Irish Insults- 

2020

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Since arriving in the mid-nineteenth century, the Irish have carved out a large niche for themselves in this country. Annually, cities across the U.S. host St. Patrick’s Day parades. The Irish machine has cultivated an army of politicos over the last 150 years, after collectively moving up the ranks of the legal system. Many Irish notables star in the world of sports, in films, literature and the arts.

 

The traditions and triumphs of the Irish-American, though, were hardly predestined. In fact, the Irish represented the first so-called “immigrants” to the U.S., with the established families that survived the colonial experience rallying an anti-immigration movement in the middle part of the nineteenth century that especially targeted the Irish. Arguably, that anti-immigration movement proved more venomous than the one embodied in today’s travel bans and coded racism.

 

Stereotypes serve as the principal tool of any anti-immigration movement. Perhaps the most prolific stereotype of the Irish borne out of the anti-immigration movement of nineteenth century America portrayed the Irish as drunkards. The stewards of that anti-immigration push, working in coordination with the temperance movement, cultivated a caricature of the Irish as hopeless drunks. The implicit message woven into the alcoholic characterization of the Irish hinted at a genetic corruptibility, that the Irish were drunks because the average Mick lacked a moral agency. The Irish, those early stereotypes concluded, were childish in disposition, handicapped by a diseased genetic code that, if spread, might contaminate the puritanical way of life that shepherded the colonials. 

 

According to the movement’s propaganda, the Irish abused alcohol simply out of carnal instinct. In reality, early Irish settlers drank to alleviate the chronic fear that most lived in while huddled into slums; or to cope with the deprivation that many faced, or the grief over the loss of loved ones left behind during Ireland’s Great Famine.  Despite the fact that alcohol misuse proved as prevalent in the English colonies just a few generations earlier – as English settlers battled harsh conditions in their own right - the stereotype of the Irish as deviants permeated.

 

The anti-immigration movement of the nineteenth century shaped widespread discrimination against the Irish that impeded the group’s assimilation for decades.  And, as mentioned above, the temperance movement helped to disseminate that discrimination - a brand of discrimination still alive today. The terms “alcoholic”, “alcoholism”, and “addict” echo the type of derogatory, coded language used by the anti-immigration and temperance movements. Loaded in such language are beliefs that those who struggle with addiction lack moral decency. Those with addiction, such language implies, are genetically vile like the Irish scourge that threatened Victorian America. The terms “alcoholic” and “alcoholism” plainly ascribe to the same stereotyping that is so routinely linked to racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other forms of overly concrete thinking. Those terms and stereotypes dehumanize, lumping people with addiction into homogenous groups without any consideration given to the individual histories that predated and might explain addictive behaviors. More so, such stereotypes arguably put those with addictions at risk of relapse. At some point, if you tell someone time and again that they are powerless, defective, diseased, selfish, manipulative, and generally less than as a person, of course he or she will eventually live down to other’s lowly expectations.

 

Treating addiction, much like combating racism, often demands a humanistic approach, to look beyond the stereotypes and focus on the individual etiologies of a SUD. Addiction is a symptom, not a disease. For the vastly majority of people with SUDs, their addiction is symptomatic of a mood disturbance or anxiety disorder, the sequela of trauma, or lingering feelings of loss. It’s an attempt to quell an unrelenting agitation, or to escape a profound sense of alienation shaped by years of neglect. If you are someone struggling with addictive behaviors, beware of the label “addict”. Don’t let its bias lower your expectations of what's possible.   

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New Year's resolutions - 

2020

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The New Year’s experience inevitably leads us to reflect, on who we are, who we want to be, where we’ve come from, and where we are headed. This is the time of the year that people commonly engage in self-inventory. It’s a process that, buoyed by the promise of a new year, often ends with resolute statements to improve one’s life. Goals are set, and determination put on display for all to see. New Year’s resolutions fundamentally speak to commitment, with people across the globe and across time using such rituals to motivate change. But, the optimism and sense of opportunity that seizes those who so confidently commit themselves to New Year’s resolutions will, the majority of the time, fade rather quickly. According to two recent studies1,2, 66 to 92% of people fail to meet the goals tied to their New Year’s resolutions. Why? Both studies identified unrealistic goals as the primary reason (up to 35% of the time1) that people fell short of their New Year’s resolutions, with another 33% giving up their commitments simply because they never bothered to measure their progress.   

 

In the spirit of helping you reach a New Year’s resolution, here are a few tips designed to push people toward their goals –

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• Be realistic – be honest with yourself and vet your goals by someone you trust, to ensure that you define goals that are within reach. Set yourself up for success. If you’re new to jogging and generally out of shape, setting a goal to run in a marathon might be unrealistic. Maybe start with a goal to run 2 miles, three days a week at first.

