World Alcoholism Mess: Section 2

Continuation of the last post

THE ZAD ALCOHOLISM PERSPECTIVE IN BRIEF

Although, the ZAD fundamentally refutes or disproves the establishments basic alcohol “dependence” doctrines, dogmas which professes that; ‘people with alcohol “dependence” loose control or get their capacity impaired to cut down, control or limit their alcohol consumption (to a safe or moderate levels) and further concludes that; alcoholism is a chronic disease [9…] therefore, “Cutting down” on drinking doesn’t work; cutting out alcohol (total abstinence) is necessary for a successful recovery[7a];-- as prejudiced, preposterous, misleading, narrow-minded “drug desire” bigoted alcoholism dogmas! Nonetheless, it acknowledges that the alcohol dependence persons' ‘impaired (loss of) control’ over the alcoholic beverage consumption does very much occur mainly under certain biological “need” or craving (the drug desire coupled with the drink satiety desire) conditions. It is only because of the establishment’s total disregard or ignorance of the humans drink satiety desire or appetite involved in the alcohol dependence we basically disagree and reprove them as promoting the drug desire bigoted alcoholism dogmas! According to the ZAD, the “drink desire”(need) and the “drug desire”(need) are the two main biological or neurobiological conditions (needs) that primarily drive the alcohol dependence syndrome (alcoholism)! Moreover in the overall biological sense I fully agree with the establishment’s construction of the alcohol ‘dependence’ or its syndrome constituting four basic alcoholism symptoms [9..]; 1). craving (substance desire), 2). impaired control, (loss of control) 3). physical dependence(withdrawals) and 4. tolerance.


In the “alcohol dependence”, we basically contend that the ‘craving’ and the ‘impaired control’ (Craving and impaired control, mostly while in the alcohol dependence, intimately coupled with each other.) the two primary symptoms of alcoholism originate from the humans basic biological drink satiety appetite or desire of the thirst, taste and the stomach! Of course, the drug (alcohol) desires its positive/negative reinforcement also plays equally important role in the alcohol dependence! Nevertheless, the most important thing to know in there is; the dependence persons strong alcohol drinking desire or the ‘craving’ and the “impaired control” can be successfully subdued and overpowered, by; “ALWAYS MIXING (OR SIMULTANEOUSLY CONSUMING) ‘PROGRESSIVELY ADEQUATE PROPORTION’ OF APPETIZING NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES WITH THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE AND DRINKING IT STOMACHFUL, FOR SATIETY”! IN OTHER WORDS, WHILE IN THE ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE NEVER TO DRINK HIGH ALCOHOL PERCENTAGE BEVERAGES INSTEAD ALWAYS BY DRINKING SUFFICIENTLY ENOUGH LOWER ALCOHOL PERCENTAGE BUT HIGHLY DELICIOUS ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES THAT PRIMARILY PROVIDES THE FULL DRINK SATIETY!

This basically means, by giving priority to the drink satiety, one can successfully overpower (subdue, dissipate, stifle) the ‘craving’ and terminate the ‘impaired control’ over the alcohol consumption immediately (at least) for the time being! This in turn will gradually reduce and in the longer run completely remove the physical dependence, withdrawals [3p, 8p, 9] including the tolerance, [8n] (so the increase doses requirement, to achieve the same old drug effect, “tolerance”, process reversed) which is also very crucial to come out of the alcohol dependence! Therefore by following this ZAD drinking strategy, the alcohol dependence people can be very much able to control, cut down, and moderate their alcohol consumption to a given ‘safe, low-risk or moderate drinking levels’ [3ca,.. 9, 8o,..]. To repeat it all once more; the ZAD fully acknowledges the most important role played by the “drug desire”, craving its impaired control in the alcohol dependence but at the same time it strongly maintains that; it is originally due to the biological drinking need or desire in nature coupled with that alcohol substance (ethanol) desire! And most important of all is; that it all can be basically prevented, reduced and eliminated mainly by biological drink satiety! Apart from which the ZAD completely agrees with the establishment’s constructs or formulations of the alcohol dependence particularly the alcohol physical ‘dependence’ and the tolerance.

