Addiction

While an emotional crisis or problem can lead people to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or use other drugs, many researchers believe that a chemical imbalance in the brain is actually responsible for addiction. What makes substances such as cocaine, heroin, alcohol and nicotine so attractive are the pleasurable sensations they create. After a few rounds of artificial stimulation, the brain responds only to the drug instead of to pleasurable events in life. In most cases, the more often you take the drug, the more you need to take to feel pleasure. This leads to addiction—an intense craving and even physical need for the drug. If addicts cannot get the drug, they can become nervous, anxious and even desperate.

Breaking an addiction is hard work. Cigarette smokers, for instance, often quit, start again, quit, start again—they are caught in a vicious cycle. In the words of the great Mark Twain: "To cease smoking is the easiest thing. I ought to know. I've done it thousands of times."

Besides creating an unending cycle of addiction, drugs can cause the addict a variety of other physical problems. For example, smoking damages the lungs and promotes lung cancer, and drinking destroys brain cells and can ruin your liver. Nicotine and caffeine also stimulate the production of too much cortisone and adrenaline, often triggering anxiety, panic attacks, depression, nervousness and heart palpitations. In some people with psychiatric problems, caffeine can promote the intensity of mental illness.

Since addiction and depression often go hand in hand, if you have a problem with addiction and are seeking answers here, be sure to read "Depression" in chapter 14 and "Anxiety" in chapter 14 as well. Also read the sections in this book that cover herbs to treat a liver damaged by alcohol or drugs (chapter 45), lungs battered by smoke and adrenal glands harmed by an excess of caffeine—whether from coffee or colas.

While herbs do make a difference, by themselves they usually offer little help for someone dealing with an addiction. Most recovering addicts find that they also need to make lifestyle changes that bring new meaning to their lives. Regularly doing any aerobic exercise—even walking three times a week for 20 minutes—can change brain chemistry enough to help fight addiction or depression.

Take Sue and Marjorie, friends of mine who are both admitted alcoholics. Sue had tried everything imaginable, however briefly, to overcome her addiction—except herbs. She told Marjorie that she considered them her last hope. Unfortunately, she devised a treatment that consisted only of herbs, and as is often the case with alcoholism, the herbs just weren't enough by themselves. Marjorie decided to take another route and focus on several methods at once. She had already tried all the standard methods (quitting "cold turkey," joining 12-step programs and so on), but had never backed these methods with an herbal program. She tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade Sue to do the same. I was not surprised to hear later that Sue was drinking again. Marjorie, however, has stayed sober—with the help of herbs.

Here's the lowdown on the herbs that often prove helpful. Capsules of gamma linoleic acid (GLA) from evening primrose, borage or currant seed oils are among the best herbal aids for controlling alcoholism. Brian Leonard, Ph.D., who studies evening primrose at the University College in Galway, Ireland, believes that supplements of this herb not only help recovering alcoholics to stay sober, but also slow down the damage that alcohol is known to cause to brain cells.

According to the latest research, the relaxant herb valerian may also slow brain cell damage that results from excessive alcohol consumption. Herbalists in Europe use valerian—in tea, tincture or pill form—to help overcome and lessen alcohol withdrawal symptoms. In Brazil, passionflower is preferred.

In the nineteenth century, Eclectic doctors who used several natural treatments, including herbs, found that another sedative, skullcap, could be used to reduce anxiety and nervousness resulting from emotional or physical exhaustion. Herbalists today use it as one ingredient in formulas for addiction. The key to the addiction-fighting effects of valerian, passionflower and possibly skullcap may lie in the adjustments these herbs make in brain chemistry by changing the levels of neurotransmitters. Another secret to their success could be their roles as bitter digestive aids. Eclectic physicians of the early nineteenth century recommended bitters to overcome drunkenness. They were especially fond of a formula that included the extremely bitter quassia and gentian, which they found diminished the desire for alcohol. (Bitters are also good for getting rid of a hangover—bartenders recommend Angostura bitters, which have gentian as the main ingredient.)

For centuries, Asian herbalists have suggested kudzu to reduce alcoholism and drunkenness. This perennial vine from Japan, which was introduced to the southeastern United States around 1876, has made itself so much at home that it has taken over acres of land. Preliminary studies on experimental animals conducted at the National Academy of Science have gotten positive results, but so far no studies have been conducted on people. There are plans to investigate kudzu's effects on people. It should make southerners happy to know that there may be a practical use for this highly invasive weed.

The Chinese also use shizandra to enhance both mental and physical balance. It has been successfully used for over a decade to treat mental disorders related to alcoholism.

Turning away from alcohol addiction, let us consider smoking. Oatmeal is probably one of the last things you would think of to help in overcoming an addiction, but modern herbalists report that fresh oats are indeed useful, especially during nicotine withdrawal. (Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine have been recommending it for at least a thousand years to treat opium addiction.) A 1971 study on this herb showed that a tincture made from fresh oats can indeed help people stop smoking.

In a 1994 study, researchers tried an Ayurvedic remedy on people who had recently quit smoking—they had them sniff the essential oil of black pepper (you can also just sniff raw peppercorns—if they don't make you sneeze). This treatment alleviated the anxiety and other symptoms that usually accompany nicotine withdrawal.

Withdrawal Tincture

½ teaspoon each tinctures of valerian rhizome and skullcap leaves

1 teaspoon tincture (or glycerite) of fresh oat berries

½ teaspoon each tinctures of Saint-John's-wort leaves and passionflower

Combine ingredients. Take 2 to 5 dropperfuls a day. If you are a recovering alcoholic, use a glycerite instead of a tincture, which is alcohol-based. (If you are not sure what a glycerite is, see "Glycerites" in chapter 8.)