Re: Pre-disposed to alcohol and drug addiction

[Guest guest]

I think we all can agree alcohol and CMT don't mix however when I was younger I

can say having a glass or two of red wine made me walk better but alcohol is a

disinhibitor so I am sure I was just less worried about falling.

I don't think there is a direct predisposition to addiction with CMT but I can

say I am reliant on pain meds to get me through the day and unfortunaley I had

to up the doses because my body gets immuned to them but never have I abused

them.  I do think there is a predisposition to depression simply from having the

disease and lack of services or treatments.  For some reason I do ok mostly

because I keep very busy and work a lot of hours.  I will work until I drop dead

because once I quit I think I will decompensate quickly.

Andy

[Guest guest]

Dawn:

Yes I do agree with you many people do stereotype PHYSICALLY disabled people

enough. We don't need to do it to ourselves;  especially when there is no

medical evidence.

 

Most people do not understand CMT or other disablities. They need to walk in our

shoes for a month.

 

Mark F

[Guest guest]

Hi Dawn,

I have no idea if CMT and drug/alcohol abuse has any connection, but

personnally, I don't like alcohol, because it makes my balance worse. Also, I am

one of those who gets sleepy and tired from drinking alcohol, so there is

absolutely no point in drinking for me (unless I want to cure insomnia, but

actually, I sleep well without drinking too, so I really don't see the point in

using alcohol at all) . I can understand that some people have emotional

problems due to the disease and they might use alcohol as a kind of

self-medication for that. I think that was Mark's point.

It was interesting to read that you performed so well at college. I have a

master of science in molecular biology and I work with research. I read

somewhere, forgot where, that CMT and intelligence has got a connection. It

means CMTers are smarter. I don't know if that is true, but nobody in my family

has got a university diploma, except me. And it wasn't especially hard to get,

so I chose more difficult courses with lots of lab work, since I thought that

most courses where memorizing things was the only challenge were too easy.

Beata

[Guest guest]

Hello Fiona,

I would be interested in knowing which country you're from.

Defman

[Guest guest]

Hi Defman

I'm Irish by birth and have lived in Scotland for most of my life. As far my

family is aware our ancestry is Irish although we can only go back to the late

1800's.

Why I mention that is that because Scotland (more so than Ireland) have large

groups of neurological illnesses such as MS as well as CMT.

Regards

Fiona