A Complete Guide to Supplements and Vitamins for Recovering Alcoholics
Bio-Repair and Slow Time: The Sweet Science of Supplements
This spring has offered millions of people a season of slow time. With shelter-in-place orders keeping us at home all over the world, some of us have had more time than ever to reflect deeply about where we are and where we want to be. For those of us living with addiction, being at home has been a catalyst for seeing our struggles more intimately. For some people, without the structure of a routine that confines drinking to weekends and evenings, that means seeing how far we can fall. For others, it means really seeing the connection between our anxiety and depression and the way we eat and drink. Social distancing has brought us closer to ourselves.
Those of us who have been in recovery know that recovery, too, is a kind of slow time. After years of drinking and abuse, we take time to take stock of ourselves, our triggers, our strengths. In the best of all worlds, we return slowly to ourselves, and we return stronger. This kind of slow time is rich with reflection and growth.
Far too often, though, the slow time of recovery is the one-step-forward-two-steps-back drag of relapse, self-blame, and depression. This kind of time feels not just slow, but endless. If you’re one of those people struggling with the wrong kind of slow recovery --the kind that feels like you’re always slipping backwards-- you need to know two things: It’s not your fault and it doesn’t have to be this way.
Recovery doesn’t have to be endless. It so often feels that way because most people don’t understand that withdrawal is a biochemical process, and that, until we address that process with comprehensive nutritional therapy, we can’t fully recover. Even when we’re doing everything right (AA, therapy, meditation, a healthy diet), we can’t fully recover until we repair the nutritional deficiencies caused by years of drinking, poor diet, and/or substance abuse. I will show you how supplements and vitamins for recovering alcoholics help overcome addiction and withdrawal.
Protracted Withdrawal
During the early years of my recovery, I spent tens of thousands on yoga, meditation, therapy, spiritual retreats, workshops, body work, energy healing, and anything else that helped me feel a little bit better. While all of it provided some relief and I learned a lot, I still struggled with insomnia, depression, and the underlying low-grade feeling I’m not ok. I thought maybe something was wrong with me and that it was something I would need to learn to live with for the rest of my life. What I didn’t realize was that I was suffering from protracted withdrawal; that my long-term symptoms, like the symptoms of my initial withdrawal from alcohol, were chemical; and that there was something I could do about it.
What is Protracted Withdrawal?
Protracted withdrawal is a physiological syndrome that occurs when the physical damage caused by years of excessive drinking or drugging has not been completely reversed. It is the result of long-term vitamin and nutrient depletion caused by substance abuse. Unlike initial withdrawal --the immediate physiological effects of detoxing from drugs and alcohol, which happens over the first days and weeks of abstinence-- protracted withdrawal can last for years. Our bodies are looking for these vital nutrients wherever we can find them, and often those places are dangerous quick fixes. As long as the need for vital nutrients remains unmet, we will experience the unpleasant symptoms: cravings for alcohol and sugar, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and hypoglycemic mood swings.
For example, when we are deficient in certain vital chemicals in the brain like amino acids, or we are lacking vitamins in our cells like C or B vitamins, or fatty acids like omega-3s, we feel like crap -- depressed, irritable, and craving craving craving, whatever makes us feel better - drugs, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, junk food. In fact, the more we use these substances, the more depleted we become, and the high we get from these only temporarily relieves our “psychological” symptoms (which are in fact physiologically based). When we are not using, the symptoms get worse.
Sober sufferers of protracted withdrawal are, in fact, still sick. So unless they undertake an effective nutritional therapy to restore the levels of the nutrients, they will continue to be depressed, anxious, irritable, and unhappy for years after they stop drinking.
EXPERIMENTS AND RESEARCH
When I started working with my nutritionist in 2009 I went off refined sugar, dairy, wheat, and coffee. I started eating more whole foods: greens, legumes, roots, and whole grains. It took the edge off my most persistent health issues almost immediately: I wasn’t bloated and constipated all the time, I had more energy, mood swings weren’t as severe, my skin looked healthier (less acne), I was sleeping much better, and I lost a few pounds.
I’d feel amazing for weeks and months but then I’d get triggered by something and my depression and anxiety, and cravings for alcohol, sugar, nicotine, and caffeine would start all over again. I was already seeing a therapist, went to AA, started to meditate and practice yoga, but it wasn’t enough.
I did know one thing for sure: When I did stick to eating only whole foods without sugar, dairy, wheat, and coffee it made the biggest difference for my mood, especially when I added in the supplements. So I started digging deeper to see how I could get rid of these uncontrollable cravings so I could sustain eating this way and feeling good all the time.
That research journey revolutionized how I look at addiction and its root causes. The science-based knowledge I gathered helped me cure my cravings, anxiety, and depression for good. From my research, I developed a comprehensive nutritional program I call bio-repair, which is the basis of my practice for clients in recovery. It changed my life. I think it can change yours, too.
