Doug Thorburn on Early-Stage Alcohol and Drug Addiction

Steven Slater’s enablers enable and Castro displays tiny bit of ego-deflation.

September 27, 2010 at 9:47 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Quotes of the month: Steven Slater’s boyfriend Kenneth Rochelle, who called Slater a “lovely, classy, beautiful person,” and Slater’s ex-wife, Cynthia Susanne, who called him a consummate flight attendant who would always act in the most appropriate manner. “I can’t believe he murdered someone!” is a common remark about a “nice guy” committing homicide. Yup, nice guy, until he isn’t, due to brain damage stemming from alcoholism. As pointed out in the chapter on "Beauty, Brains & Success" in Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease, being nice, successful, smart and charming are entirely consistent with alcoholism, except when Mr. Hyde rears his ugly head. Fidel Castro, reported by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic as saying, ...

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So long to two rock stars, Richard Lopez of Cannibal and Richie Hayward of Little Feat.

September 27, 2010 at 9:44 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Richard “Scar” Lopez, a founding member of Cannibal & the Headhunters whose claim to fame was the mid-‘60s hit “Land of 1000 Dances,” dead from lung cancer at age 65. Although the band was a one-hit wonder (“na, na-na-na-na”), they were among the first popular Mexican-American musical groups, appeared on “American Bandstand,” “Hullabaloo,” “Shebang” and other popular TV shows in 1965 and opened for the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and the Righteous Brothers. However, Lopez didn’t appear with the Beatles because he quit the band after the late Eddie Davis, Cannibal’s producer and manager, found Lopez gambling with the Beatles and “started yelling at me in front of everyone. I’m from East L.A., and I don’t ...

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Taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize alcoholism.

September 27, 2010 at 9:42 am · Filed under 6 - Public Policy Recommendations

Public Policy Recommendation of the Month Section 8 Housing Section 8 is a government program that subsidizes rent for low-income households. It also subsidizes a lot of drinking and drugging. A recent report in The Wall Street Journal (“Real Estate Bust Opens New Doors for Subsidized Tenants,” August 8, 2010) reported that many neighbors “have long contended that government-subsidized tenants increase crime and depress property values,” even while admitting that having a house occupied is better than leaving it vacant. Still, in a lesser-of-the-evils attitude, with mixed emotions they ask, “Which poison do we choose?” They shouldn’t have to choose. Section 8 tenants have brought big changes to many, including the now-depressed town of Antioch, California on the Sacramento Delta near Stockton. “Fights, loud parties ...

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It could be antisocial personality disorder. But it’s more likely alcohol or other-drug addiction.

September 27, 2010 at 9:41 am · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

“Bernstein…suspects that she suffers from a psychiatric illness. For someone with such symptoms, antisocial personality disorder is a likely diagnosis.” So wrote an anonymous journalist writing for AOLHeath.com citing the comments of Dr. Neil I. Bernstein, commenting on a woman, Ashley Anne Kirilow, 23, who shaved her head, plucked her eyebrows and starved herself to look like a cancer patient—when she wasn’t. Her father was even scammed, admitting on the show “Good Morning America” that it sickened him when he ‘found out she was taking people’s money and it wasn’t going to the University of Alberta” for cancer treatments, as she claimed. She took in more than $20,000 from her victims while accumulating more than $30,000 in credit card debt and ...

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Excessive charm is not a good thing. The reason proves elusive, even to the “experts.”

September 27, 2010 at 9:39 am · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

A brief bonus Myth-of-the-Month is appropriate this month due to the Abuelazam story: “It is really not a matter of ‘Jekyll and Hyde.’ It is a matter of who the person is trying to charm and who they don’t care about charming.” So spoke Dr. Park Dietz, who has given court testimony or consulted on numerous serial killer cases, including Jeffrey Dahmer, regarding Abuelazam’s classic style. Dietz got it partly right: it is about who the person is trying to charm and who they don’t care about charming. He’s also correct in stating it’s a huge red flag and that this is one “of the least misunderstood signs” that the person might have ulterior motives. He explains that “charm is not a ...

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Losing a home after 22 years is an indication of excessive spending fueled by alcoholism. But you need to look for it.

September 27, 2010 at 9:38 am · Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...

Losing my home and my mind Dear Doug: Due to the weak economy, we are being forced from our home of 22 years. Our grown children have no idea about our financial travails. I’m angry and disappointed with my husband, who I blame for this circumstance. I think we need counseling, but all the local therapists are friends or acquaintances of ours. What should I do? Signed, Financially and mentally disabled Dear Codependent, Other columnists would tell you the obvious: you took on too much debt to support your lifestyle, implying you used your home as an ATM without explicitly saying so. It needs to be said. Other columnists might also mention the fact that because you didn’t say it, you must not have lost your jobs. ...

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Alcoholism or meth-head? The crazier the story, the more likely it’s meth.

September 27, 2010 at 9:36 am · Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics

Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:” “SURE-FIRE OUTCOME: Sheriff's deputies in Dona Ana County, N.M., found a man along a highway wearing no clothing trying to hitchhike a ride to a hospital -- he was suffering from severe burns. When deputies asked for his story, the 47-year-old man said he had lost a bet with buddies, and had to honor it by letting his friends set him on fire. They started with his prosthetic leg, he explained, which then set his clothes on fire so he took them off. The bet, he said, was over who could drink the most beers. He lost when he drank the fewest -- six -- and confirmed to deputies that ...

