Katherine Ketcham is the author of nine nonfiction books, including five on alcoholism.
Asbury, William :
William Asbury, former Editor-In-Chief of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, writes and lectures frequently on
the nation's alcohol problems.
Schulstad, Mel :
Mel Schulstad is former president and co-founder of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.
Ciaramicoli, Arthur : Alternative Therapy Center
Dr. Arthur Ciaramicoli is director and chief psychologist of the Alternative Therapy Center of the Metrowest Medical
Wellness Center in Natick, Massachusetts and is an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
Sample Chapter
1
Still Under the Influence
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted
as being self-evident.
--schopenhauer
Don't remember where I was flying to, but was taken off the plane in Twin Cities, ambulanced to Hennepin County
Detox--nightmare--went to Hazelden from there--started stealing, then drinking--then to detox center in Hastings,
Minnesota. Scotty picked me up, got drunk at his home nearby, had to leave on bus to Madison, got drunk couldn't
stay at Sharon's. My wallet stolen that night. Tried to sleep outside at Ray's old apt. Neighbors called. Woke
up in detox. Began series of staying with AA people.
Ran out of places to go, no insurance, no halfway house, no money. Went to D.C.--stayed sober one month.
Terry McGovern wrote these words in her journal when she was forty-three years old. Two years later she was dead.
Around 8:30 p.m. on December 14, 1994, Terry left the Crystal Corner Bar in Madison, Wisconsin, and wandered into
an unlit parking lot, where she either fell or lay down in the snow and froze to death. Her body was discovered
around noon the next day. The coroner's report stated that death was due to "hypothermia while in a state
of extreme intoxication."
Many of us will hear Terry McGovern's story and shake our heads in dismay--perhaps even in disgust. Why, we wonder,
did this gentle, intelligent, much-loved daughter of former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern
choose to kill herself with booze? How did she get caught up in such a self-destructive way of life when she was
so talented and privileged, surrounded by people who loved her and wanted to help her? What, exactly, was wrong
with her? What demons possessed her?
The answers to these questions are hotly debated by those who insist that alcoholism is a primary, progressive,
physiological disease and those who argue that alcoholism is not a true medical disease at all but a symptom of
underlying psychological and emotional problems to which the individual responds by engaging in increasingly self-destructive
behavior. The disease theorists engage in vociferous exchanges with those who do not see alcoholism as a disease,
and each side carefully amasses research studies and dramatic anecdotes to fortify its position.
After the smoke clears, little if anything seems to have been resolved. Witnessing the bitter disagreements among
experts, most of us end up bewildered by the conflicting theories. If alcoholism is a behavior, what quirk of personality
or circumstance would lead good, decent, intelligent people such as Terry McGovern to destroy everything in their
lives for alcohol? Are alcoholics inherently weak, selfish, emotionally immature individuals?
If, on the other hand, alcoholism is a disease, why do its victims suffer from such intense guilt, shame, and self-loathing?
Why can some diagnosed alcoholics return to "moderate" or "controlled" drinking for weeks or
even months? Why do some alcoholics stop drinking and recover with no treatment at all? And why are psychological
counseling and spirituality considered such important elements of recovery?
These questions and the contentious debates they engender lead many people to throw up their hands, concluding
as the Supreme Court did in April 1988, that alcoholism is a consequence of "willful misconduct."
Alcoholism is not a mysterious illness, nor is it "willful misconduct." Alcoholism is a true medical
disease rooted in abnormalities in brain chemistry--biochemical aberrations that are inherited by the great majority
of alcoholics and, in some cases, acquired through intense and sustained exposure to alcohol and other drugs. When
the alcoholic drinks, something different happens. This difference between alcoholics and nonalcoholics is not
created by personality disorders, emotional instability, character defects, or traumatic circumstances; it is a
difference in the way the alcoholic's body responds to the drug alcohol.
