Self-Knowledge And Substances – How Personal Truth Is Essential For Recovery From Alcohol
Alcoholism, after experiencing a brief dip as we began to get to grips with the science behind alcohol, is resurging with a vengeance [1] in the modern world. Nobody is entirely sure why this is. Some attribute it to the growing stresses and pressures [2] of life today. Some blame a ‘drinking culture’ which has got out of hand. But others see a place for a generalized lack of self-knowledge, of pressure to be what we are not, and of a loss of spirituality within the factorial equation.
Modern Pressures
The modern world is one of incredible pressures upon personal identity. That is the way that capitalism works. For the system to survive, it must sell us an ‘ideal’ self – someone with the ‘right’ car, the ‘right’ job, even the ‘right’ face. Various identities and ‘subcultures’ are packaged and commodified – and sold on to us through techniques which make us believe that we need certain items to more fully be the person society wants us to be. In fact, the truth of each individual is that nobody fits nicely into a societal box. The niggling knowledge that one’s real identity can never fully match the one presented to us as something to aspire to can cause deep psychological conflict, and severe stress. Stress of this kind, combined with related pressures to achieve, earn and so on, can all too often drive one to drink [3]. However, when one tries to seek treatment for alcoholism, the pressure of an enforced identity remains. One is not a human with alcohol issues, one is an ‘alcoholic’, and one must recover from one’s alcoholism in a rigidly regimented manner. To lapse, or to fail in any way to keep total abstinence from alcohol marks one out as a shameful failure. This image and treatment ethic persists, despite studies and even recommendations showing that it is often more helpful, and far more successful, to work towards reducing rather than completely eradicating alcohol intake.
Self-Forgiveness
Why is gradual reduction often more successful for recovering alcoholics than immediate enforced abstinence? Quite simply because it reduces the amount of blame and guilt felt by the alcoholic. Blame, shame, and guilt are often integral factors to a person’s alcoholism, both feeding and feeding off the condition. A person feels guilty for drinking, which lowers their self-confidence and makes them stressed, which encourages them to drink – a vicious cycle. Enforcing abstinence means that any (almost inevitable) relapse is met with enhanced guilt – which only encourages more relapse. Gradual reduction encourages the alcoholic to learn to forgive themselves when they do relapse, which in turn builds up their confidence and empowers them to play an active psychological role in their own recovery. It also lets the alcoholic respond to treatment and in a more individualized way, which suits their own identity. Which is where spirituality personal truth come in.
Personal Truth
As mentioned, one of the triggers of alcoholism may well be pressure to squeeze into an identity which does not really ‘fit’, and a subsequent lack of self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is a crucial facet of any spiritual path. Self-knowledge and an understanding of one’s own truth is the best armour one can apply against the stresses and strains of the modern world. It prevents one from being pulled this way and that by the demands of conflicting identities, and lets one walk one’s own path without compromising one’s personal integrity. Organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous try hard to transform an alcoholic’s sense of identity through semi-spiritual means, but their ideas of ‘alcoholic’ and ‘non-alcoholic’ identity [4] are still, in many ways, fairly binary. Their method of calling upon a Higher Power to aid the alcoholic may, however, do a lot of good. The idea that a Higher Power finds one worthy takes the burden of personal forgiveness off someone who is not able to psychologically process it, and transfers all the benefits of personal forgiveness to an almighty and powerful loving force. This allows the individual to feel loved and forgiven, to feel worthy, which in turn encourages them to develop the capacity for self-love and forgiveness. This self-love, however, can only really come about if one has self-knowledge – and that cannot be achieved while we hanker after the false identities society wishes to bestow upon us.
[1] Laura Donnelly, “Huge rise in numbers treated for alcoholism”, The Telegraph, May 2013
[2] BBC, “Modern life ’causes major stress’”, Apr 2007
[3] Kathleen T Brady, Susan C Sonne, “The role of stress in alcohol use, treatment, and relapse”, American Psychological Association, 1999
[4] Carole Can, “Personal Stories: Identity Acquisition and Self-Understanding in Alcoholics Anyonymous”, Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, 2009