• Break it down – what are the baby steps that you need to take in order to reach your ultimate goal? The more steps that you can map out and concretely define, the better. Scaling the steps that need to be taken in route to your end goal will help you to build momentum, and to enjoy small successes along the way. Instead of plainly deciding to lose 20 lbs., maybe set goals to:

 

1. research and pick a diet plan in the next week,

 

2. fill out a food-log over a 3-day period in the week after your research, to figure out how many calories a day you typically consume,

 

3. then revise your diet to shave off 10% of your caloric intake, by reducing the amount you eat and/or substituting in healthier foods,

 

4. next, schedule 30 minute walks in the evening, with a plan to push your walks to 45, then 60 minutes over the next 2 months,

 

5. finally, schedule an appointment with your doctor to field his or her feedback on your diet plan. Is 20 lbs too much to lose?

Maybe set a goal to lose 5 or 10 lbs at first, then reassess your goal of 20 lbs, and figure out what works and what doesn’t in your plan.  

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• Keep track – the more concretely you define your goal and the steps needed to reach that goal, the easier it will prove to monitor your progress. Ideally, use an app on your phone that is easily accessible, and easy to use, to mark your progress. The more closely that you track your progress, the more quickly you can modify your plans. Smaller adjustments demand less work and tax your motivation less compared to major overhauls. If you get to a point that you feel like you have start over, because your plan doesn’t seem to be working, your motivation is likely to plummet. The sooner that you realize a tweak is needed, and the simpler the adjustment, the more likely that you will continue on toward your end goal.

• Be patient – the risk of engaging in New Year’s resolutions is that you lose sight of the here and now. People can become obsessed with the future, or the past, or become mired in guilt & self-loathing once they start to fall behind in meeting their goals. Don’t forget to breathe. Maybe you didn’t 100%, absolutely reach the goal that you set out to achieve by the beginning of spring, but did you achieve 90% of the goal? 75%? Were you determined to shed 20 lbs by Easter, but lost only 10?  That’s still 10 lbs lost. That’s progress.  '

• Share your goals - broadcast your goals to family and friends, to enhance your sense of accountability. (The two studies differed on this tidbit. One of the studies argued that announcements actually undercut a successful outcome. The authors2 determined that people who broadcasted their plans rarely followed through, because the simple act of announcing the plans often evoked others’ praise and support, with those emotional rewards dampening the motivation to actually initiate a change. Why buy the milk if you get the cow for free? Maybe, then, only share your plans with a close confidante or two.)   

 

Basically, the key to fulfilling your New Year’s resolution, like any goal for that matter, is motivation. Particularly, it’s the ability to sustain your motivation despite missteps, slips, and/or disappointments that predicts long-term success. How do you recover if and when you cheat – if you indulge in a sugary dessert, check your Facebook page one too many times, miss a class, and so forth? Success is easy. It’s set backs and perceived failures that jeopardize our commitments. Remember, if you cheat here or there, it’s not the end of the world. Look at those set backs as opportunities, to overcome and push ahead- as opportunities to be resilient. Finally, remember to give yourself credit along the way, regardless of how small or large your accomplishments. You don’t have to wait until reaching your goal in its totality before enjoying some success.   

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- Kevin Murphy

 

1)https://d1ic4altzx8ueg.cloudfront.net/finder-au/wp-uploads/2014/10/PressReleaseNewYearsResolutions2015Study.pdf

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2)http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161220-why-your-new-years-resolutions-often-fail

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Coffee and transfer addictions –

 2019 

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People in the early stages of change maintenance (i.e., recovery) tend to be at risk of transfer addictions. That is, those trying to break an addictive cycle often use certain foods in excess. Namely, people in early change maintenance not uncommonly binge on sugar or caffeine, 2 substances that can trigger the types of spikes in dopamine linked to addictive behaviors. While the spikes in dopamine associated with sugar and caffeine pale in amplitude to those triggered by heroin or cocaine, their small-scale jolt to the dopaminergic system does mimic the effects of addiction. It’s the dopaminergic system that drives cravings. The more that you prime the dopamine system, the more regularly and intensely you will crave something or someone. Sugar and caffeine misuse, then, can perpetuate the physiological mechanics of an addictive disorder, putting people at risk of a slip in the process.

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Not only does caffeine prime the areas of the brain linked to craving, the misuse of caffeinated drinks can result in bouts with dizziness, migraines, GI distress, tremors and insomnia, with poor sleep greatly elevating the risk of relapse. If combined with certain asthma, ADHD and other medications (ephedrine, methylphenidate), caffeine can elevate someone’s risk of hypertension, heart attack, stroke or seizure. Many caffeinated drinks contain added milk, sugar, artificial sweeteners or syrups, additives that load up on your calorie count and waistline.

