I guess I should say first that I’ve not had a drink of alcohol in 23 years. I go to a secular meeting once a week because I am committed to the idea that secular alternatives should be available. (Court mandated AA is blatantly unconstitutional, but that’s another discussion). I feel that helping others helps reinforce my own sobriety. But I don’t have thoughts or cravings, it’s not even an issue for me any more. I just don’t drink.
I had a rather interesting experience yesterday. I was at my friend Jimmy’s pool party today, tons of great food and drink. But I guess I misunderstood him: I thought he said everything on this one table was non-alcoholic. So I picked up a pitcher of OJ and poured it into my cup. I sat down, took a sip, thought it tasted off. Then I felt that warm burning feeling in my gut. I said, “Hey Jimmy what is this?” and he said “pineappletini.” I went OOPS, headed right to the kitchen and dumped it down the sink. I did get a little buzz from it. However, it did NOT set off any “chain reaction” where I immediately began craving more. After that I switched to tea and I was fine.
I remember being in an AA meeting one time when this woman came in hysterical. She had been at a party and accidentally picked up the wrong drink. She left the party, came straight to the meeting because she was so terrified that she would now start drinking again. I mean the poor woman was hysterical, just crying. It’s like she thought she was about to die.
Informed by unparalleled neuroscientific insight and written with his usual flare, Marc Lewis’s The Biology of Desire effectively refutes the medical view of addiction as a brain disease. A bracing and informative corrective to the muddle that now characterizes public and professional discourse on this topic.” —Gabor Maté, M.D., author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction
Please read this! It’s important.
A lot of people ask me whether the brain can completely change back to what it was before we become addicted. I usually say that the brain never changes backward. Yet this anecdote tells us that the dopamine pathways can restructure themselves as thoroughly during recovery as they do during addiction. Figuratively speaking, that’s pretty close to changing back to the way they once were.
I was wondering that myself as I begin my journey into sobriety. I am HOPING this is not going to be for the rest of my life, but just like the story above, maybe I simply won’t want to after a while. I read that it takes 3 months for the brain pathways to begin changing. I was not sure if that was true and the relevance to an addict being able to reintroduce alcohol back into their lives as a casual thing?