giving up" something, it becomes a matter of will power and you will always feel like it's a struggle. It was often your will power that kept you doing the thing even when you knew it was bad for you.
The Allen Carr method for giving up smoking (and other substances) and Craig Beck on alcohol, to name two examples of many, basically rely on convincing yourself that you don't want the thing. They're quite open about it and it's why quitting becomes "easy" because it's not about gradually cutting down, depriving yourself and then relying on will power. Of course it's not easy, but when the switch happens in your head, you no longer feel like you're "giving up" the thing, you feel like you don't want it.
I'm always wary of evangelistic ex-smokers, ex-alcoholics or whatever, but I know for me when I quit smoking, the moment I realised I actually didn't want to smoke any more, it became a matter of sitting out the relatively-short (48hr?) physical adaptation period, then adjusting the rest of my thinking to remind myself that I wasn't depriving myself. In the same way, I wasn't "depriving myself" of stabbing myself in the leg, I just didn't want to do it. So I didn't do it.
I _know_ it is not easy, and many people struggle with addiction for years, or a lifetime. But if you're struggling, and you can find a system or a process in which you re-realise that the thing you're addicted to is actually doing nothing for you except keeping you addicted, and that helps you re-wire your thoughts so that you no longer find that thing attractive or desirable, stopping that thing becomes much "easier" than having to continually fight the feeling that you've given up something you love.
(kava itself is freakin' disgusting gag juice, if you haven't tried it, best avoid!)
Aw it's not that bad, and it does result in a pleasant mellow-but-not-high feeling. At least if you stick to one or two*. But that is drinking the juice from freshly macerated kava root where it it grown in the South Pacific, which is quite bitter but not foul (though it does look it).
So my advice is the opposite, if you find yourself in a kava producing part of the world, find a local who knows the ropes and visit a kava bar with them. The bar will offer "wash your mouth" snacks to get rid of the taste, and facilities are provided for spitting. Quite different from an alcohol bar and rather fun.
I have tried instant kava and that was indeed foul.
NB it is illegal to import or possess kava products in the UK, which is unfortunate. It is no more addictive than alcohol I am told.
*Strengths vary, some places you may need more.