38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Unexplainable...Explained!!!, June 4, 2005
This review is from: Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease (Paperback)
Anyone who has a drinking problem or is associated with someone who has a drinking problems will benefit enormously from reading this book. Many people who deal with alcoholics live in a world fraught with uncertainty and illogic. This book attempts and succeeds in making sense out of the senseless. Thorburn does a masterly job of identifying the problem and explaining the chain of events which occurs in alcoholics' livers, central nervous systems and brains.
This book also does a great job of identifying the resulting behaviors and misbehaviors while explaining their underlying causes. To put it overly-simply: the alcoholic's behavior is the result of distortions in perception because he has turned his brain into a toxic waste dump. Once the alcoholic has gotten enough clean-time for the toxins to filter out of his system, many of the behavioral abnormalities disappear.
Thorburn also offers practical advice on how to deal with alcoholics. Basically, get tough, stand your ground and be prepared for the alcoholic to try to manipulate anything and everything to his own advantage. Once you have a basic grasp of the inner-workings of alcoholism, you will know that the most helpful thing you can do for them is to let them reap the consequences of their delusional behavior. Beyond that, you really are powerless to do anything else.
If for no other reason, this book is a priceless tool for spotting typically alcoholic behaviors. Many of the personality traits common to most alcoholics manifest themselves in surprising and subtle ways which most people would not suspect as being indicative of an addiction problem (e.g. - self-favoring memory recall). Recently I have avoided two potentially disastrous relationships (one business and one personal); subsequent events confirmed addiction problems which no one else suspected at the time.
I am an alcoholic in recovery and I have learned more from this book than anything else I have read (and that's a long list). The complex concepts are explained clearly and simply without compromising the subject matter.
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important book that will open your eyes., June 2, 2005
This review is from: Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease (Paperback)
Alcoholism Myths and Realities contains and refutes over 100 incorrect statements about alcoholism, some of which you have probably said yourself. The two primary themes of this book are (1) alcoholism is caused by biology rather than environment or bad morals, and (2) alcoholism can explain a great deal, perhaps most, of the misbehaviors we observe in people around us.
Even when alcoholism is obvious to all, people often do not identify alcoholism as the cause of the alcoholic's other misbehaviors, but instead take both to be manefestations of some immorality. However, the biology of alcoholism shows us that some people are born with livers that process alcohol differently than most people do, and consequently are able to build up a much higher concentration of toxic chemicals in their brains before they feel sick. These chemicals shut down and eventually damage the neocortex of the brain, leaving nothing to moderate the instinctive, aggressive impulses of the limbic system. With this in mind, it makes more sense to assume that the alcoholism is the cause of misbehaviors, rather than another kind of misbehavior.
If someone repeatedly misbehaves but alcoholism is not obvious, it still makes sense to assume that alcoholism is the cause of these misbehaviors. For one thing, it gives that person the benefit of the doubt, and for another, 10% of people in the US are alcoholics, so you have a pretty good chance of being correct anyway. It may seem strange to suggest alcoholism for someone who may be young, charming, successful, or even idolized by millions; this confusion is resolved when it is understood that alcoholism is a progressive disease. It can take decades for chemical dependancy to develop to such a degree that the alcoholic can no longer hold a job or put up appearances of leading a healthy life. Before this, he likely would have been drinking copiously for many years but was able to keep his excessive use hidden. (Sometimes the distinction is made between "alcoholics" and "alcohol abusers", based on whether or not there is a chemical dependancy on alcohol, but these are really the same people in different stages of the disease.)
When alcoholics drink, however, their behavior in ALL stages of the disease is characterized by reckless, cruel, or destructive misbehaviors, whereas when nonalcoholics drink, their behavior is not. Doug Thorburn shows that an astonishing variety of misbehaviors are associated with alcoholism. Not only were most cult leaders, serial killers, and mass murderers alcoholics (including political tyrants such as Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin), but alcoholism is also common among con men, embezzelers, politicians, racists, and ordinary violent criminals. It is estimated that 80% to 90% of incarcerated prisoners, as well as perhaps 50% of the prison guards, may be alcoholics. Alcoholism is also more common among policemen, doctors, lawers, and actors.
This and other of Doug Thorburn's writings have changed the way I look at the world. What previously appeared to be a disturbing abberation, an incomprehensible contradiction, a motiveless malignancy now seems a perfectly understandable effect of alcoholism. I know how to avoid a great danger--alcoholics are far more damaging to their friends and family than most people realize. Finally, I know not to deny or apologize for bizarre behaviors in my personal and political allies and to see such behaviors for what they are.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Straight talk in a world of misconceptions, April 28, 2005
This review is from: Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease (Paperback)
In this book Doug Thornburn takes on 118 common and often pervasive myths about alcoholism and alcoholics. Each myth is defined and explained and then followed by an explanation of why it is inaccurate. One of the benefits of the various books by Doug Thornburn is his discussion of ways to diagnose alcoholism much earlier than current, commonly accepted methods. Instead of waiting until the problem of the alcoholic has created financial, legal, or medical troubles he proposes ways to diagnose the disease much earlier. Some of these myths are concepts that continue to conceal the early stage alcoholic and so encourage their progression into latter stage diagnosable alcoholics. Destroying these myths is part of the process of educating others so they can intervene before the person becomes the more advanced alcoholic we are all familiar with. Alcoholism Myths and Realities is recommended for anyone interested in the subject of alcoholism.
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