Comprehensive Nutritional Therapy, or Bio-Repair
Vitamins and minerals are crucial to our bodies’ functioning. And no amount of talk therapy or AA meetings can restore the levels of amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and probiotics that keep us feeling balanced emotionally and physically. Likewise, no amount of vitamin C can heal childhood trauma. We need both psychological support and physical repair.
Knowing what I know now about the role of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in recovery, I support my clients with a comprehensive course of nutritional repair. We begin with a healthy diet, emphasizing high-quality protein, vegetables, and whole foods, and eliminating sugar, caffeine, and wheat. But nutritional therapy does not stop there, because, as Dr. James Robert Milam and Katherine Ketcham reveal in their book, Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism, food alone is not enough. The reality is that “Alcoholics’ nutritional needs are only partially met by a balanced diet. They also need vitamin and mineral supplements to correct any deficiencies and to maintain nutritional balances.”
VITAL ROLE OF SUPPLEMENTS IN ADDICTION RECOVERY
Restore the levels of all missing nutrients so we can start to feel more energy, better sleep, better mood;
Help your body absorb the nutrients you’re taking in the form of food and supplements. (When we drink too much for too long, our digestive system can get so irritated that it becomes unable to properly process the nutrients we take in. We are not what we eat, we are what we absorb);
Stabilize blood sugar. (The majority of addicts and alcoholics struggle with blood-sugar disorders like hypoglycemia and diabetes.)
MY BIO-REPAIR EXPERIENCE
My own bio-repair process involved a three-month intensive period of supplementation, nutrients from A to Z in therapeutic doses recommended by the doctors whose work I’ve studied. Immediately, I noticed changes in sleep, mood, skin, digestion, energy, and cravings--a complete release from the slog of recovery I have maintained to this day. During my bio-repair program, I took up to 90 capsules per day of 20-25 vitamins, minerals, and other supplements in specifically calibrated dosages, gradually tapering down to my current maintenance regimen, which includes a multivitamin, fish oil, B complex, vitamin C, probiotics, enzymes, and GABA. My anxiety and depression are gone, and so are my cravings. This is the same program I use with my clients, who report the same results.
What You Can Do
Nutritional therapy is an intensive process. For those who want to learn more about how to get started on your own:
Read Seven Weeks to Sobriety: The Proven Program to Fight Alcoholism through Nutrition by Dr. Joan Mathews-Larson
Read Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism by Dr. James Robert Milam and Katherine Ketcham
Avoid wheat, refined sugar, dairy, and coffee.
Begin taking some basic vitamins and supplements from which everyone in early recovery can benefit for at least 3-12 months, with a few essential ones for the rest of their lives. It’s a safe formula, not possible to overdose on (see sidebar).
A very important note on supplements:
Often supplementation therapy is absolutely necessary, like in early recovery, or during the dietary transition, but they’re not the main event; they’re exactly what the name suggests: supplemental. You will feel the most powerful results (read: immediate, deep, and lasting) when supplements are complementary to regular exercise and a balanced diet of unrefined foods. Only pairing nutritional supplementation with diet and lifestyle recommendations will provide well-rounded recovery support.
ONE-ON-ONE SUPPORT
The other important note on supplements: You don’t have to figure it all out alone. I spent years learning what works and what doesn’t work, reading the best in the scientific literature, and seeing the successes in myself and with my clients.
As someone who tried to slog out the highs and lows of sobriety, I can tell you that time by itself is not enough for recovery. We can’t heal completely until we get what we need. And then, when we do, time is a gift, something to cherish.
If you think supplements might help support your recovery, schedule a free chat with me. Together we will explore if a full three-month bio-repair program is the right next step for you. I can recommend supplements and tell you more about specifics.
Enjoy!
I’m Elena Singh, founder of the Sweet Science wellness program. I’m a certified nutrition counselor, science-based health coach, and addiction survivor. I help people in recovery heal their bodies and minds so they can learn to love sober life—not just survive it.
READ MY STORY
PIN FOR LATER
Photo Credit: Page 124 Productions
Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, collected extensive research on the subject of nutritional deficiencies and protracted withdrawal, observing that people in recovery were suffering from anxiety, depression, insomnia, and hypoglycemia -- including himself. Wilson found tremendous relief in supplements and found success in recommending supplements to other sufferers of protracted withdrawal syndrome. We don’t know whether AA’s board of physicians disputed his research because he was not a doctor or because recovered alcoholics with zero depression, anxiety, and cravings could never be made dependent for a lifetime on anybody else, including AA. We do know, however, that while AA has a success rate of 7-9%, treatment centers that include nutrition and supplementation have success rates closer to 75%. (I’m not against AA. I’m an AA member; I have a home group and I go to meetings regularly, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.)
Basic Supplements
for Recovery
Here are a few of the supplements I recommend to my clients (click here for the full protocol):
High-quality multivitamin that includes Vitamin D3, chromium, and zinc
Vitamin C
Essential Fatty Acids:
Omega-3s and GLA
B-Complex
Calcium/Magnesium
Amino acids:
Glutamine, Tyrosine, Essential Aminos, GABA, Tryptophan