The Editor’s Desk: March 3, 2008:

Addiction knows no social or geographic boundaries: what John Cheever called “The Sorrows of Gin” are democratic in their destructiveness. I know few people who have not been affected in some way by addiction—in the world where I grew up, the drug of choice was usually alcohol, with a large side of nicotine—and I suspect the same is true for many of you.

It has long been unfashionable to think of addiction as a failure of character or of willpower. More than 50 years ago, in 1956, the American Medical Association recognized addiction as a disease, and we now speak of it in the vernacular of treatment and therapy. But only recently have scientists started making progress in understanding, and possibly treating, the underlying biological factors. When we began hearing about new advances in the search for pharmaceutical solutions for common addictions, we were curious. If addiction is in fact a disease, then could it be treated in the way, say, diabetes is with insulin?

The hunt for vaccines is not a quest for a cure-all—addiction is a chronic disease; like the conflict in the Middle East, it is something that can only be managed, not solved—but there is important work underway that may produce some pharmaceutical weapons in the struggle against addiction. In an essay, Mitchell Rosenthal, who founded Phoenix House, the national drug and alcohol treatment and prevention organization, notes that vaccines could well help, but are not magic bullets. As in cases of depression, pharmaceuticals work best in combination with other kinds of therapies. A change of heart, of mind or of spirit can be critical in the treatment of addiction; biology surely shapes us, but need not totally control us.

History has been unkind to hopes for a medicinal solution to addiction: opium and cocaine were introduced to the United States as cures for alcoholism in the late 1800s. Still, the National Institute on Drug Abuse is developing or testing more than 200 compounds that block the intoxicating effects of drugs, including vaccines that train the body’s own immune system to bar them from the brain.

Seattle Times: Getting it right on addiction

The American Medical Association first recognized addiction as a disease in 1956. But the medical community has only recently seen it as a “chronic, relapsing brain disorder,” according to this week’s Newsweek magazine, which put addiction on the cover.

Among the findings: The addict’s brain is malfunctioning, like the pancreas of someone with diabetes.

At the SAMA luncheon, keynote speaker Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, compared a drug relapse to type 1 diabetes, hypertension or asthma. It simply must be treated like the illness that it is.

“Once it settles in,” Volkow said of addiction, “the consequences can be long-lasting.”

Seattle P-I: The intersection of science, the brain and addiction

Addiction is often a difficult, chronic and confusing condition that can tear families apart.

There is a push on the federal level and in Seattle to inject more science into treating the disease, which is being linked to dysfunctions in the brain.

On Thursday, Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse, visited Seattle to talk about the intersection of science, the brain and addiction at a luncheon sponsored by the Science and Management of Addictions Foundation of Seattle.

The research psychiatrist spent a few minutes with the Seattle P-I before taking the stage.

If you had one minute to convince someone why addiction is an illness, and not some sort of messy weakness or behavioral problem, what would you say?

“Now that we have the technologies to actually take pictures (of) the chemistry and function of the brain we are able to identify the specific changes in chemistry and function in people who are addicted.

“These are areas that normally allow you to control your behaviors and your desires and emotions.

“And the disease addiction is one that results because there is dysfunction of these areas that normally in you and me allows us to control not doing something because it would be harmful…

“We are also (working) …to teach people to activate their frontal cortex, which is what allows you to put the brakes on your desire.”

“(A)n idea that is not very popular these days — at least not in the United States, is an almost collective yearning for complete happiness. That idea is this: A person can only become a fully formed human being, as opposed to a mere mind, through suffering and sorrow. This notion would seem quite strange, possibly even deranged, in a country in which almost 85% of the population claims, according to the Pew Research Center, to be “very happy” or at least “happy.”

Indeed, in light of our recent craze for positive psychology — a brand of psychotherapy designed not so much to heal mental illness as to increase happiness — as well as in light of our increasing reliance on pills that reduce sadness, anxiety and fear, we are likely to challenge Keats’ meditation outright, to condemn it as a dangerous and dated affront to the modern American dream.

But does the American addiction to happiness make any sense, especially in light of the poverty, ecological disaster and war that now haunt the globe, daily annihilating hundreds if not thousands? Isn’t it, in fact, a recipe for delusion?

And aren’t we merely trying to slice away what is most probably an essential part of our hearts, that part that can reconcile us to facts, no matter how harsh, and that also can inspire us to imagine new and more creative ways to engage with the world? Bereft of this integral element of our selves, we settle for a status quo. We yearn for comfort at any cost. We covet a good night’s sleep. We trade fortitude for blandness. “

Read more from the LA Times … http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-wilson17feb17,0,5045522.story

Related book: “Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy.”

I read this a while back and it fascinated me. I was mildly attracted to the idea, knowing I needed serious help at the time. Anyhow, I’ll branch out from NYT clips here soon. This is still really interesting …

“Delray Beach is in a class by itself, experts say, because of its compact geography and critical mass of recovering addicts who cross paths daily in the shops and bistros along Atlantic Avenue. They fly beneath the radar of tourists oblivious to telltale signs of addiction, like unapologetic chain smoking. But they see one another everywhere.” –Read more here.

(I’m considering a move back to YVR in the sort-of distant future. Goal? Work with addicts and poor people on the Downtown Eastside either here or here. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. But instead of making it happen, I got drunk and felt sorry for myself while assuming “hipster” armor at Linda’s.

Hey there, hipster. Vancouver’s (perhaps Cascadia’s?!) best band, Black Mountain (LISTEN TO THEM NOW) is working at InSite, according to the new issue of Magnet. Right on. (Full disclosure: I have a crush on Steve McBean.)

…

Where was I? Anyhow, the article of note:

“By her second week at the Salvation Army’s Harbour Light detox centre, Darlene Rowley had enough strength to keep her eyelids open, walk without shuffling and speak without straining for each word.

It was a vast improvement over her first week in the Downtown Eastside detox facility, when every movement seemed a struggle for the engaging woman.

Rowley, 43, has been addicted to drugs on and off for many years. She’s hoping to get straight this time.

“I’ve reached bottom. I’ve been through drug psychosis — I have thought that people wanted to kill me.”

But the odds are likely stacked against her. Again. Stan Karbowiak, a social worker who is Harbour Light’s acting human resources administrator, has compiled statistics showing that across B.C., only 30 per cent of detox/recovery beds are available to women.”

Read the article here:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=9a911966-9504-4978-97c9-5721b5baaff8&k=60774