- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ Free Shipping
+ $3.99 shipping
+ $3.99 shipping


Follow the Authors
OK
Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism Mass Market Paperback – July 1, 1984
Katherine Ketcham
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
-
Print length256 pages
-
LanguageEnglish
-
PublisherBantam
-
Publication dateJuly 1, 1984
-
Dimensions4.14 x 0.67 x 6.88 inches
-
ISBN-100553274872
-
ISBN-13978-0553274875
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Download to your computer
|
Kindle Cloud Reader
|
Frequently bought together
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
- Beyond the Influence: Understanding and Defeating AlcoholismPaperback
- Alcohol ExplainedPaperback
- This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your LifePaperback
- Alcohol Lied to Me: The Intelligent Way to Escape Alcohol AddictionPaperback
- 10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop!: What You Really Need to Know When Your Loved One Drinks Too Much (1)Paperback
- Living SoberAlcoholics AnonymousPaperback
More items to explore
- Alcohol ExplainedPaperback
- Living SoberAlcoholics AnonymousPaperback
- Alcohol Lied to Me: The Intelligent Way to Escape Alcohol AddictionPaperback
- Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-DeceptionAbraham J Twerski M.D.Paperback
- The Alcohol Experiment: Expanded Edition: A 30-Day, Alcohol-Free Challenge To Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take ControlPaperback
- The Alcoholic / Addict Within: Our Brain, Genetics, Psychology and the Twelve Steps as PsychotherapyPaperback
Special offers and product promotions
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A landmark . . . A must for anyone concerned about drinking."—Alcoholism, Journal of the American Medical Society on Alcoholism and the Research Society on Alcoholism
"Vital, simple, world-changing information."—Co-Evolution Quarterly
"Under The Influence will advance by light years the understanding of alcoholism and the recovery process."—Mel Schulstad, Cofounder, National Association of Alcoholism Counselors
From the Publisher
How to tell if someone you know is an alcoholic.
The progressive stages of alcoholism.
How to get an alcoholic into treatment -- and how to choose a treatment program.
Why frequently prescribed drugs can be dangerous -- even fatal -- for alcoholics.
How to ensure a lasting recovery.
"Vital, simple, world-changing information." -- Co-Evolution Quarterly
"Under The Influence will advance by light years the understanding of alcoholism and the recovery process." -- Mel Schulstad, Cofounder, National Association of Alcoholism Counselors
From the Inside Flap
How to tell if someone you know is an alcoholic.
The progressive stages of alcoholism.
How to get an alcoholic into treatment -- and how to choose a treatment program.
Why frequently prescribed drugs can be dangerous -- even fatal -- for alcoholics.
How to ensure a lasting recovery.
From the Back Cover
How to tell if someone you know is an alcoholic.
The progressive stages of alcoholism.
How to get an alcoholic into treatment -- and how to choose a treatment program.
Why frequently prescribed drugs can be dangerous -- even fatal -- for alcoholics.
How to ensure a lasting recovery.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Every Human Soul
Every human soul is worth saving; but … if a choice is to be made, drunkards are about the last class to be taken hold of.
From “Drunkenness a Vice, Not a Disease,”
by J. E. Todd, 1882
Bob is 26 years old and a talented song writer. He says he drinks heavily for any number of reasons—when he is depressed because his work is not progressing well, elated because he finished a song, frightened about his future, or concerned about his financial problems.
When he drinks, he has problems. His car is scarred with dents and scratches from his erratic driving. He sometimes “forgets” what he did while he was drinking, and the next day he tries to piece together the night before. On one drunk, he broke his leg jumping over a fence. His wife takes a lot of abuse when Bob drinks. He hasn’t hurt her badly, just slapped her around some. After a New Year’s Eve party, Bob was driving, drunk, and his wife asked him to let her drive. Furious, he stopped the car, leaned across her, opened the door, and pushed her out. Then he sped away, leaving her stranded on the highway.
After these episodes, Bob feels guilty and ashamed and vows to cut back on his drinking. He begs his wife’s forgiveness, and together they try to understand what bothers him when he is drinking and why he cannot just stop after a few drinks. Bob thinks the problem is psychological. He tells his wife that his career is difficult and demanding; the ups are euphoric, he explains, but the downs are devastating. Anyone would drink in this work, he tells her; it just comes with the territory. His wife blames the heavy drinking and violent behavior on his upbringing. His mother was a big drinker and set a bad example; furthermore, she never gave her kids any love or affection. Bob is just insecure, his wife insists. He needs understanding and tender loving care. She knows that he is a sensitive, loving man, and she believes she can be most helpful by supporting and helping him through the rough times.
Both Bob and his wife believe the drinking is just a symptom of some deep insecurity or emotional hangup. Once Bob becomes successful and their financial situation is secure, they believe he will have the confidence to work his problems out more rationally. “It is just a temporary problem,” they agree.
Bob is an alcoholic. His wife, doctor, friends, and relatives do not know that he is addicted to alcohol. He does not know it either, although he is often afraid that something terrible is happening to him. He worries that he may have some kind of mental problem, although he struggles with these fears by himself, convinced that once he admits them they will be confirmed. He is deeply ashamed of himself and full of guilt about his inability to control his drinking and keep his promises to his wife.
What will happen to Bob? If he is like most of the 10 million alcoholics in the United States,* his children will be ashamed of him, his friends will shun him, his doctors will despair of helping him, and his wife will finally leave him. His personality will be gradually distorted, his talents and intelligence wasted, and his integrity and self-respect eroded. He will take tranquilizers and sedatives in an effort to combat his depression and anxiety. He will switch doctors, hoping to find one who can tell him what is wrong. He will see a psychiatrist and spend countless hours and thousands of dollars trying to dig up the roots of his unhappiness. He will be reprimanded by his boss, and eventually he will be fired.
Throughout it all, he will drink. He will try to stop drinking, and sometimes he will succeed. But after a week or a month, he will start again. He will shake, sweat, and feel sick to his stomach when he stops drinking. As he continues to drink, these withdrawal symptoms will get worse, and he will drink more, and more often, to relieve his pain.
As his disease progresses, his blood pressure will escalate, and his depression will increase. The drinking will not stop but instead will become more and more of a problem, causing difficulties at home, on the job, with the children. His heart, liver, and nervous system will begin to function less effectively. He will be hospitalized from time to time for various complications caused by his excessive drinking.
He will have numerous accidents—falling down the stairs or off a ladder, driving his car into a tree, overdosing on sleeping pills or tranquilizers—and one of these accidents may kill him. He may commit suicide. Or he may eventually die from “acute alcohol poisoning,” cirrhosis of the liver, heart or respiratory failure, pneumonia, or infection.
Most alcoholics will die 10 to 12 years earlier than their nonalcoholic friends. Most will never receive treatment for their primary disease of alcoholism. Their death certificates will typically state “heart failure,” “accident victim,” “suicide,” or “respiratory failure” as the cause of death. The chances are that no one—physician, social worker, family member, or alcoholic—will diagnose the cause of the problem as addiction to alcohol.
While thousands of alcoholics like Bob die every year, scientists, physicians, and professional alcoholism specialists argue endlessly about the nature of the disease that destroys them. The people involved in trying to understand alcoholism—and that includes psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, nutritionists, biologists, neurophysiologists, biochemists, anthropologists, and sociologists—are sunk in a morass of conflict and confusion, admitting to prejudiced opinion, self-interest, and a deep distrust of others in the field. These professionals cannot agree about the causes of the disease, how it should be treated, or how it can be prevented.
The problem is deeper than a superficial disagreement among scholars. Violent feeling lurks here. Hatred, distrust, and prejudices abound. Profound insecurities and long-standing feuds smolder. Each scientist or research team appears to be working in a narrow compartment, oblivious of work conducted by others outside their special field. Scientists in the laboratory accuse the clinicians, who work directly with alcoholics, of ignoring scientific data and conforming to old-fashioned and out-dated treatment methods. Clinicians accuse the scientists of dismissing all first-hand experiences with alcoholics as “nonscientific” and therefore invalid. Government administrators chide the scientists for their “intellectual arrogance,” while the scientists accuse the bureaucrats of pandering to fads and special interests. Psychiatrists fret about being displaced from their positions as primary therapists and treatment personnel by a new wave of paraprofessionals specifically trained in alcoholism diagnosis and treatment.