Alcohol Use-Disorders and Dependence

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates; there are 2 billion alcohol users [3h], in our world, among which 140 million[3d,] are alcohol dependents. According to another WHO estimates there prevails a large segment of alcohol drinkers numbering over 400 millions[3e] or 15 to 40 percent said to have face the hazardous or harmful drinking[3ca] abuse [18c] problems. The NIAAA’s recent Alcohol Abuse and Dependence chart provides its American accounts[14a]. Although the “moderate” alcohol drinking said to provide many benefits [8o, 10h..13, 20u]. However the alcohol drinkers starts to encounter very many serious ‘alcohol-related, drinking problems’[18c], when they exceed the given “safe drinking level”[9,] or low-risk drinking limits[3b]. This in its initial stages, generally addressed as; harmful or hazardous drinking [1, 2, 3ca]. To prevent it, the worlds leading health care providers (‘Establishments’) now mainly employ “Brief Interventions”[3c, 3ca, 8c…10e..13] to screen and briefly caution or warn people to keep out of any such alcohol (drug) problems or troubles. They also employ many of their expert testing scales, techniques or instruments named; AUDIT,[3b] CAGE, MAST, TWEAK etc [8b, 8c, 8k, 10f], to examine, measure, and deal with these problems. At its primary sages, they mainly advise the affected people to “cut down” their drinking [7b] to a given ‘moderate’ or “safe low-risk drinking level”. However people in the advanced stages, who consistently fail to cut-down their drinking, promptly “identified” and diagnosed [8a] as having alcohol ‘dependence’, under the guidelines of the ICD-10,[1] or DSM-IV[2] etc. diagnosis scales and strictly advised or warned to “stop drinking”[3b,..9..] and to observe total abstinence and remain in it through out their life!

Particularly, the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) [6] in its ‘Alcoholism getting the facts’ and the ‘FAQ’ [7a, 9] states that the ‘alcohol dependence’ or the alcoholism contains four main symptoms – 1). CRAVING – A strong need, or urge, to drink. 2). LOSS OF CONTROL – Not being able to stop drinking once drinking has begun. 3). PHYSICAL DEPENDENCE- Withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety after stopping drinking. 4). TOLERANCE – The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol to get "high”. Further more, the ‘Alcohol Alert 30[6b]’, ‘Alcohol Research & Health’[6c] and entire array of the NIAAA alcohol dependence publications provide great volumes of information on this entire subject matter. Its slightly different version can be found in the WHO, which described it as; alcohol “dependence syndrome”[1,18b,c] documents and also in various other dependence screening and interventions promulgations like the AUDIT [3b].

Craving in the Establishments and The ZAD Alcoholism Perspective

Craving features most prominently in the establishments alcohol dependence research publications. The entire issue of the NIAAA’s quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal Alcohol Research and Health, ‘Alcohol and Craving’ volume 23, No. 3, 1999 dedicated to craving [10a]. It also promptly features in its Alcohol Alerts [8i, 8j]. Among many others, the full volume of The “Addiction” Journal ‘Research perspectives on Alcohol Craving’ [22] is a standing testimony of it! However, the great irony of all these huge volumes of ‘craving’ research study is that; they are totally obsessed or engrossed with the alcohol “drug desire” and totally neglect the drink satiety desire aspect of the craving! Their entire focus on the brains neurobiology, its transmitters, chemicals “opioid deficiencies”, oriented by the genes or other behavioral (psychological, social etc.) disorders [3a..7d, 8f,r,s,t,10b,c,i,j,l,m,o,p,q,r, 13, 22 etc.] that they say especially found (exhibited) in the alcohol dependent alcoholic people! Even though the establishment’s researchers claim that the ‘craving’ is basically a biological urge or desire, however they totally fails to recognize the basic biological drink (thirst, taste, and the stomach) satiety desire primarily involved in the alcoholic beverage drinking and it dependence! For this main reason they get totally stuck, puzzled or confused so conclude that they ‘lack consensus in this area’[8j]. Others comment, ‘craving so far remains very illusive and highly controversial’![22]. The great tragedy of the whole matter is; if any of craving research (specially the animal models) that begins to point towards the biological drinking need thirst, taste, stomach; involved in the ethanol consumption and its dependence[19f, 22] then it immediately gets sidetracked, overlooked and becomes oblivious!