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Sneak preview, next TAR: Steven Slater

August 16, 2010 at 10:25 am · Filed under Thorburn Addiction Report

Runner-up for top story of the month: Flight attendant Steven Slater, 38, who was described by his attorney, friends and family as a likeable sort who did his job well, until he didn’t and used a JetBlue plane’s emergency chute to leave his job—permanently, with two cans of beer in hand. Slater claimed a gash on his head occurred during the flight, but several passengers said the gash was there before the flight took off and told reporters he spoke rudely and used expletives during the flight. As clues 4 and 7 under "Supreme Being complex" ("regularly uses foul language" or, in this case, uses such language in an entirely inappropriate setting, and "has a 'rules don't apply to me' ...

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Governing under the influence is more common than you think. The City of Bell, City Manager Robert Rizzo and his cronies.

August 10, 2010 at 9:01 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Governing Under the Influence: the City of Bell and its Grotesque(ly Overpaid) City Manager, Robert Rizzo In a classic 1987 article entitled “Governing under the influence; Washington alcoholics: their aides protect them, the media shields them,” Steven Waldman wrote what was, for the time, not only a tell-all on Washington, DC alcoholism but also one of the most insightful and perceptive exposés ever written on the subject. Among the gems: “Reporters usually fail to cover the drinking problems in Washington officials….’I knew several alcoholics,’ says Richard Bolling, former chairman of the House Rules Committee and a recovering alcoholic, ‘and they all were in important positions.’” He identified a number of former congressmen as alcoholics, including Representatives Wilbur Mills (chairman of the ...

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Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick–one who should be headed for rightful justice and the other for whom justice was served.

August 10, 2010 at 9:00 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Runners-up for top story of the month: Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the jury for whose corruption trial is sadly still deliberating as of the date of release of this issue of TAR. Blagojevich, whose misbehaviors were first chronicled in the January 2009 TAR Top Story, with brief snippets in the May 2009 and July 2010 editions, is the subject of a story by Jonathan Franzen in the July 26, 2010 The New Yorker titled “What About Me?” Rarely has the alcoholic’s theme song “Me, me-me-me, me me me me me me me-me me” (sung to the tune of the well-known traditional Mexican song “Cielito Lindo”) rung so true. Franzen reports that Blago became “increasingly erratic” during his second term as ...

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Rep. Laura Richardson is cleared of wrongdoing. Oh, by other Congresspeople. (That explains that!)

August 10, 2010 at 8:58 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine suggests there may be some truth in something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a recent story follows for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behaviors. Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, cleared of wrongdoing in her home foreclosure fiasco by the House Ethics Committee. However, keep in mind the members of the Ethics committee are—politicians. Also, you will find in the fine print of the ...

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A mass murderer is outed (for a change); a 12-year-old disenables her mother; Mike Tyson stays sober (but he needs to go further).

August 10, 2010 at 8:56 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Alcoholic victims of the month: Two people died and four were wounded before a gunman, Robert Reza, turned the weapon on himself at a fiber optics plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Reza’s live-in girlfriend, who had told co-workers she feared for her safety, was among those injured in what was obviously an extreme case of domestic violence. The unsurprising aspect to the story is Reza’s criminal history included at least two arrests for DUI; the surprising part is this was reported in a newspaper article on the tragedy, albeit in the 15th (and last) paragraph. As I point out in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, stories like this should lead off with “he had the disease of alcoholism, which took form in ...

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So long to Fr. Jack Shirley and the politically incorrect cartoonist John Callahan

August 10, 2010 at 8:54 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Several months ago it dawned on me I had not heard from my dear Internet friend Fr. Jack Shirley for some time....and I was afraid of what I'd find so didn't look. In writing this issue of TAR, I ran across one of his wonderful posts to me (he supplied me with a number of ideas and leads over the years). It was a terrific personal story on enabling by family physicians: "I remember over 40 years ago while I was in Detroit I went to my family physician and complained about my difficulties drinking beer. He told me to switch to Scotch, which I did. I now had my doctor's approval." Such was the recovery ...

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Proof of no alcohol in the system before a DUI offender can start the car is a great idea, except for the fact that alcoholics, ingenious manipulators that they are, will likely find ways to circumvent the system.

August 10, 2010 at 8:53 am · Filed under 6 - Public Policy Recommendations

DUI offenders must test breath before driving, but will it work? Under a pilot program set to begin in July in Los Angeles County and three other California counties, motorists convicted of DUI will be required to install an ignition-interlock device that will prevent vehicles from starting if a BAL greater than .03 percent is detected after drivers blow into a tube connected to the machine. It’s an interesting idea, but recall that addicts are brilliant in getting around obstacles, especially those designed to prevent them from using. There are three ways I can think of to placate the machine so the car starts, and if I can think of three any alcoholic worth his vodka can probably think of ten ...

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Grandma is denied access to granddaughter. Who’s the addict?

August 10, 2010 at 8:50 am · Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...

I need an appointment to see my granddaughter. Help! Dear Doug: After having babysat my granddaughter for much of the past three years I was no longer needed for the job. Now my daughter is doing everything she can to keep my grandchild from me. She either doesn’t return my calls or says she is too busy; when I can see her, it’s now by appointment only. My daughter seems to be directing all her anger and hatred towards me by denying me access to my only grandchild. Is this common? Are there any support groups for grandparents with similar problems? Signed, Estranged from my grandchild . . . . Dear Codependent, Other columnists would tell you that parents sometimes use access to their children to punish ...

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