Buddhism and alcohol

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oncereturner
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Buddhism and alcohol

Post by oncereturner »

Garrib wrote: Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:50 pm
I would advise you to ditch the alcohol - it doesn't make pain go away for long, and it brings more pain in its wake!
I feel very good, but next day is very bitter. Every morning I feel I'm going to die.I was in hospital 6 times related to toxication. I've already lost my self-control, I'm heavily addicted, doctor says I have 10 more years left at maximum. I'm 36. Without alcohol, I have no life, I feel depression.

Question is, to live with pain, mental illness, or die young with some joy?
"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech."

— SN 45.8
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DNS
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by DNS »

oncereturner wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:17 am Question is, to live with pain, mental illness, or die young with some joy?
Option 3: get treatment, enter an alcohol recovery program like AA and live long with joy.
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oncereturner
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by oncereturner »

DNS wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:33 am
Option 3: get treatment, enter an alcohol recovery program like AA and live long with joy.
Doctor also recommends AA. There's no cure for this addiction. I will go to the meeting as soon as possible.
"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech."

— SN 45.8
Garrib
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by Garrib »

oncereturner wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:17 am
DNS wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:33 am
Option 3: get treatment, enter an alcohol recovery program like AA and live long with joy.
Doctor also recommends AA. There's no cure for this addiction. I will go to the meeting as soon as possible.
Bhikkhu Samahita recently posted a video in which he responds to a question about Marijuana addiction. He also included some words on alcohol addiction which might be useful (see link below) - it is very dangerous, as you know. Overcoming addictions is hard work, but it is worth it - and there is joy on the other side. Good luck my friend! You can do it!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCHq3uT ... flw03c010c
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

BlogPāli FontsIn This Very LifeBuddhist ChroniclesSoftware (Upasampadā: 24th June, 1979)
binocular
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by binocular »

oncereturner wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 1:17 amDoctor also recommends AA. There's no cure for this addiction.
It's AA that says that alcoholism is incurable, and a disease.

There are many theories of addiction, not just the one used in AA.

http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcon ... text=gs_rp
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/plugi ... teeson.pdf
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
SarathW
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by SarathW »

Question is, to live with pain, mental illness, or die young with some joy?
As Buddhist we believe:
Life is suffering. Not only you, we all are in some form of pain.
We all have some form of mental illness unless you are an Arahant.
Death is not the solution as we are reborn. So we have to go through this suffering all over again.
It is gradual training. Do whatever you can to end this Samsara.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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bodom
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by bodom »

As a recovering addict and alcoholic I recommend the Refuge Recovery Program. There are meetings all over the world. Check the link below to see if there are any in your area.
Refuge Recovery: Is a mindfulness-based addiction recovery community that practices and utilizes Buddhist philosophy as the foundation of the recovery process. Drawing inspiration from the core teachings of the Four Noble Truths, emphasis is placed on both knowledge and empathy as a means for overcoming addiction and its causes. Those struggling with any form of addiction greatly benefit when they are able to understand the suffering that addiction has created while developing compassion for the pain they have experienced. We hope to serve you, and meet you on the path.

Refuge Recovery is a nonprofit organization. It is our mission to build an extensive and comprehensive network of Refuge Recovery groups, meetings, and communities that practice, educate, and provide Buddhist teachings and meditations for anyone seeking recovery from addiction. Our current goal is to raise the funds needed to produce specialized literature and resources for the greater community and to support the infrastructure of the nonprofit.

The Refuge Recovery nonprofit organization operates 100% independently from the professional addiction treatment center, Refuge Recovery Centers.

Refuge Recovery is a practice, a process, a set of tools, a treatment, and a path to healing addiction and the suffering caused by addiction. The main inspiration and guiding philosophy for the Refuge Recovery program are the teachings of Siddhartha (Sid) Gautama, a man who lived in India twenty-five hundred years ago. Sid was a radical psychologist and a spiritual revolutionary. through his own efforts and practices, he came to understand why human beings experience and cause so much suffering. He referred to the root cause of suffering as “uncontrollable thirst or repetitive craving.” This “thirst” tends to arise in relation to pleasure, but it may also arise as a craving for unpleasant experiences to go away, or as an addiction to people, places, things, or experiences. This is the same thirst of the alcoholic, the same craving as the addict, and the same attachment as the codependent.

