It's a particularly great time of year to gather with friends and celebrate, for those of us in the Northeast especially, the all-too-short Summer. And I have to admit to looking forward to a glass of wine or shot of Don Julio (chilled with lots of lime) on such occasions. But I've also cut back on my consumption because of the research on the health hazards of alcohol especially in contributing to diseases like cancer. Never mind the other risks.
The real wake-up call for me was the death of a friend and the diagnosis of another with stage 4 cancer, all within a year and both exactly my age. I guess I told myself all my life that it wouldn't happen to me or I didn't have to worry about it until I was older. And suddenly that time was here.
But I had been thinking about the prevalence of substances in our culture even before that, by witnessing my kids and their friends grow up and realizing that drinking and drugs have become a rite of passage at earlier and earlier ages (12 years old now) and the substances have ramped up considerably even between the time of my older son and younger son's high school days (10 years apart). And you only have to look at social media and the number of images celebrating drinking in all of our lives, to realize that we are fully entrenched in a society where altering reality is aspirational. Alcohol and drugs of all kinds (including coffee)-- we're up, we're down and everything in between.
Small wonder we feel we need to release that pressure valve of high expectations and uncertainty (sprinkled with a little boredom) that have become a part of our daily existence. And then there's the news. We never know from day to day whether or not we're even safe in our own communities or when our retirement account might dissolve in an afternoon. It's a lot to live with. And we all know that anxiety and depression are at record high levels because of all of it.
I worry about young people and especially the next generations of kids. Vaping seems to be the thing now, most using it for cannabis but even many of the flavored options contain nicotine-- after all we did to stop the cigarette industry from winning over our children. If it starts earlier and earlier, the substances get more and more varied, potent and lethal and access becomes easier what will our children's children's society look like? And how are we, as parents and role models perpetrating the myth of happiness through escapism? Is it even possible to change course now?
I get it. We inherited the integration of at least alcohol into our lives from our parents and it has become a part of the release mechanisms we use to shift from the stressful reality of everyday life to a mode of relaxation. And what's so wrong with having a drink or two with friends after work and on the weekends? From my experience, it has become an almost daily occurrence rather than an occasional indulgence and excess has become the new normal. That's what's wrong.
And when does consumption of substances spill over into the category of addiction? Perish the thought. If asked, most of us would say we aren't addicted. Unless we've experienced some sort of consequences from alcohol or drug-use like car accidents, blackouts or some sort of run-in with the law it's hardly a cause for concern. I never admitted to being an addict, even though I drank at least a glass of wine or smoked a little weed daily. For many people it's probably one of the things we most look forward to. Right?
The American Society of Addiction Medicine explains, "Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.
Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response."
According to my research, No one is born an addict. There are genetic factors that influence addiction and they are identifying more and more individual genes that can impact your response to specific substances with the help of animal models, especially mice. Because the reward pathway—and many of the genes that underlie it—functions in much the same way in mice as it does in people, mice are leading the way in identifying addiction genes. This will eventually create more targeted treatments. But they also have found that some people with these gene mutations never express addiction in their behavior. And even without the genetic predisposition, many become excessive purely from social pressure.
We know from all of the advancements in the field of genetics that heredity is only part of whether or not diseases manifest themselves in individuals. Environment is a huge influencing factor in addiction, just like in any other disease. Like colon cancer for instance. You might carry the gene/s for the predisposition to get colon cancer, but it might not ever emerge depending on all of the external factors of your life (location, culture, experiences,etc.).
From everything I'm learning, stress is a key factor in addiction and stress management for this and other reasons is imperative. When we experience stress on a daily basis, the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight response) is triggered and our bodies are flooded with toxic stress hormones-- adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol-- we literally get hyped-up to protect ourselves from danger. Not surprisingly, we reach for a drink or a drug to counteract our bodily response to stress. But there are other, much healthier ways to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system which hormones (especially acetylcholine) slow the heart rate, relax the muscles and trigger a sense of calm. A sense of balance between these two parts of the autonomic nervous system are critical to our health and wellbeing.
Check back in on Sunday when I will discuss environmental triggers of addictive behavior and some strategies to interrupt the stress syndrome and instead tap into other ways of balancing with the parasympathetic nervous system besides medicating ourselves. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to better understand this. And to ourselves in staying healthy and realizing our full potential. It's High Time to consider the role of substances as you Mind Your Body to live your best life.
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