The Hidden Challenge in Alcohol and Drug Abuse

“Alcohol and drugs are essential to my creative process” is a thought, sometimes a confession made, usually privately, by millions of creative people, many of them at the pinnacle of success in their fields. Yet, I have heard very little serious discussion by substance abuse professionals about the profound implications of this phenomenon.

Some say that psychoactive drugs will be with us forever and maybe they will. However, my life improved immensely and was probably saved by my liberating myself from the pleasures, enthusiastic bursts of creativity and agonies of alcohol and smoke.

In fact, our society has declared a “war” on drugs and a sort of “police action” on alcohol. Humorous, isn’t it since far more damage is done in the aggregate by alcohol than by all other drugs combined?

As a society we believe that we must solve this catastrophic problem; or at least understand it enough so that we reduce the destructive pressure on our culture. Having come from a family of beautiful people who have been tragically impacted by alcohol and other drugs, I have had an intense interest in how and why this disaster happened to my dearest loves and beyond that to our civilization as a whole. What is the most effective way to heal the damage already done and reduce the problem in the future?

This led me into one of the most fascinating investigations of my life. I delved deeply into all of the conventional wisdom I could find… and I did most of my investigation while continuing to drink and smoke. I was what you call a highly functional substance abuser. In fact, my problem was never diagnosed by a professional or even a friend. I had to come to the realization that I had a substance abuse problem through self study.

Self study which involved a lot of EEG biofeedback and meditation.

In the course of these studies I had what I think is at least a relatively original insight. This insight enabled me to walk away from the substances that had become so integrated with my own intellectual, creative, even spiritual life. This personal discovery made by many millions of others before me was that I must quit all by myself. Another critical aspect of the discovery provided the burning sense of mission required to be successful as well as the realization that I must discover how to do this as though it was being done for the first time ever. The path to success came to me in a number of progressive meditative reveries.

The kind of energy needed to go deeply within the mind (meditation-contemplation) is constantly dissipated by psychoactive drugs. This means that the very energy needed to “make one’s life work”, to get work done, to be innovative and to have the sensitivity to make one’s relationships better is absent. For me, the concept of meditation, profound attention learning…entering deeply into the creative process, became so incredibly alluring that I realized I had to quit because that is the only way to get the energy and sensitivity needed for the next stages of this immense journey.

Although I have discussed this concept with a number of substance abuse colleagues, the response is (with a few exceptions) usually cool and even uneasy as though admitting that alcohol and other drugs can actually stimulate the creative process will unleash the forces of hell.

Yet, I believe that until we recognize the power that alcohol and other drugs has to influence creativity in the normal human being and offer another, superior way to stimulate and lubricate the creative mind we are fighting our war on drugs with water pistols.

Asking a person to give up booze is one thing, asking him to give up his booze dependent creative process seems to the alcoholic like asking him to give up his soul. There is a reason we call liquor “spirits”.

Who can deny that if we abruptly pulled all of the functional substance abusers out of business, politics, science, art and religion our society would collapse? It is intriguing to imagine what might happen but then we will never know, will we? Because most are light years from even acknowledging they have a problem. However, those that have a sneaky feeling that their already functional lives could work better are very much worth targeting. I believe they are a big enough number to make a tremendous difference in our culture as a whole…maybe the critical difference.

Also, if this issue of the creative stimulus that alcohol and drugs induces is addressed better then we can be much more helpful in assisting those dysfunctional and devastated legions of drug abusers in rescuing themselves.

The concept can be explained fairly easily. Activating the implied principles is much more difficult but certainly achievable for those motivated enough. Unfortunately, that motivation usually comes from hitting bottom hard….. immediate disaster, overwhelming loss, pain and agonizing sorrow.

There is however, another more upbeat kind of motivation which can be added to the above and this powerful force can be the critical catalyst which in turn produces the special ability to allow the addiction to fall away without the usual depression. In fact, many who recover using this principle experience profound and healthy personality transformation. In short, they often achieve real change not just another case of the “dry drunk” syndrome.

The relationship between drugs and creativity may be described in the following way: alcohol and other psychoactive drugs can produce a temporary release from conditioned perception and behavior. This quieting effect allows a release of archetypical or creative imagery. Although much research in this area remains to be done it seems to me that the evidence is growing that the brain waves of addicts of many types are deficient in Alpha and Theta.

Furthermore, that the intake of the drug at least temporarily enhances Alpha & Theta. Precisely those brain waves that are missing are to some extent replaced( at least in the early phase of intoxication). Indeed, the rapid growth of EEG biofeedback is due largely to the studies published by Dr. Eugene Peniston starting in 1989. If the original results of these studies continue to hold, then EEG biofeedback represents the most effective form of substance abuse therapy ever developed, especially when combined with the best of the traditional strategies.

The point is that Alpha and Theta brain waves during normal consciousness are often accompanied by an increase in creativity, less conditioned perception and behavior, and usually a decrease in anxiety. Increasing, or better put, correcting deficiencies in these types of brain waves seems to accompany reduced stress, increased problem solving and most importantly the kind of insight that produces peak (spiritual?) personal experiences, long deemed to be essential to the kind of healthy recovery that avoids the “dry drunk” syndrome and leads to a transformation of life style.

I realized that there was some kind of powerful relationship between alcohol (and presumably other drugs) and creativity when I started looking at the numbers of artists who had serious addiction problems yet also had successful careers. I did a simplified survey of the top 100 writers of the last 100 years. It is not so difficult because their private lives are usually quite public.

I discovered that approximately 80% of these literary giants were alcoholics by any current professional definition of alcoholism. Of that 80% about 40% made a lot of money, enjoyed some fame, had some fun and destroyed it all, often losing their life to the booze. Roughly another 40% lived a more or less normal lifespan, continued to be successful but still paid dearly for their addiction in terms of personal relationships, career opportunities lost and health problems. The remaining 20% did pretty well and were truly functional. However, I think even a superficial investigation would show their addiction cost them much more than it was worth. But then they all had been trapped by what I dubbed the “Hemingway Syndrome”.

Hemingway was archetypical in many ways and one of them was that he was a classic alcoholic artist. In his early years he could out drink almost anyone. He could drink and write and talk and do all kinds of physical activities much better than the drinkers around him even if he drank a lot more than they. Then, over the years more and more alcohol was required to sustain his creative output. Finally, ravaged by his addiction, no amount of alcohol could help him sustain his creativity and while living in paradise, a wealthy and honored giant in his field, married to a fine woman who loved him dearly, he killed himself.

For many years I felt quite alone with this “creativity-and -drugs” hypothesis; however, last year I discovered a group of British addictionologists who have been working on this problem for decades and who have done numerous studies bearing out this idea.

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