Eventually, Sid came to understand and experience a way of living that ended all forms of suffering. He did this through a practice and process that includes meditation, wise actions, and compassion. After freeing himself from the suffering caused by craving, he spent the rest of his life teaching others how to live a life of well-being and freedom, a life free from suffering. Sid became known as the Buddha, and his teachings became known as Buddhism. the Refuge Recovery program has adapted the core teachings of the Buddha as a treatment of addiction.

Buddhism recognizes a nontheistic approach to spiritual practice. The Refuge Recovery program of recovery does not ask anyone to believe anything, only to trust the process and do the hard work of recovery.

This book contains a systematic approach to treating and recovering from all forms of addictions. Using the traditional formulation, the program of recovery consists of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. When sincerely practiced, the program will ensure a full recovery from addiction, and a lifelong sense of well-being and happiness.

Of course, like every path, you can only get to your destination by moving forward, one foot in front of the other. The path is gradual and comprehensive, a map of the inner terrain that must be traversed in the process of recovery. The path includes daily meditation practices, written investigations of the causes and conditions of your addictions, and how to find or create the community you will need in order to heal and awaken. We have also included stories of people who have successfully recovered with the help of Buddhist practices.

Although I am credited with writing the book, the large community at Refuge Recovery is the inspirational and creative force behind it. this community has helped shape, inform, and enhance the program with their direct experience of practicing these principles. This book, then, should be viewed as a collaborative effort, a book written for the plural rather than the singular — the “we” instead of the “I,” since it speaks for Buddhists and addicts everywhere.

Lastly, we are aware that more will be revealed. It is our hope that we have offered here a substantial and useful foundation to the Buddhist recovery movement. We have every intention to learn and grow and revise as we go. this is just the first edition. Enjoy!

What is Refuge Recovery?

Refuge Recovery is a Buddhist-oriented path to freedom from addiction. This is an approach to recovery that understands: “All individuals have the power and potential to free themselves from the suffering that is caused by addiction.” We feel confident in the power of the Dharma, if applied, to relieve suffering of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction. This is a process that cultivates a path of awakening, the path of recovering from the addictions and delusions that have created so much suffering in our lives and in this world.

Refuge Recovery is a systematic approach to training our hearts and minds to see clearly and respond to our lives with understanding and non-harming. You are entering a way of life that may be familiar to some and foreign to others. In the beginning some of it may seem confusing or counter-instinctual, and some of it is. But you will find that with time, familiarity and experience, it will all make perfect sense and will gradually become a more and more natural way of being.
http://www.refugerecovery.org/

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
dharmacorps
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by dharmacorps »

I was at where you are at. There is a solution, and there is a way forward. That you have been exposed to the Buddha's teachings is very fortunate-- you are making this post so you have some good fortune at least. Go to AA-- Make the dhamma your higher power. Don't get turned off by the talk of god. The people in those rooms can help you get sober.
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oncereturner
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by oncereturner »

bodom wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:37 pm As a recovering addict and alcoholic I dont recommend AA but the Refuge Recovery Program. There are meetings all over the world. Check the link below to see if there are any in your area.
Thanks, it is available in the US, and I live in EU. And I have bad experiences with AA. In my country, the state financialized (free) medical service is a catastrophe. Doctor said he can not help me. I will seek for a private doctor. It's a lot of money, but I think it worth it. Alcohol is a lot more money and disaster.

I saw a hospital, full of alcohol addicts, and the smell was unbearable. These people can't even have hygiene. The leader doctor of the restricted class, when I spent 2 days, recommended this hospital, but I refused to go there.

