Perspective, Biology, and Purpose in the Treatment of Alcoholism

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

Personal Experience

The above picture may not be you, but it could be you later in life. I have seen the extremes of alcoholism in the end stages. When I saw this photograph, my heart sank and my nerves tensed. I have seen coworkers, friends, and my own mother in states similar to this photo. Long term alcohol abuse will wreak havoc on every aspect of your being.

Do you want to deteriorate and have your loved ones watch you die?

That was the path my mother chose.

If you are an alcoholic, or you know one, there is hope. I was once a practicing alcoholic, and I learned how to drink heavily from someone who chose death in the end.

But I healed…

Introduction

So, you are an alcoholic…

Alcoholism can cause many problems in your life, but we can separate these problems into three broad categories.

First, a bipolar existence manifests itself as joy in the intoxicated state, and bitterness mixed with self-disgust in the sober state.

Second, biological changes take place: brain chemistry is negatively altered, and there is damage done to internal organs.

Third, the primary purpose of your life is intoxication.

Therefore, treating alcoholism requires three domains of treatment:

One: shifting perspective.

Two: healing biologically.

Three: finding a new purpose in life.

To address the perspective shift, you will consume psilocybin mushrooms. To address biological healing, you will engage in regular, intense exercise. To address purpose in life, you will explore your deepest interests to find an aim in life.

A side note, there is mention of spiritual experience within this essay, but whether or not you are religious or spiritual does not matter for this application. You can view the spiritual realm as the subjective, abstract higher level of human existence that you seek to grasp and harness for the betterment of yourself and others. (I am not a religious man).

By addressing three domains of existence: perspective, biology, and purpose, my essay sets out to provide guidance and steps for overcoming alcoholism.

Psilocybin and Perspective Shift

The three reasons for consuming psilocybin are to

acutely alter brain activity,

engage in the psychedelic experience, and

seek out the profound, spiritual experience.

First, consuming psilocybin will change your brain function in a way that elicits a strange state of consciousness. In a review of a brain study done in 2012 using fMRI by Carhart-Harris et al., you can see that psilocybin decreases overall brain activity; specifically in brain areas associated with executive brain function.

There are two points derived from Carhart-Harris et al. data: this change in brain activity allows the mind to be set free from objective constraints and contributes to the psychedelic experience.

Other contributing mechanisms in the psychedelic experience include a substantial release of serotonin into the brain and changes in brain wave activity as measured by EEG (Kometer, Pokorny, Seifritz, Volleinweider, 2015).

Second, consuming psilocybin evokes the psychedelic experience. The psychedelic experience will slow down your perception of the world, relax executive function, and shed new light on existing thoughts and emotions.

Third, upon taking an adequate dose, you will experience a profound state of being: the spiritual experience. It is the spiritual experience that sheds new light on existing thoughts and emotions. It also offers inspiration, insight, deep introspection, and comprehensive confrontation with the self. It is the spiritual experience that elicits powerful, lasting change in perspective and ideas.

For example, cancer patients are often plagued by depression and anxiety, but after taking a single sufficient dose of psilocybin, they report long-lasting increases in quality of life and decreases in measures of depression and anxiety (Griffiths et al., 2016).

Taking psilocybin is intense, and requires diligent research and education before consumption.

As a starting point, visit https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/ for a comprehensive list of educational categories, and guidance into the psychedelic culture. Consult your doctor before consuming psilocybin. If you decide to go ahead with this treatment, have someone with you as a guide, choose a comfortable, safe place, and go into the experience with an open mind.