Alcoholism

I guess you could call it a justified cynicism, but I rarely give much credit to the statements made by alcoholics and addicts that are making excuses or placing blame on others for their disease. After all, as Stephen king says- it is the liar’s disease.

So when Bethlehem, PA firefighter Howard J. Aubrey sues the city for causing his alcoholism… consider me a skeptic. Read the news story from the link provided first, and then I’ll give you the “more probable” version based on my experience as an alcoholic and working with alcoholics and addicts. Trust me, I have been taking notes and we are a fairly predictable lot.

Now here’s the way I see it: Mr. Aubrey was battling a substance abuse problem and may have already been a full fledged alcoholic when the environment at his work changed making it more difficult to cover his problem. In an effort to compensate, he went to the “good” doctor about his condition and then proceeded to abuse the drugs he was prescribed. This snowballed, led to increased drinking, and he finally hit rock bottom or as the story describes it, a complete breakdown.

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After repeated tests and lengthy scientific analysis, researchers at the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse have discovered a link between alcohol and drunken behavior. “A significant correlation can be drawn between alcohol intake and foolish behavior,” says one leading scientist.

Others report that distilled spirits seem to take affect much quicker than brewed beverages and often the participant subjects will pass out before the test is even complete. “Performance becomes an issue” when those being tested were asked to do more than to sit on a barstool or awkardly talk in a very loud voice.

Yes, I was being silly but this parody came to mind after reading this story detailing how scientists have learned that drinking dampens the ability to feel fear. Let's get real here, I don’t need a government grant and a scientific laboratory to understand that copious amounts of alcohol will make one bullet proof!

Fortunately there is far more to this story than just the headline, they are actually making considerable headway in the field of addiction science.

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Much to my wife’s chagrin in company I identify myself as an alcoholic when I feel it is relevant. Although definitely a topic for discussion this post is not about the fact that I can say this comfortably in public, instead it is about what I often do not say… “Recovering”.

This point was brought up in a meeting not too long ago as we were discussing some of the reasons I openly admit my alcoholism. These reasons include 1) to put others with addictions at ease when we are discussing personal issues, 2) to make family members and friends realize this is a common problem and there should be no shame in coming out talking about these sorts of problems, 3) to serve as an example that just because one is an alcoholic, doesn’t mean they have to be a gutter drunk, and 4) to stand up when others speak act discriminately or have gross misconceptions about the subject of alcoholism and substance abuse.

Believe me, nothing ices down a water-cooler discussion on “no-good drunks and addicts” like saying saying, “I’m an alcoholic, why don’t you ask me about the subject?”

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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”.

St Patrick’s Day. I began thinking about this upcoming holiday and my drinking past as I was being bombarded by radio advertisements for drunk poker walks and organized bar hopping. Events perversely planned and executed to honor a long dead saint.

Some might say it’s a holiday FOR alcoholics, however the practicing alcoholic I once was would have said it is a holiday FROM alcoholism. Yeah I know this may seem a little counterintuitive, but there actually is quite a good reason for making this statement.

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A recent report by ABC News details the trend of young women posting pictures on social networking sites such as Facebook that show them drunk or drugged and often in compromising positions.

My first thought upon reading this story was, “look at what those crazy kids are doing today!” Then I thought back to my drinking days (what I can remember), before the days of blackouts, tremors, and anxiety attacks when I considered drinking “cool”. Back to the time when the highlight of the weekend was playing a game of presidents and assholes with Ouzo or the time when we hog-tied in duck tape one of our passed out compatriots and hung him upside down from a stairwell… and I know I have no room to talk.

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Newsweek does a very good job this week with a feature called “The War on Addiction”. It includes some great information on the new medicines being developed to combat addiction by The National Institute of Drug Abuse which is headed up by one of my personal heroes, Dr. Nora Volkow. I really appreciate the way Newsweek did not concentrate just on the science and wow-factor of these new medicines, instead in this week’s addition you will find three different stories each highlighting a different front of this “War on Addiction”. I have provided a link and a quote from each of the stories and highly recommend them for your reading pleasure.

What Addicts Need: So for this new paradigm to take hold, a lot of long-held prejudices will have to change. Doctors (and insurance companies) will have to get used to the idea of medicating their addicted patients, rather than handing them a brochure for AA, which a study published in 2005 in The New England Journal of Medicine found was the most common form of "treatment" offered. "If you have hypertension and it flares up, you go to a specialist," says psychologist Thomas McLellan of the University of Pennsylvania. "The specialist doesn't discharge you to a church basement. If he did, we would call it malpractice."

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I am a worry wart; it’s a common trait of alcoholics and addicts (when sober). My recovery program allows me to accept my little quirks of checking to make sure the doors are locked or coffee pot is off, even though it has an automatic shutoff, three times before I leave the house. In fact, understanding my obsessive nature has allowed me to use this part of my nature to an advantage in my professional life managing projects.

So you can imagine the thoughts that raced through my head as I found out I was packed like a sardine shoulder to shoulder with a doctor specializing in infectious disease for a two hour plane flight from Phoenix to Houston. After resigning myself to the fact that I couldn’t hold my breath for the duration of trip there was no choice but breathe and make the most of the opportunity to speak with someone who probably had a unique perspective on the adverse health effects of addictive drug use. He did, in fact he had a whole lecture on the subject, so I’ll give you the high points.

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Screedler alerted me to this too funny headline earlier this month. No mention of the humorous wording makes me believe that the publishers of this submission were totally clueless on the double entendre, but that just makes this story that much funnier.

Police searching a downtown home found a man hiding 15 plastic bags of crack cocaine in his buttocks... Lynch was charged with possession with the intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession of crack cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, obstructing and hindering and making a false statement to police officers.~ MyFoxDC.com

So here’s a TDA salute to the same news outfits that have covered Marion Barry antics for so many years regardless if they knew how funny this really was!

By no means is the thought unique to alcoholism and addiction, but I certainly succumbed to a “lost cause” mentality. “What’s the use,” I would say contemplating sobriety, “I can’t even perform the most basic of tasks without having a drink.” Though a little embarrassed to admit it, even in recovery I have often surrendered to thought that helping others with addiction was quixotic because of the utter enormity and futility of the task.

It is easy to fall prey to this type of thinking; been there and done that as an alcoholic, in recovery and dealing with addicts and alcoholics, and now in the work I do with the substance abuse task force. But recovery has taught me that nothing happens without taking that initial first step, even if it is a very small one. With each following step the way becomes easier and the tasks become more manageable. Along this same line, a small step made by many can move mountains, and this will be the purpose of the new TDA blogroll.

“Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could only do a little” ~Edmund Burke

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