LSD treatment for alcoholism gets new look

[dyslimbic]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-ltf100606.php

[steve m]

Been there..Done that..Next case!..

[houghchrst]

I used to always drink with my LSD. Whatever.

[steve m]

Me too..LSD treatments is the most ridiculous thing Ive ever heard..Maybe it will create a spiritual awakening..I figure if you do enough of it, you'll probably see God..

[dyslimbic]

Are you two trolls or just ever so slightly lubricated?

[steve m]

Originally Posted by dyslimbic

Are you two trolls or just ever so slightly lubricated?

No..We just slightly disagree with you thats all....LSD Therapy to treat alcoholism in just a little off the wall

[citoig]

My understanding about LSD and Alcoholism is this. When LSD was discovered in the 1930's it was thought that the horrendous hallucinations would scare drunks into getting sober. That's a joke!! You can't scare a drunk into anything. So much for science and scientists, it took two drunks desperately looking for a way out of **** to come up with something that works. That something developed into the AA Program. This Program has worked just fine for me for the past 32 years, and the best part is I only have to be concerned with TODAY. Just one day at a time.

Citoig

[Dan Burdick]

"It was thought that the horrendous hallucinations would scare drunks into getting sober. "

They hypothesized that the halucinations would be like having the DTs and this would be frightening. They wouldn't want to have DTs. Humphrey Osmond writes:

"We found, in fact, that this wasn't quite how it worked. [It was] really not unlike Bill's [spiritual] experience, which I later heard about - it gave us pause for thought, not on the grounds of how terrifying it was, but how illuminating it was. Rather different!"

Patients who were improved were helped by the psycho-analytical boost effect of the LSD; the insight, the spiritual awakening, they realized, so they made the environment more friendly and brought in art objects and so on.


The hard working Abram Hoffer, M.D. and the genius Humphrey Osmond are the ones who gave Bill Wilson the L.S.D. therapy.

Dr. Abram Hoffer was also was the one who gave Niacin to Bill. Bill liked the name B-3 and used that in the pamphlets. It is interesting to look up the references to this in the A.A. approved literature book Pass It On, and to see the relative spin in the book on Niacin VS that for L.S.D. The book comments quickly on the L.S.D. as being, quote, "scientific." This compares to the Niacin which is presented as Bill Wilson being a gung-ho, enthusiastic fellow, who would get on a band-wagon and go off on a tangent sometimes trying to take everyone else with him.

Bill Wilson's doctor Abram Hoffer continued to take B-3 himself and is still alive due to taking his own treatments, and has only recently left psychiatric practice. Here is an interesting recent video of him as elder statesman where he recalls his relationship with Bill Wilson.

Dr. Abram Hoffer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1_v0zh_gk


New Hope for Alcoholics.
Hoffer, Abram, and Osmond, Humphry. (1968).
New Hyde Park, NY: University Books.

About four o'clock one morning, sometime in 1953, in a hotel room in Ottawa, Ontario, we were discussing LSD and its uses, and delirium tremens in alcoholism. We hit upon the idea that perhaps the LSD experience could be made a model of delirium tremens and could therefore be developed into a treatment for alcoholism. If we modeled the worst in natural DT's, we thought, we could persuade our alcoholic patients not to drink anymore and so avoid the unpleasant result of drinking too much for too long. (page 54).

By 1957, however, it was apparent that even though many of our patients were helped by LSD, it was not the psychotomimetic (model-psychosis type) experience which was responsible. In spite of our best efforts to produce a frightening experience, some of our subjects had been escaping into a spiritual or religious type of experience. The LSD experience, pleasant or unpleasant, seemed sufficient to maintain the 50 percent sobriety rate established from the beginning.

We found that the experience was influenced to a great extent by the attitude of the people working with the patient, and the environment in which the drug was taken. Staff members who had had an insightful LSD experience, or who had participated in many sessions as observers, knew what the subject was experiencing and were better able to help him. On the other hand, staff who were unsympathetic, hostile and without feeling brought about fear and hostility in the patient. Allowing staff members to have an LSD experience automatically changed their attitudes by greatly increasing their empathy with the subject or patient.

‘Hitting Highs at Rock Bottom’: LSD Treatment for Alcoholism, 1950–1970
Erika Dyck*
http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/co...tract/19/2/313

Psychedelics as catalysts of insight-oriented psychotherapy 2001
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...s_/ai_80310005

Abram Hoffer, M.D. Interview
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2003/...hoffer_01.html

Interview by Chowka
http://members.aol.com/pbchowka/hoffer.html

[batsinwonderland]

Hi everyone! Long time no "see" I am happy to report that total abstinence from all mind altering substances and an active program which include the 12 steps, a sponsor, regular meeting attendance and service work has enabled me to celebrate 9 years clean on October 14th!!!!!! Yeah! I also have grown up and am better equipted to handle what life gives me. I have a wonderful life and I am grateful! My grandaughter is 6 1/2 months old and she is one of the most precious things in my life! How I ever got along without her, I do not know!

[houghchrst]

Hey bats, you're right long time no see. Good to see you now, congratulations on your sobriety! Children most definitely put a whole different perspective on sobriety.