Doug Thorburn on Early-Stage Alcohol and Drug Addiction

Nick Adenhart, Angles rookie pitcher, dead due to a known alcoholic and drank and drove–again.

May 23, 2009 at 12:25 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Alcoholic victims of the month: Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, 22, Courtney Frances Stewart, 20 and Henry Pearson, 25, who were killed and Jon Wilhite, 24, who survived, when Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, blew through a red light at an estimated 65 mph in his Toyota Sienna minivan and broadsided a Mitsubishi Eclipse. Gallo, whose license had been revoked after a 2006 DUI conviction, fled on foot without checking on the victims. He was arrested 30 minutes later and charged with three counts of murder. Despite the fact that he was ordered to take alcohol education classes after his 2006 conviction, his BAL was .24 per cent, three times the legal limit and a level at which most non-addicts would have ...

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Rihanna enables Brown. Let’s hope it’s not to her death.

May 23, 2009 at 12:24 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Co-dependent of the month: Rihanna, whose tale of having been punched, bitten, threatened and choked by her R & B singer boyfriend Chris Brown was briefly told in the Feb-April 2009 TAR, explaining why she’s back with him: “He’ll hit me and feel bad afterward, but then he turns into the sweetest man and becomes my angel. He’ll cry like a little baby when he makes up to me, and that’s the part I love.” She admits, “I’d seen what alcohol and drugs had done to my dad [who was a crack cocaine addict] and I wasn’t going to follow in his footsteps.” Maybe not, but she’s clearly followed in her own way by substituting Brown for her father and thinking ...

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The authors of two new books on the Columbine tragedy seem unaware of its genesis. Ann Rule missed the fact that Ted Bundy was an alcoholic, so what’s new. And some socialists defend an addicted cop killer.

May 23, 2009 at 12:23 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Enablers of the month: Vincent Carroll, who reviewed Jeff Kass’s Columbine: A True Crime Story and Dave Cullen’s Columbine for The Wall Street Journal. Carroll doesn’t mention Eric Harris’s drug use, including the fact that his favorite drugs were vodka and whiskey. The implication is that neither book Carroll reviewed identified alcoholism as the root of the tragedy. I’d like to hope that someone who has read either of these books will prove me wrong. (Had TAR been in existence at the time, Harris and his apparently codependent friend Dylan Klebold would have been the Top Story of the Year. They were mentioned in the April-May 2007 issue of TAR in the Top Story on the mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho, who ...

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“Wisdom of the Rooms,” a terrific compilation of AA-styled thoughts helpful for anyone.

May 23, 2009 at 12:20 pm · Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews

“The Wisdom of the Rooms,” by Michael Z “The Wisdom of the Rooms” is a terrific compilation of concepts in the form of quotes collected from the “rooms” of Alcoholics Anonymous, which give food for thought and ways of dealing with life’s challenges for anyone, including non-addicts. Michael’s comments on each idea are instructive and thought-provoking yet succinct, and are followed by a series of “reflections” in the form of related questions to ask of oneself and suitable for discussion with others. Some could be straight out of a Tony Robbins book (“Act as though, until it becomes so”), while others are more obviously original to AA or those who should have been in AA (“Many of us get to Heaven ...

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Animal abusers are almost always alcohol or other-drug addicts.

May 23, 2009 at 12:18 pm · Filed under General

Dear Doug My friend loves a pet killer Dear Doug: My friend wants to marry a man despite the fact he deliberately and heinously killed her 10-year-old pet. She also admitted to me he’s abusive in other ways. She rejects professional help and says he’s wonderful and she’s happy. I fear for my friend’s life. Is there anything I can do? Signed, Concerned for her friend . . . . . Dear Friend of Codependent, Other columnists would appropriately respond that if the boyfriend killed your friend’s pet, you and some other close people should gather with her and express alarm and concern for her safety. Everything should be done to get her to leave him immediately. A full-on intervention with a counselor might even be suggested, along ...

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Journalists are missing the underlying motive of mass murderers. Hint: murder is symptomatic of egomania.

May 23, 2009 at 12:17 pm · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month “Many motives drive mass murders.” So said a spate of “experts” in response to the rash of mass murders in recent months. Personal failures and revenge were cited as factors in the Binghampton, N.Y. massacre, in which Jiverly Wong (aka Jiverly Voong), 42, gunned down 13 people in an immigrant center. These same so-called experts say anger is a common thread among such mass killers, who act on that anger by showing others who’s boss. Professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston, James Alan Fox, says that “men will often use violence to show them who’s boss, to assert control.” According to a colleague of his, Jack Levin, mass murderers “typically” have no criminal record or history of psychiatric ...

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Three-time drunk driver. Oh, in three days.

May 23, 2009 at 12:14 pm · Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics

Alcoholic Antic-of-the-Month Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:” “STRIKE THREE: Jo A. Trilling, of Spokane, Wash., was visiting Wisconsin last year when a Sheboygan County sheriff's deputy stopped to help her -- the car she was driving was stuck in a ditch. The deputy noticed she was wearing only one shoe, and smelled of booze. Her blood alcohol measured 0.21 percent, and she was arrested for drunk driving. The next day, the Kohler-Andrae park superintendent noticed her stuck in the snow. She mentioned to him that ‘I am still finishing up the box of wine in my car from yesterday,’ and she was arrested for drunk driving; her blood alcohol level wasn't reported. The next day, a ...

