Pastors Told Alcoholic Needs Scientific Medical Treatment

              Psychiatrist Talks at Clinic
Pastors Told Alcoholic Needs
Scientific Medical Treatment
By BUI Lodge
Of The Times Staff
Acoholics should have treatment ad-ministered
to them iu the same manner
that treatment for other disorders is
administered, according to Dr. Erie
Harris Jr., a Shreveport psychiatrist in
private practice.
Harris, an associate professor of
clinical psychiatry at the Louisiana State
University Medical School in Shreveport,
is a graduate of Centenary College and
Tulane Medical School in New Orleans.
As the featured speaker at a meeting
of the Clinical Pastoral Training Pro-gram
this week at Schumpert Hospital,
he said that physicians have long treated
diseases a s s o c i a t e d with alcoholism
rather than the alcoholic himself.
"I have known physicians who knew a
great deal about treating diseases of the
liver and nervous system but who knew
nothing about the persons they were
treating," he said.
"At the same time, I have found that
AA (Alcoholics A n o n y m o u s ) doesn't
know anything about livers or the
nervous system but does know a great
deal about the people," he added.
Treatment Long Neglected
Harris said that the treatment of the
alcoholic individual has long been a
neglected area of study within the field
of medicine
"Alcoholism is one of the most
political diseases or disorders in the U.S.
today," he stated.
He said it was his. opinion that
alcoholics should not be isolated as
sufferers of a unique or "freak" disease,
but that they should be treated in the
same way that other sick people are
treated.
Harris said that contrary to popular
opinion the greatest number of alcoholics
in this country are included in the middle
and upper income brackets rather than
the "skid row" element of society.
According to his figures, only five per
cent of the nation's alcoholics are
members of the latter element.
Approximately 70 million Americans
use alcohol to some degree, according to
Harris. He said that of this number
about five million are alcoholics and that
this number is increased by 200,000 each
year.
In describing the internal lifestyle of
many alcoholics, he said the mean age
for the onset of alcoholism is about 45
and is more common to men than
women. However, he did say that many
women who are alcoholics are camou-flaged
from society by their families.
He said that three consistent traits
are fomsd i" trsost alcoholics and that
th=se traits are usually e s t a b l i s h e d
during childhood.
A deeply felt sense of inadequacy,
hyper-sensitivity and a certain degree of
immaturity were listed as the three most
common personality factors to alcoholics
by Harris.
"Many feel inadequate both socially
and sexually," he said.
He stated that their super-sensitive
psrsonalities often prevented alcoholics
from experiencing their achievements as
success. As a result of this, many are
constantly preparing to set goals for
themselves rather than actually establ-ishing
something to aim for in life.
The immaturity mentioned by Harris
was characterized by a low frustration
level, a sense of time centered on the
present, over-reaction to criticism and
by the person's exaggeration of his own
talents.
Harris said the alcoholic Is less able
to tolerate tension or work steadily
toward a set goal. Instead, he satisfies
himself by drinking and indulging in
fantasy.
Harris also said there are three
phases involved in the development of an
alcoholic.
During the first or prodromal phase,
the person begins to have memory
lapses, tends to sneak drinks, is
preoccupied with alcohol in general and
covers up the fact that he consumes the
substance.
He said loss of control marks the
second stage of development. The person
in this phase makes extravagant ges-tures,
begins to alibi for his drinking and
increases the amount of aggression
which he releases. There is also a
noticeable increase in the degree to
which he suffers from remorse.
Chronic alcoholism is the final phase
of the process, according to Harris. He
said that persons who reach this point
begin to suffer from severe tremors and
are terrified by undefinable fears.
"Fear is tremendously magnified with
the alcoholic," he said, adding that many
alcoholics are afraid to go to a doctor for
treatment of any nature simply because
they are afraid of the unknown.
The process by which a person
becomes a true alcoholic usually involves
10 to 15 years, according to Harris.
"Alcoholism is a kind of synonym for
alcoholic addiction," he said. "Alcohol
must have some sort of pampering effect
on a person for him to become addicted
to it.'
The physical and psychological effects
of alcohol were also discussed by Harris.
"Alcohol taken in ordinary amounts
apparently has no effect on the body," he
said.
Nutritional Deficiencies
He explained tnat heavy drinkers
.suffer from a variety of ailments often
thought to be caused by alcoholic
consumption whiclx are. actually the
result of nutritional deficiencies.
He further stated that these deficien-cies
usually occur because the person
does not eat correctly when drinking for
prolonged periods of time.
"Cirrhosis, for example, is mainly a
nutritional disease with" the alcoholic,"
he said.
Harris noted that many people who
commit crimes are heavy drinkers but
ained the position that drinking and
the committing of a crime is often the
result of the same root problem.
"Psychologically, alcohol tends to
bring out abnormal b e h a v i o r , " he
explained. "It releases it rather than
causes it."
Among the phenomena discussed by
Harris in association with alcoholism
were pathological intoxication, Korsak-off's
psychosis, delirium tremens amd
alcoholic hallucinosis.
He said pathological intoxication is
often found with people who have had
head injuries, suffered from sun stroke
or become diabetics. In such cases it has
been found that one or two drinks is all
that is required for the person to become
thoroughly drunk.
"Korsakoff's psychosis," said Harris,
"is an alcoholic condition in which a
person suffers an almost complete loss of
memory. The loss is so total that he
constantly makes up stories to fill in the
voids."
Harris said that delirium tremens is
commonly known as the "D.T.'s" and
explained that an extreme impairment of
the senses is usually suffered durisg an
attack.
He said visual hallucinations and
convulsive seizures often occur.
In discussing alcoholic hallucinosis, he
explained that auditory rather than
visual hallucinations were usually in-volved
and that impairment of the senses
is not so extreme as with delirium
tremens.
Harris, said that while a person
normally has memory lapses following
an attack of the D.T.'s the opposite is
usually true with alcoholic hallucinosis.