Online Course Free Taster
I’m very pleased to say that the first 7 modules of the online course are now available to try for free. You can find this on the ‘Online Course’ page of the website, link below: https://www.alcoholexplained.com/course/ Please do let me have any feedback, good or bad. Many thanks,
Alcohol Explained Online Course
I’m very pleased to say that the Alcohol Explained online course is now up and running. You can find it on this site under the main menu. The idea was to get everything in Alcohol Explained and Alcohol Explained 2 (and even one or two things that aren’t in either book), update and refine them, […]
Trauma and Alcohol Dependency
There is a big drive these days to say that trauma is at the root of all addiction. I seem to be the only person out there saying this: but it isn’t. Let me explain. What proponents of the trauma/addiction model are saying is not that you cannot get addicted to a drug unless you […]
Is Alcohol a Stimulant?
Alcohol is a sedative. It is a chemical depressant. By that I mean it decreases or inhibits nerve activity. Some people struggle with this concept because their personal experience of drinking is that a drink energises them (over here in the UK one of the many terms used for an alcoholic drink is a ‘livener’). […]
The End of Lockdown – Socialising
In my last post, I looked at why lockdown has caused many people to drink more. But drinking more isn’t everyone’s story. A lot of people used lockdown as a springboard for stopping and have been very successful. But for these people, the ending of lockdown will bring its own challenges. After all, one of […]
Why Lockdown Led to an Increase in Drinking
The lockdown has had quite a profound effect on many people’s drinking. Some people have found that their drinking has increased (often dramatically) and others have found that the lockdown was their key to stopping. People in this second group may have stopped for anything up to a year, but many of them feel that […]
Genetics and Addiction
I’ve read a lot recently about the link between genetics and addiction. I thought it was worth doing a post clarifying the position. The starting point, I think, is that genetics cannot dictate behaviour. Behaviour is learned, not inherited. There is no gene that can make you compulsively keep picking up a drink and drinking […]
The Root of All Addiction is Pain – or is it?
This topic has come up a few times recently and I thought it was worth doing a post just to clarify the situation. As a starting point, using absolutes in terms of addiction is always fraught with difficulties. Addiction is a complicated mix of physiological, chemical and psychological factors. We can talk more in absolute […]
Cravings
I deal with different aspects of cravings in both AE1 and AE2 and I thought it would be useful to put it all together in one place. A craving is a hugely misunderstood concept, people think of it as an outside occurrence, something that happens to them over which they have no control. It’s like […]
Can Alcohol Cause Sleeping Problems?
I deal with alcohol and how it affects sleep in Alcohol Explained, but I think it is worth going into a bit more detail on exactly how drinking alcohol impacts our sleep. To appreciate the effect fully we need to understand three things; how our brain works, how alcohol affects it, and sleep. The first […]
