I had a beer and then another one.  Then I decided to have a snort of meth.  And then I went up to my room to lie down and relax.  But somehow I ended up on the computer, and someone messaged me and told me to turn off the lights and grease myself up.  And leave the front door open.  In my inebriated state I followed their directions.

Continue reading How to Drink Like a Normal Man →

“I had an intense craving for heroin that lasted for days and wouldn’t go away.  So I got my hands on some.  Then I took it, and it wasn’t enough.  So I took more, but that still wasn’t enough.  So I kept taking it until I was unconscious.  Then when I woke up feeling sick to my stomach, and I felt bad because I was withdrawing, so I took more.  Then I kept repeating the cycle.” Continue reading Welcome to the Club: How to Cure a Heroin Addiction →

It’s getting harder and harder these days to discover a cure for a deadly disease that’s worthy of the Nobel Prize.  All the ‘easy’ ones, like polio and measles, have already been taken, and all that’s left are the thorny ones, like cancer, heart disease, and AIDS.  But there’s still a juicy one ripe for the pickins: Addiction.  If you can find a cure for that, then you might as well start writing your acceptance speech.  I mean, if you can cure addiction, you’ll save millions of lives and rid the world the world of the scourge of drugs.  Yes people may still do drugs, but they won’t destroy their own lives with them.  They’ll do them for a time and have fun and move on.  Or not, but at least they’ll have to admit it’s a choice not a disease. Continue reading Who Wants to Win a Nobel Prize? →

Aaron White, PhD is a prominent Addictions Expert and Program Director at NIAAA, a division of the prestigious NIH.  Dr White is most famous for discovering some fascinating parallels between inebriated rats and alcoholics that explain the heretofore poorly understood phenomenon known as the ‘blackout’.  For example, he showed that a drunken rat’s inability to remember its location in a maze explains why the alcoholic will have absolutely no memory of smashing a chair over someone’s head in a bar fight until he is reminded of it or gets drunk again.  Also, the intoxicated rat’s disinterest in cheese residue corresponds to the addict’s tendency to ignore otherwise obvious signs of STDs in sexual partners.

AddictionMyth recently sat down with Dr White via email to discuss his fascinating research and the exciting promise it holds for the treatment of alcoholism, the degenerative disease whose symptoms include unintentional naughty behavior and amnesia of that same behavior sometimes accompanied by close brushes with imminent death; and whose only known cure requires the humbling (if liberating) public admission that you have it.

AddictionMyth: You discovered some fascinating connections between rats and alcoholics.  They are more alike then anyone previously thought.  Did you also find that rats continued to crave alcohol even after the experiment was over?  What happened when you restored them to a natural environment?  Did they continue to demand access to their drug of choice, and use it compulsively until death?

Continue reading A Conversation with Addiction Guru Aaron White, PhD →

Addiction is neither a disease nor a moral failing.  It is a religion whose followers idolize drugs and alcohol in their youth, and then (typically in middle age when they’ve gotten too old for those games) decide to pursue the virtues of ‘peace and serenity’.  It is a spiritual journey akin to the Buddhist practice of identifying ‘cravings’ and then renouncing or denying them through a process of enlightenment.  Thus AA maintains a kinship with Eastern philosophies and practices, such as Buddhism and yoga.

Continue reading Powerlessness as Religion →

The Nazis were masterful with propaganda.  If you would question a well-intentioned German citizen on his political beliefs and Nazi policy, he might respond: “Perhaps some of your criticisms are valid.  But vat else can ve do about ze problem of ze Jews?  If you have no solution, zen you are just part of ze problem.” Continue reading The Problem of the Jews: a Lesson in Brainwashing Propaganda →

Mornings suck without meth.  Caffeine helps but it’s not the same thing.  With meth you just snort a bump and immediately you’re fine.   Then pop a pill, which will kick in after an hour, and you’re good for the next half day.  It obliterates any trace of tiredness or fatigue without making you feel hyper or jittery.  Relaxed, in fact, and you’re ready to take on the world.   Continue reading The Morning Slayer →

I am powerless to refrigerated cookie dough. When I go to the supermarket, I have no intention of buying it. I’m not even hungry. And I know exactly what I need and have no business being in that section. And yet I find myself there, staring at the packages. Triple chocolate? Brownie fudge? Peanut butter delight? I can’t decide. I’ll take all 3. Don’t worry I won’t eat them all. Not tonight, not all in one sitting. Continue reading Satan’s Chunky Excrement →

You learned that your defective, obsessive, and diseased mind is bent on its own destruction: that is simply the nature of alcoholism, your newly diagnosed affliction.  Ruin is inevitable. Continue reading You Are So Brainwashed It’s Funny →

If you want to be an expert on addiction you must actually have had one.  Well I’ve been addicted to Ativan for years, but still hasn’t turned me into a drug crazed zombie. When the withdrawals come I just remind myself that I’m experiencing withdrawals and not having a heart attack and put down the phone.  But I need my Ativan.  Couldn’t sleep without them.   Continue reading My So-Called Addiction →

Addiction has always been a terribly difficult condition to treat. Even if you can get an addict to recognize they have a problem, and even if you can get them into treatment, and even if they stick with it — they are still very likely to relapse several times. Especially the young ones. Sometimes nothing seems to help, and the pain and desperation of the addict and their loved ones only increases. Finally, Taite and Scharff outline a lifetime treatment for this terrible affliction in their new book, Ending Addiction for Good: The Groundbreaking, Holistic, Evidence-Based Way to Transform Your Life. Addiction is now easily fixable, like having a broken arm. “There’s no reason to be addicted any more.” (Taite)  They are so sure of their solution, in fact, that treatment is guaranteed.
Continue reading The Brainwashed and the Liar: Constance Scharff, Richard Taite and the Never- Ending Addiction →