Notorious Cravings and Anti-Drug Drugs
Just weeks after the Vivitrol® splash, came modafinil. It hasn’t yet acquired the little ® added by drug companies when a drug is ready for the market. Modafinil is said to repair certain brain tissues that are said to be damaged by cocaine use, tissues without which cocaine addicts experience notorious cravings. Taking modafinil, naltrexone, Revia®, and Vivitrol® are all intended to reduce the notorious cravings for alcohol and other drugs over which addicted people are said to be powerless.
Even smokers may benefit from Brave New Science. Chantix® made its debut recently, offering new hope for ciggie smokers who have not been helped by a similar drug, Zyban®, and for those unlucky smokers who have had no success using nicotine replacement therapies, i.e., patches and gums. By using Chantix®, they can all can hope to be among the lucky one in five who have not resumed smoking afterthe three month course of “treatment.”
These anti-drug drugs are advertised to (1) reduce the desire for the pleasures released by the original drugs, and to (2) reduce the amount of pleasure in the event one indulges in the original drug while attempting to discontinue the drug. Thus, a new family of anti-pleasure drugs brings new hope for addicted people everywhere, if only they will work as advertised.
We should assume that these anti-pleasure drugs work as advertised, because it is entirely possible they do. I have no doubt that biologists can tease one’s brain chemistry in such a way that pleasure is converted to disgust. For example, one drug, Antabuse®, has been used for decades to induce violent illness in its users who drink alcohol. Antabuse® works exactly as advertised, even killing some users who drink, but as a remedy for addiction, it’s worthless. Taken voluntarily, Antabuse® is essentially a self-erected barrier to a good buzz. Taken involuntarily, Antabuse® is half of a deadly poison that might impose the death penalty. Yes, Antabuse®, the brand name for disulfiram, an industrial chemical for vulcanizing rubber, is worthess. Worthless and dangerous.
Surely other anti-pleasure drugs aren’t so crude. For example, naltrexone may simply prevent drinkers from feeling the full effect of their drinks. This allows the drug to be promoted as a drug that makes it easier to stop drinking (once one has started drinking.)
Fatal Flaws of Anti-Drug Drugs
My question is this, “Why would any addicted person take an anti-drink in advance of taking a drink?” Better yet, will they? The answer may lie in the extensive research on naltrexone as a remedy for alcoholism. Over the long run, naltrexone’s beneficial effect, the reduction of alcohol consumption, doesn’t last very long. In time, nearly all problem drinkers return to their former excesses. This may be in large part because in order for naltrexone to work, one must continue to consume alcohol, or at least reserve the privilege of drinking/using, i.e., “relapse.” Moreover, alcohol costs money, and naltrexone makes it far more expensive to get a buzz on. Both drugs, naltrexone and alcohol, are expensive; used together, they are a huge waste of money. It doesn’t take naltrexone users long to figure this part out, unless they are prevented somehow from doing so.
Assuming that anti-drug drugs acually reduce the pleasure of drinking/using, are they actually remedies for addiction to alcohol and other drugs? Let’s go to the fine print of all of these pleasure-blocking drugs, where we will discover that they all firmly state that the anti-drug drugs won’t work unless the user is involved with “psychosocial support and counseling.” The brew thickens. Here is a drug that promises to reduce the desire to drink, but requires extensive commitments to counseling or psychotherapy and psychosocial support. Why is this so, that a drug’s therapeutic effect depends so heavily upon circumstances? Exactly what are the essential adjuncts to the treatment of drug addiction with drugs?
The “psychosocial support and counseling,” is simply recovery groups, shrinks, and rehabs. It is not well-known that recovery groups and addiction treatment endorse the disease concept of addiction, which portrays addicted people as essentially powerless over their bodily desires. In other words, “Take these pills, do your 90 meetings in 90 days, see your shrink regularly, admit you’re an addict, and hope for the best.” In the world of addiction recovery, anti-drug drugs make good sense because they also presume powerlessness over desire. The anti-drug drugs promise to remove or reduce the desire to drink/use, exactly as the higher power of 12-step recovery does, and exactly as addiction treatment specialists do as they help you seek better coping skills so you won’t be driven to relapse.
To take a pill or a patch to quell the force of addictive desire is admirable, and certainly shows awareness of a serious problem, but Brave New Science seems unaware that addictive desire talks in our heads, and that addictive desire is about survival. There are no drugs to erase the memory of the past pleasures obtained from alcohol and other drugs. These permanent memories of pleasures for which there are no words to fully describe. They are unspeakable pleasures for which our bodies are not prepared — pleasures that overtake the usual survival drives of eating, sexing, even breathing — cascading pleasures unknown outside the realm of addiction. The desire sparked by such pleasures organizes the minds and the lives of addicted people, so that the next fix is never far out of reach. The addictive voice that commands the next fix is the same voice that says to discontinue the anti-pleasure drug, or to use the original drug in spite of one’s admirable intent to defeat addiction.
Anti-drug drugs portray addiction as a psychobiosocial disease (the only one of its kind), which requires the applications of treatments aimed at quelling our natural, healthy desire for pleasure. Anti-drug drugs are fatally flawed by denying that addiction is for sheer pleasure, at the expense of self and others, and therefore immoral.
