You may have heard of the Golden Rule:
“He who hath the gold, makes the rules.”
What this means in practice is that our beliefs about alcohol are distorted. In our society an 18-year old youngster will have already been exposed to 100,000 examples of alcohol advertising – all with the intention of hooking you and keeping you hooked. Make you drink alcohol.
All the explanations I give here have been sourced from reputable independent, scientific, medical bodies.
- There is no such thing as an alcoholic, nor the disease alcoholism:There is no other drug in which users are categorised as normal and diseased. For example, we do not have normal smokers and the diseased “nicotinolics”. We do not have social heroin users and “heroinolics”. It is frankly absurd to have these categories with alcohol. This point of view is supported by eminent neurobiologists. What we do have are many alcohol addicts. In fact, most people who drink alcohol habitually are alcohol-dependent.
- Alcohol is carcinogenic: The IARC (a part of the WHO) in 1988 classed alcohol as a category A Carcinogenic. This means that it is a proven carcinogenic to humans.
- There is no safe amount of alcohol to drink. Even a small amount a day increases the risks of cancer.
- Resveratrol: The chemical resveratrol found in red wine with supposed cardio-vascular benefits can be found in many foodstuffs. In fact, red wine is not a particularly good source of this phyto-chemical. Other better sources include: red grapes, peanuts and peanut butter, dark chocolate, blueberries, lingonberries, pistachios, strawberries. The advantage of the other sources is they are not carcinogenic and contain many other vital nutrients.
- Alcohol is the most harmful drug: In 2007 a British Government body, the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) R conducted an objective study to objectively classify drugs based on the harm done. The report was co-authored by Professor David Nutt, who at the time of the preparation of the report was the government’s chief drugs’ adviser. The study covers 20 drugs on 16 measures of harm to the individual user, to families, work and to wider society. Heroin, crack-cocaine and crystal-meth were deemed worst for individuals. Alcohol came next. Alcohol came out worst overall – If alcohol were invented to day it would be illegal or a controlled narcotic.
- Alcohol addiction is not genetic: “The most current research indicates that alcohol addiction is heterogeneous, that is to say it depends on many different factors. Even if stronger evidence were found for a genetic element in alcoholism it would never be more than a risk or a tendency and not destiny”. I quote from Director Enoch Gordis, M.D. of the NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and part of the NIH the official US government National Institute of Health), whose team has spent years looking for the genes that might cause alcoholism: “Progress has been made in understanding genetic vulnerability to alcoholism… “Based on our current understanding, it is probable that environmental influences will be of equal if not greater importance.”
- It’s a disease isn’t it? Alcoholism was classed as a disease in 1956 without any evidence to prove it. There is now a strong debate and movement to have it reclassified. This extends to the NIH in the USA. The main beneficiaries from the current disease model are the alcohol industry and the recovery industry.
- Alcoholics Anonymous: According to AA, alcoholism is a physiological, mental and spiritual disease. However, AA’s own analysis was that 50% of all those who try AA start drinking again within 90 days, which they describe as cause for ‘concern’. Their own data shows that that figure is optimistic. In the 12-year period shown, 19% remain free after 30 days, 10% after 90 days and 5% remain free after a year. Only 5% continue to free of alcohol after one year of attending AQ meetings.
- Cochrane: Cochrane says: No experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA or TSF approaches for reducing alcohol dependence or problems.
- But… there are other benefits, no? No, none. All the benefits we think we get from alcohol are illusions. In fact, we get the opposite. For example, the only stress that alcohol relieves is the stress of wanting to drink alcohol.
If we can see alcohol as it really is and not as we’ve been brainwashed to see it then we can get free quickly, easily, without suffering and without ever missing it.
Perception is everything.
