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Totga · 11-10-2006, 07:56 PM

Lotus,

Thanks for the reply, and for sharing. It's an interesting set of points you make.

One of the interesting points this book makes is that what most people define as being "alcoholic" is completely wrong - rather than defining it as somebody who is dependent on alcohol - i.e. somebody who has lost control - but rather it is somebody who has come to know that they have lost control. The reasoning is simple: all people who drink lose control, alcoholics are just the ones who know it.

He asserts that alcohol is a bit like a trap. You get drawn in, like a mouse to a mousetrap lured with the smell of cheese, but you don't realise the cheese is poisoned and the trap will spring and next thing you know you'll wish you hadn't gone near it. He doesn't, however, agree with Alcoholics Anonymous who believe that alcoholics are physically or chemically flawed in themselves - he believes we are all capable of walking into the trap, and we force ourselves into it through peer-group pressure: the lie that drinking alcohol is actually pleasurable. Instead, he points out that we suffer the taste for a while until we acquire the taste, and then we get into numbing the senses, and then we need more, and then we acquire the taste of stronger stuff, and then we need more, and then... so the cycle continues.

It's also not the case that I think if I had one single drink I'd end up getting wrecked again almost immediately: alcohol isn't that addictive. I think I'm now at the point where I know how I use it, why I use it, how futile that is, and how much more sane and rational it is to just not drink.

In the same way that Carr's earlier book made a big impression on how people think about nicotine addiction, I think this could have the potential to tip the balance with alcohol in some parts, however I don't hold too much hope given that we are a society where 90% of adults drink this stuff.

If somebody had tried telling me all this a year ago, I know I wouldn't have listened, so hey-ho.

11-10-2006, 07:56 PM	#3 (permalink)
Totga Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: England Posts: 6	Interesting post... Lotus, Thanks for the reply, and for sharing. It's an interesting set of points you make. One of the interesting points this book makes is that what most people define as being "alcoholic" is completely wrong - rather than defining it as somebody who is dependent on alcohol - i.e. somebody who has lost control - but rather it is somebody who has come to know that they have lost control. The reasoning is simple: all people who drink lose control, alcoholics are just the ones who know it. He asserts that alcohol is a bit like a trap. You get drawn in, like a mouse to a mousetrap lured with the smell of cheese, but you don't realise the cheese is poisoned and the trap will spring and next thing you know you'll wish you hadn't gone near it. He doesn't, however, agree with Alcoholics Anonymous who believe that alcoholics are physically or chemically flawed in themselves - he believes we are all capable of walking into the trap, and we force ourselves into it through peer-group pressure: the lie that drinking alcohol is actually pleasurable. Instead, he points out that we suffer the taste for a while until we acquire the taste, and then we get into numbing the senses, and then we need more, and then we acquire the taste of stronger stuff, and then we need more, and then... so the cycle continues. It's also not the case that I think if I had one single drink I'd end up getting wrecked again almost immediately: alcohol isn't that addictive. I think I'm now at the point where I know how I use it, why I use it, how futile that is, and how much more sane and rational it is to just not drink. In the same way that Carr's earlier book made a big impression on how people think about nicotine addiction, I think this could have the potential to tip the balance with alcohol in some parts, however I don't hold too much hope given that we are a society where 90% of adults drink this stuff. If somebody had tried telling me all this a year ago, I know I wouldn't have listened, so hey-ho.