One of the recurring posts of The Discovering Alcoholic is the Alcoholic Playbook, a series that illustrates how alcoholics and addicts often exhibit similar behavior regardless of their situation and status. I am going to start a new one today that will cover some of the unique adaptations that alcoholics and addicts develop in order to survive. I am going to call it Tricks of the Trade, and I urge you to add to my list whenever possible.
The first trick I would like to cover is one-eyed driving. This skill is an absolute necessity for anyone who not only drinks and drives, but drives with their faculties severely degraded. This is a little known fact, but most alcoholics can drive long after losing the ability to successfully walk because they have learned the technique of covering up one eye while driving to combat diplopia, or double vision. Actually standing up and maintaining one’s balance actually takes more direct concentration than driving at 70 mph down the interstate driving one eyed jack.
I review these things in my blog not for shock value, but as a way to raise awareness of the pervasive danger that drugs and alcohol present in our society. Driving one eyed jack isn’t a skill mastered by just the elite alcoholic, it is something learned quickly even by the greenest teen drunk. Scary isn’t it? I drove this way on at least a weekly basis… for years. I find it very unnerving when driving late at night if I begin to ponder the incapacitation level of those barreling down the opposing lane.
Stay tuned, up on deck next is “on-demand vomiting”.
