For twelve years I took recovering teenage addicts into my home, basically operating a self-funded halfway house.  Fourty-five young people found their way to me, and on many mornings I found young people, sleeping on my front porch with a few belongings, waiting to get in.  Some would stay a few days, and some would stay as much as a year.

      I encouraged these young people to attend twelve-step programs, but I was convinced that there must be some physical component to addiction that is not fully addressed in the psychological and spiritual aspect of drug and alcohol recovery programs.  In 1986, my search for answers led me to attend a workshop on how to treat addiction without drugs.  Life from then on changed.  I met a physician, Dr. Gant, who had already begun to think in the same direction and had actually formulated nutritional protocols for chemically dependent people.

      The first time we spoke, I knew I was on the right path.  He said that adiction was, in part, a biochemical imbalance and did not arise from moral failing.  That was wonderful news!  It fit with my intuition, which said that the kids who came to me were basically good kids and so was I.

      Dr Gant talked about the "feel-good neurotransmitters" in the synapses of the brain.  Although this is overly simplistic, he basically held that much addiction came from a person's ability to maintain an adequate supply of these neurotransmitters, due to genetics, toxicity, nutrition, or stress.  Also he said that once people began using addictive substances, the body makes less of the feel-bood neurotransmitters, thereby compelling the victim to seek more relief from drugs, alcohol, or food, causing fewer neurotransmittersto be made, and so on, in a downward spiral toward catastrophe.  In perusing thousands of scientific papers, he learned that the body can usually make all the neurotransmitters if it has the proper nutritional building blocks, but that these building blocks cannot be supplied by diet alone.

      I couldn't believe how lucky I had been to find him.  I had prayed so long for this and I was finally going to be able to help these young peopleI  I immediately made an appointment with him, and I found our first conversation to be very enlightening. We recognized each other as kindred spirits, and we immediately became friends. This brilliant physician began seeing the young people in my sober living house for free and prescribing nutritional supplements. As a result, I saw dramatic improvements. There was decreased depression, decreased irritability, better attention spans, improved attitudes, less anxiety, and many other positive changes.

     I myself had had problems with drugs and alcohol since my teen years. With the help of a twelve-step program, I got clean and sober in 1974. I worked hard on my recovery, but I never felt right. Not understanding nutrition back then, I allowed myself to be put on an antidepressant medication in 1987 and began abusing the meds almost immediately. I believe that was one the crucial factors in my relapsing —first on drugs and then on alcohol. The relapse lasted for eighteen months. In 1980, I found sobriety and have maintained abstinence ever since. 

     In 1984, I gave up nicotine. This was one the hardest thing I have ever done. To accomplish it, I went and lived in a cabin in the woods for six weeks and took long, long hikes every day. I now understand that nicotine was the last psychoactive drug that I was relying on. My brain had long before stopped making several feel-good neurotransmitters, because I had been supplying them with drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. I felt horrible, but I was insistent about not using any chemicals to help me stop smoking.

     I did not consciously know that food contained the building blocks of the neurotransmitters I was missing. But my unconscious knew. I gravitated toward food and doubled my dress size (from size 7).  Some of my eating was pretty frenzied. I now realize that I was intuitively seeking to acquire the neurotransmitter serotonin through the starches and sugars that I craved and gobbled up. Neither did I realize that refined carbohydrates cannot satisfactorily do the job on a long-term basis. What I did know was that I just didn’t feel normal. I felt out of sync in my own body.

I got the idea that balancing my biochemistry and getting rid of toxins would make a difference in my life and others. I decided to participate in a complete blood testing program and found out the biochemical imbalances were not supporting my brain and body. I began taking supplements that were customized to my biochemistry. In those days there were many bottles of nutrients to open, because Dr. Gant had not yet combined the various ingredients into single-tablet or packet formulations. The real result of using the supplements was a wonderful change in my mood and thinking. I felt as if I fit into humanity at last. For the first time in my life, I felt normal. Combining 12 Step and balancing biochemistry had given me my life back.

     Ever since I balanced my biochemistry life has changed, no more mood swings and a sense of well being always remains. Forty of the 45  young adolescents who came through my home are now leading normal and active lives. Since then, I have been lucky to become a part of addiction work, and I’ve seen hundreds of the addicts Dr. Gant has worked with improve, many of them dramatically, and some even miraculously.

Exerpted from the Holistic health Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Sprint 1997), pp. 42-43.

Resources
“End Your Addiction Now” by Charles Gant MD, & Greg Lewis PhD
“Staying Clean & Sober” by David K Miller, PhD, & Merlene Miller