Dr. Claudia Black, one of the world’s leading experts on
family systems and addiction, reveals the startling connection between the
psychological injuries experienced in childhood and the long-term trauma and
addictive disorders that are destroying families everywhere. In this in-depth
interview, Dr. Black discusses how trauma and addiction literally change the
brain, and why the unspoken effects of these conditions can reverberate for
generations, uprooting family trees and perpetuating both shame and denial.
But, recovery from trauma and addiction is possible, and Dr. Black illuminates
a simple, yet powerful and effective process for both healing and creating a
new narrative for living. This podcast coincides with the release of Claudia
Black’s 16th book, ‘Unspoken Legacy’, a far-ranging examination of how the
combination of addiction and trauma causes family dysfunction and why it’s one
of the most potent negative forces in people’s lives. Filled with vignettes
highlighting the various causes of trauma, ‘Unspoken Legacy’ helps readers
understand the physiology and psychology of trauma and how it intersects with
addition. The second half of the book covers the vital process for
self-examination, and gives readers proactive steps for healing, recovery, and
building healthier relationships.
Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 58 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.
In
1861, at the outset of the Civil War, poetess Julia Ward Howe penned the lyrics
to The Battle Hymn of the Republic,
to the tune of the earlier work, John
Brown’s Body. Both were part of the Abolitionist movement, which had been
trying for past decades to bring an end to Slavery in America. The initial
stanza to Howe’s rendition is as follows:
Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord.
He is trampling out the Vintage where the Grapes of Wrath are stored.
He has loosed the fateful Lightening of his terrible swift Sword.
His Truth is marching on…
In my view, the idea of the “grapes of wrath” in this song could be seen as the need for retribution against the institution of slavery, a deep felt sense that is coming forth into the consciousness of the people of America in a manner similar to that of a vintner bringing forth the sweetness of a wine by the crushing of grapes. The virulence of this song and of Howe’s expressed opposition to slavery parallels the intensity that gripped the nation in the lead-up to the Civil War.
Interestingly, John Steinbeck used these same words as the title of his 1939 Pulitzer Prize winning book about the plight of the “Okie” migrants from the Plains’ states to California, in the aftermath of the devastation of the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. I would see his vision as that of equating the “grapes of wrath” with the need to address the deplorable conditions imposed on these migrants in their flight from the Plains and their efforts to find a place of “home” in the wine and agricultural regions of California. It is clear to many that Steinbeck thought just about as negatively toward the banks that he believed forced the Okies off their farms and out of the Plains and toward the large corporate farming companies and vintners that exploited them as migrant workers in California, just about as strongly as Howe and others might have thought of the institutionalized system of Slavery in America.
There is another parallel here for me. Would it not seem logical to see our
despicable behavior in the depths of our drinking and using as something similar
to the “grapes of wrath.” How we behaved with the world around us, the pain and
trauma we created for those we otherwise really did love, could be seen as
negatively as Howe and Steinbeck saw their themes. To get sober and develop a
sustainable life of sobriety, we had to trample those grapes, those legions of
behavior, and repair the devastation that they created. The fascinating play of the words of
“vintage” and “grapes” and the volume of wine and spirits that attended our
lives in our disease adds another fascinating element of synchronicity
here. We had to work to allow the
authenticity of our inner most selves to emerge as wine does from the trampling
of grapes.
How wonderful it is today that, as we work
diligently to build a life in Sobriety and to allow the Truth of who and what
we really are to fully develop, we are working for our own indomitable Truth to
be “marching on…’
In our premier
episode, our guest, Bob C., shares an extraordinary story of his amazing
efforts to save his daughter’s life during her 15 year odyssey with drug
addiction and mental illness. At times, he thought he had lost her. But he also
realized that desperately trying to save his daughter might just kill him. With
other family tragedies swirling around him at the same time, he somehow found
the solutions for staying alive and helping his daughter survive. Bob’s
hard-fought quest for understanding and answers is both inspirational and
informative. It’s something every parent should hear.
Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 57 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.
