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The belladona treatment is described best in Bill Pittman's book: AA The Way It Began, ISBN 0-934125-08-2, available from Hazelden books. I will quote that section: Upon Wilson's arrival at Towns Hospital, he was placed in a bed and the Towns-Lambert Treatment was begun. Dr. Lambert described the belladonna treatment as follows: Briefly stated, it consists in the hourly dosage of a mixture of belladonna, hyoscyamus and xanthoxylum. The mixture is given every hour, day and night, for about fifty hours. There is also given about every twelve hours a vigorous catharsis of C.C. pills and blue mass. At the end of the treatment, when it is evident that there are abundant bilious stools, castor oil is given to clean out thoroughly the intestinal tract. If you leave any of the ingredients out, the reaction of the cessation of desire is not as clear cut as when the three are mixed together. The amount necessary to give is judged by the physiologic action of the belladonna it contains. When the face becomes flushed, the throat dry, and the pupils of the eyes dilated, you must cut down your mixture or cease giving it altogether until these symptoms pass. You must, however, push this mixture until these symptoms appear, or you will not obtain a clear cut cessation of the desire for the narcotic... (17, p. 2126; 209,p.186) The exact contents of each ingredient is outlined below: Belladonna Specific Belladona - Atropa belladonna Deadly nightshade; a
perennial herb with dark purple flowers and black berries. Leaves and root
contain atropine and related alkaloids which are anticholinergic. It is a
powerful excitant of the brain with side effects of delirium (wild and
talkative), decreased secretion, and diplopia. Xanthoxylum - Xanthoxylum Americanum The dried bark or berries
of prickly ash. Alkaloid of Hydrasts. Helps with chronic gastro-intestinal
disturbances. Carminative and diaphoretic. AA, Bill Wilson and LSD
Many of you probably know already that Bill Wilson, founder of
Alcoholics Anonymous, was an avid supporter of the use of LSD to treat
alcoholism. I found this biographical article online (in Modern
Drunkard magazine, Standing Up For Your Right to Get Falling Down
Drunk Since 1996, which I have never heard of before now but which
seems quite relevant itself) which is brief, catchy and fascinating.
It reminds me of several interesting and widely applicable points, not
the least of which is that the popularity and longevity of any
movement, whether a cult, a philosophy, or a therapeutic technique,
ultimately depends as much on the charisma of the initial promoters as
it does on any qualities of the core idea. Just think what the world
of addiction treatment would be like today if Bill Wilson hadn't been
such a character!
This is my favorite part of the article: One of his therapeutic journeys lead him to Trabuco College in California, and the friendship of the college’s founder, Aldous Huxley. The author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception introduced Wilson to LSD-25. The drug rocked Wilson’s world. He thought of it as something of a miracle substance and continued taking it well into the ‘60s. As he approached his 70th birthday, he developed a plan to have LSD distributed at all AA meetings nationwide. The plan was eventually quashed by more rational voices, and a few years later the Federal government made the point moot by making the drug illegal. (That Wilson’s plan was shot down is probably fortunate. LSD is a beautiful thing, but nothing sounds more horrifying to me than a roomful of chain-smoking, frightened, needy drunks tripping their heads off in the basement of the local Y.) |