‘Craving’ also plays a very important role in the ZAD alcoholism perspectives! It fundamentally contends that the ‘craving’ for the alcohol drink basically exists on two layers! On the surface layer it manifest itself as an obsessive-compulsive alcohol drug desire. (drug seeking behavior.) However hidden beneath, there remains a powerful drink satiety desire which is capable of totally overpowering taming, subduing the overall alcohol drink craving when it gets satiated fully enough! This with immediate effect can completely eliminate the impaired control (loss of control) thereby subsequently removing the physical dependence with absolute certainty while the person still continue to drink alcohol! We can substantially demonstrate and prove this on the concrete basis of the ‘ZAD therapy/practice model explained in details further down in this paper!

‘Impaired Control’ in the Establishments and the ZAD Alcoholism perspectives

The principle or the core symptom of ‘alcohol dependence’ is the ‘impaired control’ or the ‘loss of control’! One can call it as the “Mother of the Alcoholism”, as the latter two alcoholism symptoms (physical dependence and the tolerance) are born out of it! The NIAAA FAQ [9] (devised from DSM-IV[2]) describes it as; “not being able to stop drinking once the drinking has began”. The WHO ‘dependence syndrome’ (devised from ICD-10 [1]) diagnostic criteria for research, literally defines it as; “impaired capacity to control substance-taking behavior in terms of its onset, termination, or levels of use”[18b]. In which, particularly WHO departments obsessive drug desire bigoted alcoholism standpoint comes out very glaringly on the forefront!

On the other hand, the ZAD alcoholism ‘impaired control’ perspective, contains two basic biological or neurobiological aspects elements or the layers that I mentioned earlier. They are: 1). The desire or craving (neurobiological/psychological?) for the alcohol (drug) substance to derive its pharmacological effect, the positive/negative reinforcement [3a,8f,] of the drug or for “getting high! 2). The biological need, appetite or desire for the drink to satiate the thirst, taste and the stomach! Most importantly we argue that the latter is more powerful than the former, particularly in the prevention and treatment of the alcohol dependence! Owning to this, the ZAD basically contends that the drink satiety (thirst, taste, and the stomach) with a limited amount (safe levels) of alcohol in it, can successfully guard against the alcohol ‘impaired control’ (besides its craving) thus relieve the person from the alcohol dependence its syndrome or alcoholism! However, the establishments alcoholism research entirely preoccupied or obsessed (bigoted) with the drug desire, frantically continues to search the prevention and treatment of it in its genetic [3a, 8r, 8s] neurobiological roots in its zeal to develop some pharmacological drugs or medications[8f] or some psychosocial, behavioral therapies all joined together to prevent it.[3a..7d, 8f,r,s,t,10b,c,i,j,l,m,o,p,q,r, 13, 22 etc.] However ultimately they end up by candidly prescribing it prevention, treatment or solution in the total abstinence! ! In all these pursuit they totally miss or fails to recognize that by allowing the alcohol dependent people to drink, sufficiently enough low-alcohol percentage, alcoholic beverages (the ZAD drink satiety) can basically enable them to basically “control” their overall alcohol consumption (subdue craving as well) thus prevent and eliminate the alcohol ‘impaired control’ (loss of control) and its dependence as a whole!