In
the evolution of these Notes, we have attempted to look at the afflictions of addiction
and alcoholism both in the rampant untreated state and in the long, maybe
lifelong process of recovery. We have
seen these journeys from a deeply mythic perspective, all aspects of them
having stark parallels to the thousands of stories of heroes that attend the
human experience.
In
recent times, I have begun to see our journeys as coming in stages. First, we
stop drinking or using. We deal with the pain, the minute by minute, hour by
hour, day by day agonies of living without the substance or behaviors we used
to medicate and escape. Slowly, slowly,
we begin to feel better and, in time, time itself seems to move along without
those daily tremors of abstinence and deprivation. Soon then we begin a second stage…that of working
with a sponsor over the steps, one by one, embracing a Higher Power in personal
terms and climbing the staircase of the Spirit, coming to understand our disease
and its pitfalls in deeper and deeper terms.
We commit ourselves to service is small ways, supporting the Fellowship
in daily chores and working with others.
In
a few months or years, we move to a third stage, life in a container, a network
of like women and men with whom we can live and be sustained with increasing
ease and comfort. As addicts and
alcoholics, we are always at risk, but, in time, staying close to that
Community, relapse becomes less and less of an option. We begin to see the true meaning of the idea
of a Sunshine of the Spirit. We begin to feel the overwhelming sense of
gratitude for our Higher Power and the Fellowship that engulfs us.
Beyond
this, I am beginning to see the idea of a fourth stage, maybe another
dimension, a fourth dimension.
Committing ourselves to service first and foremost, eschewing any
recognition, or even any third party knowledge, of such service other than our
Higher Power, we become a rock upon which the power of the Fellowship is
seamlessly resting.
We become a bit like Dante in the final stages of Paradiso. Earlier in this trilogy, Dante had to trudge through the horrors of the Inferno with all the characterizations of the missteps of mankind. Then he moved into and through Purgatorio where is detailed the struggles to redeem oneself of the travesties of bad behavior. Much of Dante’s larger story here is reminiscent of our own journeys and our progress towards committed sobriety. But then Dante finally ascends into heaven, Paradiso, where he ultimately comes face to face with God. As outlined in earlier Notes, the scene is captivating with God represented as a magical essence of pure love.
It has come to me that there are those of us to whom we all look for leadership and inspiration who have been cloaked with just such a spiritual mantle. Said another way, there are women and men among us in whose presence we all feel especially blessed…women and men who have become a near manifestation, deep within in our mind and hearts, of the power of a higher being. What a joy it is to live in a community of such lightness and splendor!
The following article was recently published on the research page of the Recovery Research Institute website. It reports a novel new study focusing on the alcohol industry’s public support of moderate drinking amidst speculation that a large portion of alcohol industry profits come from alcohol sales to excessive drinkers and individuals with drinking problems. The research explored what percentage of alcohol sales are accounted for by heavy drinkers, and what the alcohol industry stands to lose financially if everyone drank in moderation (within government health guidelines).
WHAT PROBLEM DOES THIS STUDY ADDRESS?
The alcohol industry has long faced a difficult public relations dilemma. Though many individuals enjoy using alcohol with little or no consequence, for many others, alcohol causes significant emotional, physical, and interpersonal harm. At a population level, alcohol use has a prodigious, adverse social and economic impact. In order to mitigate the perception that the alcohol industry is profiting from suffering, and at times because of government pressure, in many countries major alcohol producers have voluntarily funded public awareness campaigns about the harms of excessive alcohol use. Critics, however, have argued that such voluntary measures are doomed to fail because they involve companies engaging in activities and policies aimed at reducing the harmful behaviors on which their profitability depends. In essence, these companies have a major conflict of interest.
The alcohol industries in England and the United States have often played down the extent to which profits are driven by excessive use of their products, in spite of evidence from several countries that alcohol consumption is concentrated within a minority of heavier drinkers. The present study explored whether such findings are also true for England. Specifically, the authors asked: 1) What proportion of alcohol sales revenue is accounted for by people drinking more than government recommended guidelines for low-risk drinking (in the UK no more than 14 standard drinks per week, where a standard drink is equal to 7.9g of pure alcohol. This is considerably less than in the U.S. where a standard drink is equal to14g of pure alcohol – almost twice as much). 2) How does financial dependence on heavy drinkers vary between different sectors of the alcohol industry? 3) How would alcohol sales revenue be affected if everyone’s consumption fell to within guideline levels?
