Alcoholism: It's a Brain Disease!
A reader describes repeatedly waking up in distress after drinking, experiencing anxiety and self-loathing, yet unable to stop drinking the next night. They ask why this pain isn't enough to prevent relapse.
Answered by Jennifer Hamilton, LCSW, CADC
Question
Most nights I wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning. I feel really anxious and shitty and my mouth feels like Velcro. Sometimes I am in my bed next to my wife still in my work clothes and sometimes I am on the couch or on the floor.
Every night I go through this same painful realization about the booze I drank last night and I try to piece together what I did and I feel such self-loathing it’s hard to explain. It hurts so much. It is the worst feeling I know.
Why isn’t this enough to keep me from getting drunk again the next night? I hate myself. I do not understand.
It is truly a neurological (brain) disease. Your brain needs alcohol like it needs food or water when you have alcoholism. You cannot reason with it, it just wants what it wants.
You may need outside help with detox or an in-patient program to get to a point of abstinence. Each day you are abstinent, it gets easier to remain abstinent after the withdrawal period. The alcohol puts the part of your brain that makes decisions to sleep. This leaves the automatic parts to drive your behavior.
ASK FOR HELP! Research and find a professional in your area to help you. You deserve a life of recovery.
It is better on the other side.
About the Expert
Jennifer Hamilton
LCSW, CADC
Owensboro, United States of America
Specialties
Testing/Assessment, Anxiety or Fears, Child or Adolescent Issues, Divorce, Trauma and PTSD, Personality Disorders, OCD, Addiction or Substance Abuse, Mood Disorders, Parenting, Compulsive Disorders, Other, Spirituality, Chronic Pain or Illness, ADHD, Impulse Control Disorders, Relationship Issues, Women, Thinking Disorders, Depression, Finding Your Purpose in Life
License
my_license #0946