Down the Rabbit Hole

Baclopfen

Yesterday morning I just happened to catch an interview online that was of particular interest to me. Dr. Olivier Ameiseen has written a book called “The End of my Addiction.” In this book he claims that a prescription medication called baclopfen has cured him of his addiction for alcohol. The thing that struck me as most remarkable is the fact that this drug has been around for years. Tested on laboratory mice, used over time, apparently it was proven to reduce and in some cases, eradicate their desire for Cocaine. I couldn’t help but think, “Could that have worked for Seth?”

I’ll admit, my new life affords me little opportunity these days to look back and examine Seth’s life and struggle with alcoholism. I’d like to think I’ve moved past that painful part of my life and that I am no longer plagued by questions about what could have been done to save his life. This morning however, I am left to wonder if he could have found salvation in these little, innocuous white pills.

Dr. Almeiseen, aside from disclosing his own battle with alcohol addiction, shared the distressing facts that in the United States alone, 300 people a day die from the disease. Expanded, that adds up to $100,000.00 each year due to alcoholism, more deaths than can be attributed to any form of cancer. Seth was one of those people, dying slowly and painfully at the age of only 36. A chronic drinker from his teens, his frequent but short-lived forays into sobriety did very little to counteract the horrible damage his disease did to his body. Could Science have provided a pharmaceutical remedy for someone like him? This doctor feels that he is living proof of just such a thing. He notes that the craving for alcohol is the reason why 90% of alcoholics relapse and that this drug, once he’d found the proper dosage, help him to complete eradicate those powerful urges. Having seen the awesome power of those cravings, I’m intrigued but not convinced.

Three hundred people a day die from drinking. Of those that embark on a campaign of sobriety, 7 out of 10 people fail. 90% of all alcoholics relapse, despite AA, despite expensive rehab and intensive therapy, despite baclopfen and other drugs used to treat addiction. 100,000 people die annually from an illness that many don’t acknowledge as a bonefide disease. What’s worse, many experts believe that alcoholism can be carried in the genes, surfacing over and over again in the subsequent generations, a legacy of shame and of pain that can cripple a family.

I have seen firsthand the destructive power of this disease. I’ve seen it consume a young, vibrant man who’d life was filled with love and light. It is not a life, nor a death I would wish on my worst enemy. Having to watch a person dying from the affect of alcoholism is something that dramatically alters everything you think you believe about the miracles of medical science. Doctors can not save everyone and there is only so much pain they can spare you from in the end. There are images from that experience I still can not bear to share with anyone and I carry them along with me, fearing that I will have them always. It is an intensely ugly and hideous way to die.

I don’t know if the same drugs that helped Dr. Ameiseen would have worked for Seth but I know this, alcoholism is a wily addiction. Just when you think you’ve beaten it for good, it rises up and burns through your life like a toxin. It eats away at your body, your dreams and your hope. In the end, resided to dying, Seth told me he’d underestimated his disease and that had been his fatal mistake. I hope, not only for the cure for addiction, but for continued awareness of and respect for an illness that knows no limit or boundaries for who it can claim.