This research has implications not just for public health policy, but for the millions of these heavy drinkers with alcohol use disorder in England, and countries like the United States.
HOW WAS THIS STUDY CONDUCTED?
This paper uses data from the UK Office for National Statistics’ Living Costs and Food Survey and the National Health Service’s Digital Health Survey for England. The Living Costs and Food Survey is distributed to households on a continuous basis throughout the year and asks each individual aged 16 years and over to keep a detailed diary of their daily expenditure over a 2-week period. For alcohol, the survey provides transaction-level data on beverage type (e.g., beer, cider, wine, spirits), price paid, and volume of product purchased. The survey also asks where the alcohol was purchased; either in a hotel, restaurant, or bar (known in the UK as on-trade sales), or from an alcohol retailer like a liquor store (referred to in the UK as off-trade sales). The authors pooled data from the 2013 and 2014 iterations of the survey, comprising a total of 9,975 households.
The Health Survey for England is a large, nationally-representative survey of 16,872 individuals (2013 and 2014 pooled) which records self-reported ‘typical’ consumption by beverage type. Coverage of total alcohol purchases relative to estimates from more robust national accounts and sales data is approximately 60% (compared to 40% for the Living Costs and Food Survey), suggesting people markedly under-report their alcohol use.
Drinking groups were defined according to UK government guidelines. ‘Moderate’ drinking is consumption below or equal to 14 standard drinks per week for both sexes, with a standard drink in the UK equaling 7.9g or 10ml of pure alcohol. ‘Heavy’ drinking refers to consumption above this level. Within the ‘heavy drinking’ category, the authors further distinguished ‘hazardous’ (15–35 units for women, 15–50 for men) from ‘harmful’ (36+ for women, 51+ for men) drinking, based on government guidelines.
WHAT DID THIS STUDY FIND?
The authors found that on the whole, the bulk of alcohol sales in England in 2013/14 were to individuals drinking excessively. An estimated 77% of alcohol was sold to drinkers consuming above guideline levels: 30% to harmful drinkers and 48% to hazardous drinkers. Further, alcohol consumed in excess of the guideline levels (i.e., those drinking 14 or more standard UK drinks per week) accounted for 44% of all sales.
Moderate drinkers (i.e., those drinking 14 or fewer UK standard drinks per week), who represented an estimated 59% of the population, were estimated to consume only 23% of all alcohol and accounted for only 32% of all revenue (Figure 1). The 21% of the population who were hazardous drinkers consumed an estimated 48% of all alcohol and accounted for an estimated 45% of all revenue. A relatively small group of harmful drinkers, comprising 4% of the total population, consumed almost a third (30%) of all alcohol sold in England, and accounted for nearly a quarter (23%) of all alcohol sales revenue.
Figure 1. Source: Bhattacharya et al., 2018.
Figure 1. Volume and value of alcohol sales by consumption level in England, 2013/14. The first column represents the makeup of the entire English population by drinking behaviors. The second column shows what percent of alcohol consumed in England was accounted for by each category of drinker. The third column shows the percentage of alcohol revenue accounted for by each category of drinker. As illustrated in this figure, in spite of making up only 25% of the population, hazardous and harmful drinkers accounted for 78% of alcohol consumption and 68% of alcohol revenue.
In terms of differences between on-trade (i.e., in a hotel, restaurant or bar) and off-trade (alcohol retailors), 81% of off-trade revenue was estimated to come from those drinking above guideline levels (Figure 2). The corresponding amount was substantially lower (60%) for on-trade sales, although heavy drinkers also still accounted for the majority of sales revenue, highlighting the fact that hazardous and harmful drinkers accounted for the majority of both retail and bar/restaurant sales.
Figure 2. Source: Bhattacharya et al., 2018.
Figure 2. Proportion of revenue from harmful, hazardous and moderate drinkers by beverage types and retailer in England in 2013/14. On-trade refers to hotel, restaurant, or bar sales; off-trade refers to alcohol retailors. 77% of beer expenditure was estimated to come from drinkers consuming above guideline levels, compared to 70% for cider, 66% for wine and 50% for spirits. Hazardous and harmful drinkers accounted for the majority of on-trade and off-trade alcohol sales.