One day at my workplace I had nothing to do. I read Dhammapada all day long, especially about the craving. After work, I drank 10 beers. Common sense and losing my job is even not enough to stay sober. There is a dangerous medicine, called antaethyl, I have this. I take one pill, and for 4 days it blocks the acetaldehid metabolism, which is a metabolic of alcohol. This makes hangover and most of the problems. So this medicine causes severe condition, life which can be life threating. It is meant to prevent drinking. I drink 10 beers even after taking this pill.

I take a lot of vitamins and cure myself every day, so I can go to work. I have to stop this somehow.
"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech."

— SN 45.8
Garrib
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by Garrib »

oncereturner wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:18 am I have to stop this somehow.
Please PLEASE do! Think about us here at Dhammawheel - we would all LOVE to one day hear your recovery story, and on the flipside, I would be really disappointed to hear that something bad had happened to you. It doesn't matter that we are separated by cultural and geographic barriers. You matter and people care about you. Please get help and do what needs to be done - get clean and STAY clean. It is possible...

Take care.
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JeffR
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by JeffR »

Garrib wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:03 am You matter and people care about you.
Find people you can talk to who will support you in staying sober. The Buddha has said that good companions are the whole of the holy life.
Therein what are 'six (types of) disrespect'? One dwells without respect, without deference for the Teacher; one dwells without respect, without deference for the Teaching; one dwells without respect, without deference for the Order; one dwells without respect, without deference for the precepts; one dwells without respect, without deference for heedfulness; one dwells without respect, without deference for hospitality. These are six (types of) disrespect.
:Vibh 945
dharmacorps
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by dharmacorps »

I had bad experiences with AA too, until I found a group I liked and a sponsor that understood. Don't let your pride get in the way. I bought myself months if not years more of needless suffering because of clinging to pride. After a certain point, that is all that is standing between you and the potential to get sober. The anti-alcohol meds, doctors, and buddhism alone will not solve your problem. You could also explore going into a recovery program or rehab, but if you can't afford that or don't have access, AA remains the best way.
mal4mac
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by mal4mac »

I just read a great book which has an excellent chapter on using will power to defeat alcohol addiction:

Willpower: Rediscovering our greatest strength by Baumeister and Tierney

Baumeister has a towering reputation in social pyschology, this is no "self help" hack work, but uses the very best of Western science to provide ways of increasing will power. One chapter is very positive about AA and goes into some detail on using will power to defeat alcohol addiction. The authors give advice on how atheists can get round the "God" problem, which also applies to Buddhists.

Just reading the book, and applying its recommendations, defeated my addiction to playing internet chess - of course this is probably not as difficult to defeat as alcohol addiction, but I can imagine the book helping those with more serious addictions.
- Mal
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oncereturner
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Re: Buddhism and alcohol

Post by oncereturner »

Garrib wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:03 am
oncereturner wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:18 am I have to stop this somehow.
Please PLEASE do! Think about us here at Dhammawheel - we would all LOVE to one day hear your recovery story, and on the flipside, I would be really disappointed to hear that something bad had happened to you. It doesn't matter that we are separated by cultural and geographic barriers. You matter and people care about you. Please get help and do what needs to be done - get clean and STAY clean. It is possible...

Take care.
Thank you for your support and your kind words. Yesterday I was at a rock concert, and drank very much, my friend hired me a taxi, because i couldn't walk. In the wilderness I also drink very much, sometimes fall asleep in the woods. It's a refugee from the civilization, but not from alcohol. It is everywhere, cheap and nobody cares about a drinking man on the street in my country.

I will try my best. Willpower, medicine, dhamma and everything seems to be useless now. I'm also addicted to (40 mg-s / day) nicotine and mobile gaming. I also take 6 mg-s of benzodiazepine a day.

It's a miracle I was working today, and my work was praised by my boss.

In short, I have several heavy addictions, each one are associated. Gaming, alcohol, benzo, nicotine and so on.

This is just a misery. I'm still thinking about to solution. Maybe forums, AA, doctor, spiritual communities.
"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech."

— SN 45.8
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