What is a dry drunk, and the 'dry drunk syndrome'? as it is from time to time known as? It can best be described as someone who fits one of two conditions. The first is someone who has given up drinking and drugging and not made any internal or emotional changes, they stay the same but the substance use has stopped. Or in the second case what was once someone abstinent and on a progressive path of recovery has slowly returned to chaotic and impracticable thinking.
Being active in your dependence sets up many trains of thought, mind sets, feelings, and actions that are problematical. Only removing the alcohol or drugs without altering these underlying matters will make a dry drunk syndrome. The dry drunk in fact refers to a condition and not the person. It is important to recognize a reversion back to our old ways of thinking and acting, or lack of progress in moving onward in recovery.
The dry drunk can be a precursor to the beginnings of relapse, the AA Big Book describes this state as being "restless, irritable, and discontented". This set of mind sets can apply to any person who is chemically dependent, or even those were not. Here are some of the mind sets customary with the dry drunk syndrome.
Grandiosity - Grandiosity essentially means a return to a self-centered, the world revolves about me attitude. In 12 Step literatures this is the concept of being "self-centered in the extreme". It does not have to necessarily mean that I believe I am the best; it can also be seeking notice through playing the victim or sitting on the pity pot.
Impulsivity - A customary attitude or visible behavior of individuals with habit problems is poor impulse control. We tend to do what we want when we want, with little regard for self harm or hurting others around us. Impulsivity can be linked with grandiosity to connect in behaviors designed to make us the center of notice.
Being judgmental - This is a very destructive attitude for people in recovery. When we judge a individual as being better than or less than, we are setting up a condition where we inflate our egos feeling better than other people. On the other hand if we judge ourselves to be on the short end we can feel bitter and generate low self-esteem. Being judgmental is a low self-esteem generator.
Complacency - This is not only an attitude of somebody in dry drunk syndrome, but is a red flag warning sign of someone who is well into the relapse process. An important facet of being in active recovery is just that, being active, and moving ahead. It is not how fast you are going but rather the direction in which you are headed. If you get lazy or disinterested and stop being proactive about your recovery, the natural to a propensity is to fall back into addictive behaviors. Your re-engagement in them is just a short step away.
Once you are lured into any of these attitudes, they start to affect how you think. Once your thinking is affected and you start to buy into self-centered thoughts, chances are you'll connect in the actions stemming from these self-centered thoughts.
Here are some unhelpful patterns and actions that can result from dry drunk thinking:
1. We become restless and irritable and discontent.
2. We become bored, dissatisfied, and effortlessly distracted from fruitful tasks.
3. Our emotions and feelings get listless and dull, nothing excites us anymore.
4. We start to the engage in the euphoric recall that is yearning for the good old days of active using and for having the pain and shame of use.
5. We start to engage in magical thinking we get on realistic and fanciful expectations and dreams.
6. The last thing we want you is engaged in introspection to improve ourselves.
7. We start to become unfulfilled and have the feeling that not anything will ever satisfy our yearning or fill the hole in the sole.
Looking back at the list of attitudes and thought distortions listed above, it is easy to see how the dry drunk syndrome is simply not anything more then reverting back to the way it was when we were active in our use. If you are starting to notice some of the attitudes discussed creeping back into your life, is target time to begin paying attention to the possibility of relapse and begin turning your life in sobriety and recovery about. The dry drunk syndrome is a bright red flashing warning sign for relapse.
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