Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 5/17/2008

Question
My boyfriend admits he has an alcohol (which leads to drugs) addiction.  He will admit he needs to do something about it, but refuses to get help from AA and thinks he can do it by himself sometimes and sometimes will say he needs the help.  After trying AA a couple times a few years ago, he says that its not for him and doesn't like the program.  He definitely has faith in God, so I even thought about getting support from a Christian Group or something.  He wants to start going to church on a regular basis but when he goes on a binge, he's too "sick" to attend because of the days of drinking and drugs.  What other programs can I share with him?  He keeps saying that he can do it himself if he just stops.  He'll go on a health kick for a few weeks and start to look and act like a dream, but then out of the blue sometimes he'll go on a binge.  He'll use many excuses of why he's drinking...either because wine will make him feel better when he's sick, or when he's sad about something happening in his life.  I've really been trying to hold onto our relationship by being as supportive as I can.  My father died from alcoholism and I don't want to see it happen to my boyfriend.  When he is sober he is the man of my dreams and I'm hoping to keep that man.  But I'm broke, in a LOT of debt, have given into him to things I don't agree with which got myself into a lot of trouble that lowered my own self esteem and I hide his behavior from my family and friends.  He can't even keep a job and I can't support him anymore.  Soon I have to make a serious life decision about my career (unfortunately I'm dealing with losing my only stability of a job in a few months, not because of him, because I'm losing my dear boss who's battling with an incurable disease) and if he doesn't get the help he needs, I don't know what will happen.  Just looking for some suggestions on programs that he will have an interest for and that he would feel comfortable with.  I have a very close friend who is a recovering alcoholic that swears by AA, but I guess it only works for certain people.  Thanks so much for reading this through.  I appreciate any and all advice that I receive.  Please keep in mind, I can't afford to pay much for programs but am willing to do whatever I can to help him.  Kind regards.

Answer
Dear Sharon,

I can quite understand that he does not like AA, because this is a faith based alcohol treatment program, with a low success rate and that completely ignores the biological aspects of alcoholism. Alcoholism is a physical and medical illness, that can be treated by means of Nutritional Therapy. But you need to understand the underlying biochemical mechanism. It is theoretically possible for your boyfriend to treat himself if he studies some of the articles at our web site.

Please let him read:

Drug Addiction is a Nutritional Disorder at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/drug_addictions_nutritional_disorder.htm...

Why Alcoholics Drink? at
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/WAD.html

Treatment of Drug Addiction at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/treatment_drug_addiction.html

Alcoholism (Addiction) is a Treatable Disease at:
http://curezone.com/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/alcoholism_treatable.pdf

Also:

Self-help Personal Growth Psychotherapy at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/self-help_personal_growth.html

Let us know how he gets on.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman