On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 17:21:14 +1000, "Robert McGregor"
<robert_mcgregor@knickers.yahoo.com.au> wrote:

<snip>

(Sorry for the snip if you're just finding this thread.. just google
the topic and you can read the rest...)

As for the issue of "you surely can't be working every day" mentioned
above, I will assure you that for self-employed folks it's quite
possible to work every day - and to NEED to work every day. Personally
I commonly work about 70 hours a week. So far my work has been
impacted only slightly by my drinking, but there's no doubt I could
be more productive with an outlook unhampered by alcohol or its
withdrawal, and the trend is such that eventually it's gonna kill my
productivity.

Thanks for the info - I was pretty surprised by having AWS at all. I
was a heavy drinker in college till I graduated, had a family, and was
more focused on raising my son and being productive than partying. I
quit without incident 18 years ago.

This latest crisis started with my mid-life crisis. My tolerance and
love for being drunk started escalating pretty quickly. I want to
stop, and am using the Rational Recovery philosophy. Not that I
disrespect AA - I've known tons of alcoholics who have had very good
outcomes, and are decent people.

The basic fact is I want to quit, but for the first time had major
problems when I just stopped. Being a net savvy dude I googled AWS and
read some friggin horrible things, and called Hazelden (which I
separate from AA, since Bill W. had no intention of building a
lucrative medical empire) which told me I would die unless I paid them
a lot of money.

The crux of my question is whether the actual mechanism of AWS is
understood, and could therefore be alleviated by either herbal or
prescription drugs. The reference I'm using atm is
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20040315/1443.html which outlines things
pretty clinically, but gives little guidance on treatment.

I've now realized that this is a group for Alcoholics Anonymous, but I
was hoping that there might be some medical folks browsing here who
could offer tips.

How odd that alcohol can have such a profound impact on mental and
emotional state. It's so easy to see how folks become dependant - but
it's pretty inefficient, since you trade a few hours of sociability
and relaxation for a following day of diminished capacity and fear.

(Whatever your reaction to my questions above, an interesting
mind-game is contained in Larry Niven's writings, where he posits a
future invention called "The Wire", which taps directly into the
pleasure center of the brain. After a couple of generations,
"wireheads" weed themselves out of the gene pool, content to starve to
death in ecstasy. There are then no more addicts of any kind.)

Thanks for any constructive info - and my thoughts and prayers are
with all of you as you work out your lives without alcohol.

HD