45. Alcoholics become allergic to their love object

By Tom O'Connell

In each disease there's a range of severity, from mild to severe. And the same is true with alcoholism, a progressive disease that starts with mild impairment and gradually increases in severity. Like other diseases, if left untreated it will become a serious illness.

The addictive disease process is as old as the human race, and probably started in the garden of Eden. My old friend Mark Keller, an alcoholism research pioneer, had a theory that the forbidden fruit was a grape, not an apple. Our first ancestors probably accidentally fermented the grapes, consumed some experimentally, changed their consciousness, and got themselves into trouble. Were they acting rationally? No. Addiction is irrational.

Although addiction's appeal isn't logical, it's powerful. Over a half century ago, A.A. founders Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith published the brilliant book "Alcoholics Anonymous." And if you want to understand the irrational disease of alcoholism, read this book. It is a balanced view of this addictive disease that affects body, mind, and spirit.

Early in the book, the physical nature of alcoholism is discussed in a section by William Silkworth, M.D., who specialized in the treatment of alcoholism and cared for Bill Wilson in the hospital. In "The Doctor's Opinion," one of the first comments is about the "physical craving for liquor." He also mentions allergy. We can be allergic to pollen, feathers, mold or dust. And we can become allergic to strawberries, peanuts, or alcohol if we take large doses constantly. When we have an allergy we become very sensitive to whatever it is that is irritating us. The body, trying to protect us from harm, overreacts.

Dr. Warren Vaughan, who wrote a guidebook on allergy, explained that some people have an "allergic constitution." He also said that "the whole body participates in the reaction." The greater exposure to the irritating substance, whether pollen or alcohol, the stronger the reaction. This makes  sense, doesn't it? Common sense and scientific sense.

In the A.A. "Big book," Dr. Silkworth states, "The action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy...the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker." He continues, "These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence...their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve."

Why do these people keep drinking even though it harms them? "Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol....To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks--drinks which they see others taking with impunity."

The catch is that the alcoholic isn't able to get "feeling good" for a short while and then stop. The "phenomenon of craving" develops, they drink to excess, get remorseful, and pledge not to drink again. Then the craving builds, and the cycle repeats itself.

The doctor repeats his message about the craving, and says alcoholics "have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving....The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence."

These words made sense more than 50 years ago, and they still do.

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