Alcohol as medication?

[Tipplerette]

Alcohol as medication?

I would be hesitant to agree on this forum that alcohol is a realistic antedote for pain. I understand the idea of handing a nervous person a drink to calm his or her nerves or in the wilderness getting someone drunk before a painful, rudimentary treatment is undertaken in an isolated situation. We are problem drinkers. We can't hop on board in using alcohol to dull pain as it is just another excuse to drink. I think that's the difference between our rationale here and maybe the general public's opinion.

[liveordie]

Alcohol as medication?

Hi folks,
Only my third post on this forum, but this thread caught my eye, and I felt compelled to reply.
Alcohol has been the best antidepressant/mood stabilizer I have taken. For ten years, I felt pretty good, and got a whole lot of stuff done. I felt better through most of that 1/4th of my life, than the rest.
Please, sit back down, don't kill me with fire yet. There is a big, hairy "But" waiting around the corner.
I have ridden a roller-coaster of nightmare scenarios, mostly trying to get off the prescribed psych meds thrown at me. "Pin the tail on the patient", if you will. Or, my favorite doctor spoken line "Most of our patients seem to tolerate this fairly well"
Direct translation, "I honestly want to help, but have NO clue what this pill will do to your mind. I hope you don't go home and eat your .45 for lunch. Good luck, Mr. Patient. I just got an all expense paid golf trip to Florida from the drug manufacturer, for meeting my prescription quota. Please see the nurse on the way out." OK, so that's more than a little cynical, but I don't feel I am that far off from the truth, as it relates to me.
Here's the "But". My magic bullet isn't working anymore, and has turned on me. This one took ten years, as opposed to the AD meds, which never helped for more than a month or two, before I had to go through the hell of getting off of them.
If they had a pill, or drink, that truly replicated alcohol, I'd be in business. (Star Trek "Synthehol")
Unfortunately, this isn't reality.
I can tell you that the bone spurs on my spine hurt just as bad drunk as sober. I have not noticed any true analgesic effects from alcohol.
The benefits for me were mental. It slowed my racing mind, and kept it from jumping tracks. It made my mood happy, and motivated me to complete projects. I was almost always fun to be around.
In the last 2 years, this has finally failed me, and I am actively tapering off the beer as I type this.
I fear the damage I may have done, but I wonder if I would have checked myself out in that ten years, had I continued playing Russian Roulette with AD meds, and never took a drink.
I'll never know, for sure.
As for the "Gateway drug" theory, as it pertains to Marijuana, I don't buy it.
I was desperately unhappy as a small boy, and I never knew why. It was the 70's, and mental illness just wasn't on the radar yet, so nobody thought there was anything wrong.
I tested "Gifted" on every pre-entry school test, but failed miserably at school. I didn't fit with the other kids. I always felt like there was "Me", and "All those normal people". I wanted to be like them.
The first drug I tried was cigarettes, followed by Copenhagen, followed by alcohol, and then when I was 13, marijuana.
I have picked up and dropped smoking marijuana 5 or 6 times in my life, and, with the exception of one stretch where I used it heavily, every single day for two years, have never had the slightest problem putting it down, and forgetting about it.
You mileage may well vary on that one.
My point on that, as it applies to myself only, is that I was in such emotional/mental pain, that I sought a remedy.
The whole marijuana gateway drug theory relies on a bunch of Henry J. Anslinger garbage from 80 years ago, perpetuated by Richard Nixon, and fed to all of us on a spoon.
According to the US government, "Marijuana is a schedule one drug, with no recognized medical use".
I am not generally a conspiracy nut, but some of you may find this interesting.
The US government owns the patent on medical marijuana:
United States Patent: 6630507
Not only that, they recently granted the rights to a company in New York, to develop it into a marketable drug. Oh, guess who retained the royalty right to this wonder drug? Yup, the US government.
"No medical value" "Gateway drug". Right.
Sorry for the rant, I should probably shut up, and wait until I have a few alcohol free days under my belt, but I just wanted to share part of my experience with alcohol as a medicine. The gateway reference to marijuana set me off on a tangent.
Take care folks, thanks for being here!

[Colin]

Alcohol as medication?

I have found and I know other people who have also found alcohol to be very effective with toothache.

liveordie's conspiracy theory might look good but another reason for the government holding the patent might simply be to prevent a drug cartel/company from establishing "ownership". Thanks anyway for the stimulus for me to look at cannabis and nerve pain. I will certainly consider using cannabis to help my neuropathy.

[tree23]

Alcohol as medication?

Alcohol is actually more harmful to the body than say for instance heroine (we produce endorphins), because our bodies produce no chemicals that are even closely related to alcohol. Alcohol can cause nerve damage and can even cause bones to die. When using alcohol to "treat" or "manage" nerve damage or pain, the person is actually aggravating the issue (I should know, I had two severely herniated disks with annular tears last Nov and I used alcohol as one of my coping mechanisms). I am a psych student and part of my schooling has been on substance abuse and I know quite a few substance abuse counselors (personally as friends, they don't know about me). Alcohol just masks pain, and depending on how severe the pain is and how much one must consume to have the illusion of relief, drinking alcohol can actually lead to further injury either from accidents due to faulty judgements and equilibrium but also the damage it does to the body by leeching needed nutrients, harming the liver, etc.

[paulywogg]

Alcohol as medication?

i use alcohol for menstrual cramps,it worx!