 

Moderate use of caffeine, though, may help those in early change maintenance. People in the earliest stages of change routinely complain of dysphoria and/or a loss of drive. The loss of drive likely reflects a depleted dopamine system as associated with early abstinence. Dopamine is the seeking neurochemical. It helps to signal reward and fuel motivation. A brain that is only days or weeks removed from a long cycle on opiates, cocaine and so forth is likely struggling to produce dopamine. More so, the recovering brain might be forgetful, in some respects, of how to experience reward outside the context of an addiction. Coffee stimulates dopamine production and, in the short-term, elevates mood, enhances drive, and improves memory & concentration skills. It can help to counteract the dysphoria and inertness that plague so many in early change, giving them a push to press ahead with therapy session, work a program, to make a meeting, and so on.

 

There are long-term benefits to regular coffee consumption as well. Multiple studies link ritual coffee consumption to a decreased risk of dementia.1,2 Coffee is rich in antioxidants, which slow cell death and counteract inflammation.3 Some research also concludes that regular, but responsible, coffee consumption lowers the risks of colon cancer and type II diabetes.

 

Research on caffeine consumption can be described as mixed. The mixed results on caffeine's healthy versus toxic effects probably speak to preparation, the average person not familiar with how to and how much to brew. As a general rule of thumb, an  otherwise healthy, non-pregnant person should cap his or her consumption at no more than 400 mg of caffeine per day. Some might argue to limit yourself to no more than 200 mg daily. As a point of reference, a standard 8 oz cup of filtered, water-drip coffee typically contains between 80 to 125 mg. A venti of Starbucks cappuccino or expresso holds 150 mg of caffeine, while the Pike’s Place brewed coffee packs a 415 mg wallop.

 

If you are someone in early recovery who drinks coffee, know that the more you consume, the more at risk you become. Moderate use is critical.

 

-Kevin Murphy  

 

1)http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/geriatric-psychiatry/weapon-against-dementia-your-coffeepot

2)http://www.uef.fi/en/web/caide/

3)https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/health-benefits-coffee

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Bored to death - 

2019

 

Boredom is something of a lost art form. From an evolutionary perspective, boredom’s design triggers creativity and imagination, your brain compensating for a lack of stimulation in the environment with a spike in internal activity. But, as the technology boom of the last 25 years only picks up speed, more people now struggle to introspect and to tap into their creativity. That is, more and more people struggle to tolerate boredom. There is an estimated 4.5 billion pages on the internet, all of which your phone can serve up in millions of pixels. A cell phone wrecks havoc on the brain, with an endless content streamed off the web in ultra-high brilliance, overrunning your head with stimuli. Not only do our electronic devices distract from the introspective process, but the hyper-stimulation that our phones and laptops generate continue to lower our general threshold for boredom. Why tolerate being bored if, with the swipe of a finger, you can watch a HD video of open-heart surgery, or of a solar event, or nearly anything that your mind fancies. 

 

An avoidance of, or deficits in, introspection and imagination can perpetuate a chronic state of boredom that elevates the risk of mental and physical disease. In fact, the Whitehall study implicated increased levels of boredom with increased rates of mortality, while Willis (2014) reported that chronic boredom elevates the risk of addictive behaviors. What happens if someone can’t log onto the web, or simply grows tired of idling across the web? Some now find creativity and/or imagination so daunting or foreign that they will go to painful length to avoid both activities. Case in point, Wilson et al. (2014) demonstrated how many people will quickly resort of self-abuse to escape boredom, with nearly half of the study’s participants (43%) self-delivering electric shocks in the absence of any stimuli from the environment. 

 

Boredom activates curiosity, which propels novel behavior and new ideas. Those ideas and behaviors, then, can generate the type of breakthroughs, a-ha moments, and peak experiences that bolster both self-awareness and a sense of efficacy.  That’s why the SMART Recovery approach attempts to integrate creativity into the treatment process, to enhance self-efficacy.

 

Boredom can represent an omnipresent trigger for many in the first few weeks of change maintenance. The pace of treatment early on is usually quite slow, as people figure out new routines and establish new relationships. Many will also battle dopamine deficiency shortly after quitting their drug of choice, lacking the neuro-chemical linked to drive and seeking behavior. Early recovery can be a boring time. Learning not only to tolerate boredom, but to use it to your advantage in recovery, can help to extend the change you want. Cutting down on the use of your electronics, while simultaneously integrating some type of mindfulness practice (yoga, breathing exercises, prayer, etc.) into your day-to-day life, can help you to embrace boredom, to use as a source of inspiration in expanding on what change means to you.

 

-Kevin Murphy

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