The most important thing to know in here is; the establishments ‘impaired control’ or the ‘loss of control’ notion (view point), basically imply in it that the alcoholics unsuccessful attempts or their dismal failures to cut-down, reduce or control their alcohol consumption to a safe moderate drinking levels, so far as they continue to drink the alcoholic beverages! For example the WHO in its Dependence syndrome [18b] describes the ‘impaired control’ as ‘unsuccessful in their effort to reduce or control the substance use’.[18b]. Similarly the NIAAA FAQ[9] describes it as: “not being able to stop drinking once the drinking has began”. This viewpoint is basically implied in the establishment’s alcohol dependence research documents! This points out that, in general whatever medication, therapy treatment the alcoholics may try or undergo to reduce or cut-down their alcohol consumption but all such treatment bound to fail! For example; if the alcohol dependent (syndrome) people try to ‘reduce or control or cut-down their alcohol consumption’ by following or under going any of the available pharmacotherapy’s [8d] (Naltrexone, acamprosate etc. medications) or the psychological or behavioral therapies (BT), they all bound to fail! Following this same line of logic they dogmatically assume that, if those alcohol dependent (syndrome) people try to reduce or control their alcohol consumptions by opting for lower alcohol content (percentage) alcoholic beverages drinking method or strategy, then that also going to miserably fail or become unsuccessful! Because under their arrogant drug desire bigoted assumption if the alcohol dependents people were given lower alcohol content beverages to drink then they will soon consume far too much [20p] of that kind of alcoholic beverage so at the end of the day their overall alcohol consumption far exceed their safe moderate or low-risk drinking limits!

Now under the basis of the ZAD therapy/practice we absolutely prove to the establishments that their preposterous presumption about the use of the lower alcohol content beverages not being able to prevent the excessive alcohol consumption in the alcohol dependence people is totally wrong! Such narrow-minded, drug desire bigoted alcoholism dogmas, blunders promoted by them so far have been treacherously misleading the people and causing untold alcoholism destruction, suffering and death, its mess and mayhem in so many years since its inception! We infallibly prove to any one that the alcohol dependence people while still continuing to drink their alcoholic beverages can absolutely prevent its impaired control (loss of control) as well as overpower tame down or subdue its craving eliminate its impaired control and totally come out of their alcohol dependence and get rid of at least most of its “syndrome” and get completely cured of the alcoholism by following this sufficiently enough lower alcohol content alcoholic beverage drinking strategy. The alcohol dependent people never will fail or unsuccessful to cut-down, reduce or control thus can absolutely prevent their impaired control, (loss of control) if they agree to undergo and follow this simple safe and the pleasurable ZAD therapy/practice!


The ZAD Overall Agreement With The Establishments Alcohol Dependence symptoms.

Despite having fundamental difference with the establishments narrow-minded, (one-sided) psychoactive alcohol ‘drug desire’ bigoted craving and impaired control perspective of the alcohol dependence, that which I have explained before; the alcohol drug desire combined drink desire perspective of the ZAD, overall agrees with all the four alcohol “dependence” symptoms; 1. craving, 2. impaired control (loss of control) 3. physical dependence and 4. tolerance laid down by the establishments’! Surprisingly enough even though the establishments research implies alcohol dependence almost entirely on the basis of the substance desire or craving for the drug (alcohol) but strangely enough the NIAAA’s FAQ[9] describes craving as “A strong need, or urge, to drink”, which seems to ideally suits the ZAD Biological “drinking desire ” or “need” combined with the “drug desire” alcoholism perspective! Similarly, the symptom of the “loss of control,” described in it as “not being able to stop drinking once drinking has begun”, also seems ‘more finely tuned’ with this ZAD alcoholism drug combined drink satiety desire, perspective! Most important of all; the ZAD has no difference at all with the establishments last two alcoholism symptoms ‘physical dependence’(withdrawals) and ‘tolerance’[9, 18b] whatsoever!

Will be continued in the next post, Section 3