Expert: Joseph Lee O. - 11/25/2006

Question
Iam an regular and compulsive alcoholic for the past 4 years, smoker for the past 10 years. last 4 years, i have been drinking daily in the nights and if possible i start the day with alcohol and continue till night and since last 1 year it is going heavy. now, i need min. qty of 360 ml per day without that life looks boring.this had affected me in many ways. both financial,career and health wise.i have not progressed in my career, iam suspecting of medical complications like Diabetes, High Blood pressure, nervous weakness(if i hold a glass of water and try to drink it, i see my hand trembling.) iam also feeling pain in the side of kidneys.iam loosing interest in sex also. i know everything but iam still abusing it. i want to recover.please tell me what medical tests have to be done to check all these symptoms. while continuing medication and with will power I know i can kick the habit. Pls advice. Thank You !

Answer
Greetings to you, Ani.

Because I am not a medical doctor, I do not know what medical tests you might need to assess the physical effects of your drinking, and neither would I know what kind of attention those issues might need.  Personally, I have high blood pressure that must be controlled with medication, and I tend to have low blood sugar that can occasionally cause a slight trembling such as you have described.  Beyond that, I am sure there are tests to evaluate renal and liver function.

You have mentioned your drinking affecting your life in several ways, but that does not necessarily mean you are alcoholic.  For example, and from “Alcoholics Anonymous”, the book, pages 20-24, here are three types of drinkers:

1) “Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it.  They can take it or leave it alone.

2) “Then we have a certain type of hard drinker.  He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally.  It may cause him to die a few years before his time.  [But if] a sufficiently strong reason - ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor - becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.

3) “But what about the real alcoholic?  He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker ...
“Here is the fellow who has been puzzling you ...
“This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary.  But this description should identify him roughly.
Why does he behave like this?  If hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it he takes that one drink?  Why can't he stay on the water wagon?  What has become of the common sense and will power that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters? ...
“The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.  Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent.  We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago.  We are without defense against the first drink.”

You have written:

>> i know everything but I am still abusing it.

If you are a real alcoholic, there appears to be something you have yet to learn, and that is that this will not work:

>> i want to recover ... while continuing medication and with will power I know i can kick the habit.

Understand?  The moderate drinker can give it up entirely if they have good reason for doing so – they can take it or leave it alone.  Then, a certain type of hard can also stop in a way such as you have described.  The real alcoholic, however, needs something far beyond any human power if he or she is to permanently recover.

From “Alcoholics Anonymous”, the book (page 34), here is a simple test you might try:

“As we look back, we feel we had gone on drinking many years beyond the point where we could quit on our will power.  If anyone questions whether he has entered this dangerous area, let him try leaving liquor alone for one year.  If he is a real alcoholic and very far advanced, there is scant chance of success.  In the early days of our drinking we occasionally remained sober for a year or more, becoming serious drinkers again later.  Though you may be able to stop for a considerable period, you may yet be a potential alcoholic.  We think few, to whom this book will appeal, can stay dry anything like a year.  Some will be drunk the day after making their resolutions; most of them within a few weeks.
“For those who are unable to drink moderately the question is how to stop altogether.  We are assuming, of course, that the reader desires to stop.  Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not.  Many of us felt that we had plenty of character.  There was a tremendous urge to cease forever.  Yet we found it impossible.  This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it - this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.”

That was my own deal.  I desperately wanted to stop drinking forever, but I could not leave the stuff alone for even a day.  So then, go see a doctor and get a complete evaluation of your physical condition, then see whether your awareness of that in combination with “will power” is enough to keep you from drinking.  If it is, then you are possibly not alcoholic at all.  But if you are like me, a real alcoholic, something much more will be required:

“There is a solution.  Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation.  But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it.  When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet.  We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.
“The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe.  The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous.  He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
“If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution.  We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.  This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.” (page 25)

Please stay in touch,

Joe

Email: leejosepho@hotmail.com