The authors also report that should alcohol consumption be reduced to low-risk levels suggested by the UK government (i.e., 14 or less standard drinks per person, per week), the alcohol industry would stand to lose 38% of their current revenue (Figure 3). In absolute terms, this implies that the industry’s market value would fall by £13 billion (approximately US$17 billion).
Figure 3. Source: Bhattacharya et al., 2018.
Figure 3. Predicted percentage decline in alcohol revenue in England if alcohol consumption were to fall to government guideline levels for low-risk drinking (i.e., 14 or less standard drinks per person per week). Percentage declines in revenue are broken down by point of sale (on-trade versus off-trade), and alcohol category (beer, wine, etc.), as well as point of sale type crossed with alcohol category (in box, bottom right of figure). Altogether, the alcohol industry in England would stand to lose 38% of its revenue if everyone drank in accordance with government guideline levels for low-risk drinking.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY FINDINGS?
Findings indicate the alcohol industry in England derives a large portion of its profit from excessive and/or problem drinkers. Given the consistency of this finding with similar research in Australia and Brazil, it seems likely that such a study conducted in the United States would find similar results. These findings raise serious questions about the conflicts of interest arising when an industry reliant on hazardous and harmful drinking is allowed to self-regulate and manages its public image with largely ineffective ‘safe drinking’ mantras (e.g., “Drink responsibly”). These findings also reinforce the need for strong alcohol sales policy, which has been shown to have real impact on problem drinking. Moreover, in so far as they suggest that a financially successful alcohol industry of its current size and form depends upon harmful drinking, the UK government’s economic support for alcohol producers, for example through tax cuts and trade negotiations, appear more problematic. These findings may also have relevance for ongoing debates about whether to restrict alcohol sales to state monopolies or open them up to commercial enterprises.
LIMITATIONS
The authors’ analysis is taken from self-reported survey data, which tends to underestimate alcohol consumption. Their approach assumes implicitly that all sections of the population under-report their drinking in the same proportion. If anything, this probably underestimates the alcohol industry’s full reliance upon the heaviest drinkers, who are less likely to be represented in surveys.
The analyses do not distinguish between specific companies. The degree to which any individual company benefits from sales to heavy drinkers is therefore unclear.
BOTTOM LINE
For individuals and families seeking recovery: Harmful and hazardous drinkers drive the bulk of English alcohol sales; a finding observed in other countries and presumed to be the same in other Western countries like the Unites States.
For treatment professionals and treatment systems: Harmful and hazardous drinkers drive the bulk of alcohol sales in England, and presumably other Western countries as well. Allowing the alcohol industry to design and self-monitor its own public health messaging regarding harmful/hazardous drinking represents a major conflict of interest. An industry that is financially reliant on harmful/hazardous drinking is unlikely to implement measures sufficient to curb problematic alcohol use.
For scientists: Harmful and hazardous drinkers drive the bulk of alcohol sales in England. The questions addressed by this research need to also be asked in the United States. Further, more research on the extent to which the alcohol industry has, in the past, mitigated volume declines by raising prices and selling more premium products would provide an indication of how sustainable such a strategy is likely to be in the long term. A further possible extension would be to explore the tax revenue generated by the government from excise duty on harmful drinkers, and the extent to which that tax revenue helps address some of the consequences of alcohol use disorder (e.g., funding publicly available treatment and recovery support services).
For policy makers: Alcohol use and alcohol use disorder cost Western economies hundreds of billions of dollars annually and cause tremendous personal and societal harm. The alcohol industry profits directly from this problem. The alcohol industry’s conflicts of interest highlighted in this paper should be considered when creating and enforcing alcohol policy.
The Council on Recovery is the leader in providing a wide range of prevention and education resources aimed reducing alcohol use, especially among adolescents and young adults. We also offer therapeutic counseling and an intensive outpatient treatment program (IOP) for those affected by alcoholism. For more information, please call 713-942-4100 or contact us online.