Physiology, not psychology, determines whether one drinker will become addicted to alcohol and another will not.
This is not theory but fact, based on thousands of research studies detailing the nature, causes, and progression
of this ancient yet perpetually misunderstood disease. More than fifty years of experimentation and investigation
by distinguished scientists in such diverse fields as neurology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and psychology have
provided the basic facts needed to understand the drug alcohol and the disease it creates in biologically susceptible
individuals. We know what this disease is, we know how to treat it, and we know how to prevent it. The knowledge
is in our hands.
Yet the myths and misconceptions that distort our thinking about alcoholism, complicating both treatment and recovery,
remain firmly in place. Two decades ago the myths and realities about alcoholism were presented in Under the Influence:
A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism, coauthored by James R. Milam and Katherine Ketcham. Despite stunning
scientific advances in alcoholism research in the last twenty years, these myths continue to influence the way
we treat alcoholics.
Myth: Alcohol has the same chemical and psychological effects on everyone who drinks.
Reality: Alcohol, like every other substance we take into our bodies, affects different people in different
ways.
Myth: Addiction to alcohol is often psychological.
Reality: Addiction to alcohol is physiological and involves profound chemical disruptions in the brain.
Myth: Alcohol is an addictive drug, and anyone who drinks regularly for a long enough period of time will
become physically addicted to it.
Reality: Alcohol is a selectively addictive drug; only a minority of drinkers will experience the need or
desire to consume alcohol in sufficient quantities and over a long enough period of time to become physically addicted
to it.
Myth: People become alcoholics because they have psychological or emotional problems that they try to relieve
by drinking.
Reality: Alcoholics have basically the same psychological problems as nonalcoholics before they start drinking,
but these problems are aggravated (and new disturbances are created) by addiction to alcohol.
Myth: If people would drink responsibly, they would not become alcoholics.
Reality: Many responsible drinkers become alcoholics. Because of the nature of the disease--not the person--they
begin to drink irresponsibly.
Myth: Some alcoholics can learn to drink normally as long as they limit the amount.
Reality: Alcoholics, who by definition suffer from a permanent brain addiction, can never safely return
to drinking.
A little history may help here. Originally published in 1981, Under the Influence detailed the biochemical and
neurophysiological factors--metabolic abnormalities, alterations in brain chemistry, heredity, ethnic susceptibility,
and prenatal influences--that determine why some people become addicted to alcohol while others do not. The book
helped fuel the "recovery boom" of the 1980s, a time of remarkable advances in alcoholism treatment and
prevention efforts and a period marked by a growing commitment to the scientifically proven understanding that
alcoholism is a primary, progressive, physiological disease requiring lifelong abstinence for recovery.
As the recovery boom gained momentum, growing numbers of behaviorists, social critics, and popular writers raised
their voices to criticize the "disease concept," arguing that it failed to account for psychological
and emotional factors. Many critics contended that focusing attention on the physical addiction released problem
drinkers from moral responsibility for their behavior. What about willpower and simple human decency? If we call
alcoholism a disease, the critics continued, we might as well call fingernail biting, obsessive TV viewing, and
chronic boredom "diseases." One psychiatrist used a sunburn analogy: Redheads tend to burn more easily
than brunettes or blondes, so shouldn't they protect themselves by staying out of the sun? And shouldn't those
redheads who continually get sunburned take responsibility for and accept the consequences of their misbehavior?
Alcohol problems should be redefined as "maladaptive lifestyle habits," argued behavioral psychologist
Alan Marlatt of the University of Washington. An outspoken critic of the "disease concept," Marlatt insisted
that excessive drinking is a behavior that people do, not a symptom of what they are, and that alcoholics and problem
drinkers can be taught how to modify their maladaptive habits through stress management, lifestyle changes, and
basic learning principles. For those who want to reduce their drinking and avoid the health problems associated
with excessive use of alcohol, Marlatt and other behavioral psychologists argued that moderation is the key.
In Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease Herbert Fingarette, a professor at the University of California
and a consultant on alcoholism and addiction to the World Health Organization, dismissed fifty years of research
on the neurological and biochemical nature of alcoholism with this statement: "No leading research authorities
accept the classic disease concept." In The Diseasing of America: Addiction Treatment Out of Control psychologist
Stanton Peele argued that disease definitions actually "undermine the individual's obligations to control
behavior and to answer for misconduct."
Popular writers quickly latched on to the behaviorist trend. Audrey Kishline, a moderate drinker who believes she
was mistakenly diagnosed as an alcoholic, observed in Moderate Drinking, "The act of lifting a drink to your
lips too often is not a 'disease.' Drinking too much is a behavior, something that a problem drinker does, not
something that he or she has."
As concepts such as "moderation," "responsible drinking," and "maladaptive habits"
caught the public's imagination, society as a whole became less tolerant of alcoholics and their "misbehaviors."
Changing attitudes toward alcoholics were reflected clearly in the increasingly popular use of the word abuse.*
Beginning in the 1980s, government agencies charged with overseeing alcohol education and treatment programs abandoned
the word alcoholism in favor of the term alcohol abuse and, more recently, substance abuse. In recent years the
word alcoholism seems to have disappeared from official language while the term substance abuse has become as familiar
as Budweiser's trio of frogs.
As alcoholism gradually became linked in the public mind with alcohol "abuse," efforts to teach "irresponsible"
and "abusive" drinkers how to moderate their drinking grew in popularity. Critics of the disease concept
argued vehemently that controlled-drinking therapy--tellingly translated as "behavioral self-control"--should
be considered a valid alternative to lifelong abstinence. In the 1990s "harm reduction" programs such
as DrinkWise, S.M.A.R.T., and Moderation Management expanded to the point where a 1997 U.S. News and World Report
article predicted that controlled-drinking programs would someday "be as commonplace as Weight Watchers and
Smokenders."
Review
"Comprehensive, balanced yet provocative, Beyond the Influence blends up-to-date research findings with
practical knowledge about the cause and consequences of this disease. An excellent resource that resonates with
courage and conviction."
--Ernest P. Noble, Ph.D., M.D., Pike Professor of Alcohol Studies, UCLA, and former Director of the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
"A brave and lucid book...[that] will open many people's eyes and save many people's lives. A must-read for
anyone dealing with alcoholism."
--Jeff Jay, president of the Terry McGovern Foundation and director of Program Development at Brighton Hospital,
Brighton, Michigan
"A vital contribution for anyone who wants to understand the science of alcoholism, plus how to treat it."
--Claudia Black, Ph.D., M.S.W., author of It will Never Happen to Me
"A book of great importance...it furnishes a generous dose of hope...[and] a rallying cry for action."
--Jay Lewis, former editor and publisher of The Alcoholism Report
Books @ Random Web Site, April, 2002
Summary
This invaluable work will contribute much to the battle against our number one disease."
--from the Foreword by George McGovern, former senator and author of Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle
with Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a disease. It's time we started treating it like one.
Science has offered undisputed proof that alcoholism is a disease rather than a weakness of character, yet millions
of alcoholics continue to suffer due to inappropriate treatment. Now the co-author of the modern classic Under
the Influence has teamed up with prominent alcoholism experts to provide new answers to this national epidemic.
Based on the latest scientific research, Beyond the Influence clearly explains the neurological nature of the disease
and reveals why some people drink addictively and others do not. It also spells out what needs to be done to treat
alcoholism, including:
Steps to take for an intervention
How to find the right treatment program
Which psychological approaches work best
Why spirituality is essential to recovery
New insights into relapse prevention
What you should know about diet, exercise, and nontraditional treatments such as acupuncture
Provocative and eye-opening, compelling and compassionate, Beyond the Influence is not only a message of hope for
alcoholics--it is a blueprint for saving lives.