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Dry drunk is a term used, often disparagingly, by members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and by substance abuse counselors who subscribe to the AA theory of alcoholism to describe the recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking but whose thought processes are considered to continue to be distorted by the thought patterns of addiction.
Not yet "sober"
This person is not thought to be truly sober, and thus, a distinction is made in AA between being dry, or abstinent from alcohol consumption, and being sober, or living a life of abstinence based on the principles of AA. In AA, sobriety is a state that can only be obtained by both abstaining from alcohol and working the twelve steps of AA, and alcoholism is believed to be a disease state that exists independently of actual alcohol consumption (alcoholism continuing to exist independent of actual alcohol consumption is disputed by some in the substance abuse field).
AA's 12 step program
Although dry drunk is not a medical diagnosis, the phrase is used by members of AA to describe a group of symptoms which they believe come about as a result of not following the twelve steps. The steps include the inventory and confession of character defects and wrongs as well as prayer and communion with the Higher Power, which may be, but is not necessarily God (or a divine being of some kind).Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A.'s Twelve Steps. It is believed in AA groups that a person who quits drinking without embracing the tenets of AA as the means to quit drinking will experience many unpleasant feelings and exhibit maladaptive behaviors. These feelings are said to include despair, anger, rage, depression of mood or clinical depression, and anxiety and are expressed in behavior stemming from those types of feelings. This dry drunk state is thought to lead, virtually without exception, to the resumption of an even more intensive and harmful drinking spree.
Alternatives to the AA strategy
Other methodologies exist in regards to alcholism, including health strategies different from AA, such as Rational Recovery.
Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D author of the book "Seven Weeks to Sobriety" believes that the clinical manifestation of the symptoms described by AA as "Dry Drunk" or "Dry Drunk Syndrome" are, instead, an alcoholism-related form of the blood-sugar disorder hypoglycemia (See: * )
Notes
See also
External links
- Dry Drunk Syndrome Minnesota Recovery Pages
- Dry Drunk definition at About.com
- http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-drydrunk.html
"Dry drunk"