Smokey the Beast® is a restless thing that visits smokers dozens of times a day. Smokey loves the patch! Patches and gums are three-pointers for Smokey, because (1) the they give a real smoker’s buzz, and (2) their use is a frank admission of powerlessness over Smokey the Beast, and (3) patches and gums are part of a victim-costume, making folks look good while they remain addicted, powerless over Smokey the Beast. In Rational Recovery®, we recognize that formulation as the Addictive Voice, which is any thinking that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or other drugs.
Bottom line:
In order for these anti-drug-drugs to “work,” one must first of all believe that that he is powerless over his notorious craving for alcohol or other drugs. By taking the drug, he may continue to yield to his irresistible desire, but he won’t experience the degree of pleasure he ordinarily would. Thus, his desire to drink would be reduced because drinking isn’t as pleasurable. However, it is easy to lose track of why he drinks in the first place, which is for the sheer pleasure of it. It’s not that he wants to stop having the buzz; he only wants to avoid the problems that accompany getting high, e.g., the hangover, the DUI’s,the heart disease, the family conflicts, the lung cancer, the job problems.
In other words, he must believe that he is defective, or diseased, and that his self-intoxication is a symptom of some hidden condition rather than simply immoral conduct. In the world of addiction, it appears logical to receive medical treatment aimed at reducing or eliminating his desire for the effect of alcohol and other drugs. In the human realm, however, immoral conduct may be swiftly eliminated through a principled decision to forsake the pleasure given by certain drugs.
Toward that end, Addictive Voice Recognition Technique® (AVRT®) is the crown jewel of addiction recovery, ready for any addicted person to fully recover in as short a time as he chooses. The truth, known by millions who have summarily quit alcohol, ciggies, and other “hard” drugs, is that kicking an addiction is much easier than can be imagined while still addicted. Alcohol, cocaine, heroin, opiates, nicotine, meth and the rest are all the same thing, and are best quit altogether as immoral conduct rather than harbored as symptoms of a mysterious disease for which there is no cure.
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June 17th, 2006 at 6:51 am
What I find funny in light of how I quit smoking all by myself is the nonsense of “nicotine replacement”. If it truly were a replacement for nicotine then what is nicotine being replaced with? MORE nicotine? So it’s NOT a replacement! What a FRAUD!
dr.bomb
July 29th, 2006 at 2:43 am
I took Wellbutrin, the same drug as Zyban, with no effect at all on my smoking and drinking behavior. I doubt very seriously that any of these drugs are good for much more than enriching pharmaceutical companies.
August 14th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Well, I have been on Naltrexone and Campral for a few weeks now, and have not had the urge to drink. I am not in counseling, however I really do feel like I need it - not to stop me from drinking - but to help me deal with the issues that are now quickly rising to the surface with sobriety. Why am I so bored by my family, etc…so, from my perspective, even though the drugs do work nicely by themselves, I need support in dealing with the aftermath.
Kris,
Through the lens of AVRT®, you are in the grip of addiction, quite vulnerable to downfalls, fearful of your bodily desires, emotionally dependent, suffering from the addicto-depressive condition, unable to recognize the preludes to self-intoxication, including your view of “issues.” You are bored with your family because its members appear insignificant in the context of your open-ended addiction. Your fear of life’s challenges suggests you have long exposure to recovery groups creating a sense of personal inadequacy with the need for supervision. Run through the The Crash Course on AVRT® and see if that gives you a sense of stability or hope. If so, consider AVRT-based recovery through website subscription or AVRT: The Course.
Jack Trimpey
January 6th, 2007 at 3:07 am
Yes, I agree with every fiber of my being; the “Minnesota Model” (12 step programs) keep you powerless, brainwash you into believing you’re “diseased”, and you can NEVER recover, but you MAY be able to stop using for short periods of time (only short periods because you’re not counting on yourself, but remaining dependant on someone or something else e.g. groups, 12 step meetings, sponsors, etc. The breaks in use are not due to a “God”, or a “Power Greater Than Yourself”, or from making amends, or beating yourself up and lowering your sense of self-worth even further by taking a “Moral Inventory” to measure your shortcomings by. I’ll bet my last dollar EVERYONE has these “Moral” shortcomings - otherwise we’d ALL be Perfect Saints. In 51 years, I have’nt found ONE PERSON YET who meets these “moral” standards, yet they’re not all drunks or addicts. Being imperfect morally makes us HUMAN, not ADDICTS or DRUNKS!
February 6th, 2007 at 9:51 am
I stopped smoking 2 years ago for 3 months, with the aid of Wellbutrin - I gained 39 pounds (already fat, then became fatter), so I stopped taking the meds - w/o advise of Doctor - gained another 10 pounds, and started smoking again. I stopped smoking again on Jan 1st 2007, with no aid, only this is that I have cheated a few times - 4 to be exact - not beating myself up - just needed the release - I think I’m doing better on my own, then if I used a medication aid - you have to really want to quit, to quit successfully.