The story from The Windsor Star --> http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=bb9fc1bc-992e-4a8a-bd4d-86b17d9b0897

That's great! These little articles add up and pretty soon the Sinclair Method is going to be a household name just like AA is.

I can't believe nal is so expensive in Canada though... that's outrageous.

The article was dated March 13, 2010 so presumably Dr. Hammer has had a chance to treat quite a few more patients since then (the article mentioned 4). This is good news for anyone in Ontario although Windsor is a lot closer to Detroit than London. It's nice to see Dr. Hammer joined the board.

Hip, hip, HOORAY for Dr. Tony Hammer. In reading that article, I have to challenge the number-one premise of both the AA crowd and the psychotherapy crowd: the notion that there is some underlying issue that drives us to drink that will somehow manifest itself even if the drinking goes away. Where is the scientific data behind this almost universally-accepted, yet clearly-erroneous claim? Answer: THERE IS NONE. I was driven to drink at an early age because of an anxious disposition. And yes, this disposition still exists now that I no longer drink alcoholically. But am I over-eating, or doing other drugs, or any other unhealthy substitute for drinking? NO. And did I get to this place through therapy? NO -- I just took naltrexone before I drank. The notion that we de-addicted alcoholics are simply going to harm ourselves with some alternative unhealthy activity once we stop drinking is NONSENSE. I haven't seen a single member of "the cured" list complain that now that they are not drinking that they are somehow unhappy or doing other unhealthy things as a result of some unaddressed, underlying issue. This is pure crap. TSM DOES NOT REQUIRE THERAPY and the studies have proven that naltrexone is just as effective without therapy. If you want it, fine, we all can benefit from therapy. But if you want to quit drinking alcoholically, take naltrexone an hour before you drink -- that's it. No therapy or spiritual awakening required. And anyone who insists otherwise probably is in a profession that will be rendered obsolete by a pill that all by itself eliminates the craving for alcohol.

Hi Nick
I’m writing this with some trepidation as I am not an alcoholic but am constantly striving to understand the disease - maybe one day there will be Nal-Anon groups!

I figure that the crux of the therapy for anxiety issue is, quote “drinking alcoholically”.

I liken it to using aspirin to numb the pain of toothache.
One may take one, two, or even three tablets to numb the pain but one does not have the compulsion to take the whole bottle - we know the outcome of that!
And then one visits the dentist to sort out the cause of the pain.

An alcoholic may intend to have one or two drinks to overcome the anxiety but is compelled to carry on until the bottle is empty even though they know the outcome.
The first few drinks work medicinally. The rest of the bottle is the compulsion to drink as an alcoholic.
Naltrexone cures the alcoholic drinking.
If one is in control one can still drink medicinally.

Therapy, if one wants it, will address the any issue which causes one to use alcohol medicinally.

Can therapy overcome innate anxiety?
It can certainly help if one drinks to oblivion in order to block out memories of an unpleasant nature.

Does this simplistic view fit in with your theories?

Chris

Yeah, I agree with your theory. And I do not disagree with people who argue that drinking that leads to alcoholism typically starts as a coping mechanism for some sort of underlying issue. And often these issues could and should be treated with therapy. But where I wholeheartedly disagree is the notion that every alcoholic who becomes de-addicted is doomed to some other anti-social behavior if they do not get therapy. A lot of people sort of fall into the addiction because they like to party on the weekends (like me). They over do it and start to use alcohol to cope with life. To a certain extent, the drinking itself can very much become the crux of the problem for many people. And for these folks, their life will largely be just fine once they no longer are addicted to alcohol. Not all of us are recovering from some deep trauma that must be addressed in therapy, which appears to be the overly-simplistic assessment of many health care professionals.