I think it's pretty clear that addiction to any kind of drug is physiological, so you need to do whatever it takes to make your internal gizmos stop needing that drug.
For smoking now they use an anti-depressant that releases dopamine in the brain, bupropion (Zyban), because that's what you get from smoking, dopamine.
For other addictions, they give you medication that releases seratonin, or norepinephrine, or medications that block reuptake of other neurotransmitters.
Support groups help you learn good mental habits, better cognition.
To the extent that any support group interferes with better cognition by substituting a new pattern of bad cognition for your old pattern of bad cognition, it just doesn't seem that much of a good thing to me.
There are a lot of folk remedies that were developed in the old days that still have value but when I'm really sick, I go for modern science rather than folk remedies.
(I know, you're thinking, why take bupropion, isn't that substituting one drug for another, but bupropion doesn't give you lung cancer and atherosclerosis. The stuff they give you for alcoholism don't cirrhosis of the liver or the DTs or make you lost control of your automobile or your bowels. They also don't make you high or give you a rush so you can stop once you get over the need for the high or the rush.)
Of course, if you'd rather sit in a smoke-filled church basement with a group of needy strangers substituting compulsive sex with strangers and compulsive cigarettes for the compulsion to drink alcohol, AA is always there for you. Nothing wrong with human contact to help you through the dark nights of the soul, but it's no substitute for the bonds you broke in the throes of your addiction.
In my opinion, that's what 12 step programs are really tring to accomplish, giving you the courage to face the mess you've made of your life and the people you've hurt, and make amends, and take up your space in the place you came from. For those who cannot go back, you need to find another place where you belong.
JMHO. |
