Alcoholics never choose to stop
drinking. They think they do. But they don't.
As your orexin cells cease functioning,
it becomes harder and harder to metabolize alcohol.
And it's not as pleasant. And you
drink less. And you feel righteous. And you think about quitting drinking. You may even say
you did. You may even think you really did.
But there's always that One Last Binge
after all your orexin cells are gone...
At the same time your orexin cell loss
is shutting down your metabolism, it's causing all kinds of havoc in
your social interactions. Spouse, work, kids- all become too much
to handle. Finally something predictably awful happens and your
amygdala freaks out and you just need to drown it. You run to your
familiar friend and it's special magic. Only it doesn't work. So
you drink some more just to be sure.
And then you feel like you're going
to die.
You get so mindbendingly sick you swear
you'll do anything to make the pain go away. You'll never drink
again.
But the fact is- you can't. You can't
even think about drinking alcohol after that. Just the idea causes
psychic distress.
You do “learn your lesson”. But you
shouldn't take credit for it.
You can't not learn that lesson.
It is operant conditioning at the
brainstem level.