These deep and painful schisms were dramatized at a recent conference which brought together eminent researchers and clinicians to discuss research priorities on alcohol.1 The research priorities were put on the back burner, however, while the professionals spent three days attempting to sort out the confusions, hostilities, and deep divisions which plague the field. As one participant summarized the situation:
. . this topic is one of deep, immediate emotional cleavages fashioned through generations by a variety of traditional beliefs of moral, political, religious, educational, social class and other systems—cleavages which are carried by researchers and everybody else whether they like it or not.
Quite apart from what general publics may think about alcohol researchers, it is hard to be unaware that representatives of one research discipline frequently feel that other disciplines dealing with alcohol-man-and-society are somewhat stupid on this topic.
Another prestigious researcher compared the alcoholism field to a chaotic collage created by children:
[The field of alcoholism] reminds me of a large wall mural in a classroom, upon which the children worked for several years.… The mural did not have any central or unifying themes, save that it presented the opportunity for many contributors to add their personal ideograph.
Because of their confessed prejudices and self-interest, it should come as no surprise that these professionals are unable to pull the field out of its morass and invest it with new enthusiasm and energy. They have ceased to be part of the solution to the problem and instead have become part of the problem. “Clearly the current generation of alcohol researchers is too far gone,” a participant concluded, “too steeped in our own disciplinary affiliations to be of much use; our shackles have become comfortable.”
Product details
- Publisher : Bantam; Reissue edition (July 1, 1984)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0553274872
- ISBN-13 : 978-0553274875
- Item Weight : 4.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.14 x 0.67 x 6.88 inches
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#31,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #131 in Alcoholism Recovery
- #430 in Occult & Paranormal
- #1,428 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
And I also really appreciated the section on tranquilizers and sedatives and the potential devastating effects they can have on an individual if combined with alcohol. I know that to be true on a very personal level. However, even now, thirty years after this book was published, most general family practitioners seem completely ignorant on alcoholism. I've been to see doctors, complaining of insomnia and anxiety, and they seemed very unconcerned with my alcohol intake and were eager to write me a prescription for a sedative and send me on my way. Then I went to see a psychiatrist and told him about my overwhelming anxiety and said I was drinking heavily to cope. He told me to "try to cut down on the drinking", then gave me some very powerful benzos to take "as needed". After reading this book I now realize how incredibly negligent these doctors were!
If you are an alcoholic, the one most important thing to take away from this book is that booze isn't helping you cope, it is in fact making it more and more impossible to cope. Your only chance for freedom is abstinence. This book provides a good, solid plan for recognizing your problem, understanding your condition and getting help. I highly recommend it. Of course, most people who are in the later stages of alcoholism usually are not capable of reading books so I would also recommend this to anyone close to someone in that situation as a means to understand what they are going through and what you can do to help.
Would also recommend reading Sugar Blues by William Dufty. I
This book is available for free reading/download ... just do a search. Dufty's book may be as well....
Always, always check online for free downloads on books that are no longer copyrighted... They are often available.
I can't believe the information in this book isn't being widely publicized and utilized in treatment centers, etc. The information in this book, finally, explains exactly why the alcoholic drinker reacts differently to alcohol than other drinkers. It finally puts to rest the questions and confusion and really helped me understand that it is not at all an issue of morals, determination or will-power, but an actual metabolic difference. So simple - yet so incredibly enlightening.
Again - if you or someone you know has a drinking problem, this book is invaluable in understanding what's happening inside the body of the alcoholic. This is a MUST READ for anyone affected by alcoholism.
highly recommended for anyone
Top reviews from other countries

This book can genuinely change your life!




What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
There's a problem loading this menu right now.