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The best explanation for Octomom’s confabulated thinking is something no one else has dared mention. We dare.

March 20, 2009 at 9:28 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Octomom’s confabulated thinking suggests addiction Confabulation is described in Wikipedia as “the formation of false memories, perceptions, or beliefs about the self or the environment as a result of neurological or psychological dysfunction.” The source of most such dysfunction is psychotropic drug addiction, involving the repeated use of drugs capable of causing distortions of perception, memory and beliefs. Journalists usually look for addiction last. It should be first, particularly when “confabulation” is combined with bizarre behavior. Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in late January, has been in the headlines ever since. Most shake their heads and wonder, “What’s she thinking?” Many figure she’s simply irresponsible. Those who understand addiction might instead ask, “What is she on?” Addiction to psychotropic drugs, ...

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An addicted ballplayer, rock-throwing chef (oh, at a Ferrari Enzo), R & B girlfriend-beating singer (yes, THAT Chris Brown), a Japanese finance minister (yes, he had to be drunk) and a girfriend-killing meth addict.

March 20, 2009 at 9:25 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Runners-up for top story of the month: John C. Odom, the minor league baseball player traded for 10 maple bats who died November 5 at age 26, only recently determined by a medical examiner to have died from an “accidental overdose.” The combination of drugs, heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol, suggest that the “accident” should be re-stated as "death contributed to or caused by distortions of perception from brain damage rooted in alcohol or other-drug addiction”)*. At the time, the former prospect in the San Francisco Giants’ chain seemed to handle the trade well, kidding that the kooky deal would make a great story if he ever reached the major leagues. Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year, felt ...

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Under Watch: Ervin Lupoe (mass murderer), Annette Yeomans (suspected embezzler and known spendthrift), and R. Allen Stanford and Bruce Friedman (suspected Ponzi artists)

March 20, 2009 at 9:13 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Under watch: Ervin Lupoe, who killed his wife Ana and their five children in Wilmington, California, after both he and his wife had been fired from their hospital jobs for falsifying income records so they could qualify for a low-income child care program. The Lupoe’s each made over $40 per hour as radiological technicians for Kaiser Permanente in West Los Angeles, but made it appear they were earning less than $10 per hour. They were behind in their mortgage payments and had recently bounced checks for $15,000 and $2,000 to reportedly pay for back property taxes and penalties. Although there was nothing in Lupoe’s military record indicating any problems, he had applied for but was rejected by several police agencies before ...

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Chris Brown and a bar full of alcoholics, enabled to society’s detriment.

March 20, 2009 at 9:09 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Enablers of the month: One of the sources reporting on the Chris Brown-Rihanna entanglement, explaining they are “both pretty stubborn.” No, Mr. Source, while we can’t yet be sure about her, Brown is an addict. Dr. Jay Carter, a psychologist and “world-renowned expert on anger and abuse,” says “both need therapy, and Chris needs anger-management classes….If they do get back together…they need to attend joint counseling.” No, Mr. Carter, while she may need counseling he needs AA. (I’d say “Mr. Carter, you idiot,” but that would unfairly denigrate idiots.) Heidi, the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decided to allow her loyal customers - most of whom were unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay ...

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Baseball great Dock Ellis, over-achieving addict.

March 20, 2009 at 9:08 pm · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Baseball great Dock Ellis, the former major league pitcher who threw a no-hitter while on LSD and who had no memory of his performance that day in June, 1970, dead from cirrhosis of the liver at age 63. Near the end of compiling a 138-119 career record from 1968 through 1979, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ellis began counseling addicts at a prison in Pittsburgh. He began his drinking and using career by the time he was in high school and didn’t get permanently sober until after he retired from the game in 1980. He managed to pitch for the triumphant 1971 World Series team and was named to the All-Star team that year. He was ...

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“Rachel Getting Married” is an excellent portrayal of early recovery.

March 20, 2009 at 9:06 pm · Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews

“Rachel Getting Married” Some critics describe Jonathan Demme’s (“Silence of the Lambs”) “Rachel Getting Married” as a movie about a marriage and how a multi-cultural and multi-racial society is getting comfortable with itself. One notes that Anne Hathaway’s Kym, out of rehab for the weekend, is quick to condemn everyone else at her sister Rachel’s wedding—but he (seemingly) has no idea why. Some mention that the younger brother drowned, but forget why (she lost control of the car she was driving while stoned out of her mind). Some claim it’s a movie you’d want to immediately see again. I doubt it, even if it’s worth seeing once. There is decent AA dialogue, in which the “one drink is too many and 50 ...

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Telling her to get help doesn’t explain the behaviors. That can be important.

March 20, 2009 at 9:05 pm · Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...

Dear Doug A litany of suspects Dear Doug: My boyfriend and I have a 6-month baby boy. Although Jake was a serious drug addict when we met two years ago, he stopped doing drugs and even got his first job. We moved in together a year ago and I fell prey to his controlling nature. I used to have friends and now have none, because Jake doesn’t like them. I can’t leave the apartment unless he goes with me. I can’t have any money unless he gives it to me, and then he demands to know how I spent it. Before he goes to work he takes our son’s car seat so I can’t leave. He calls ten times a day to “check” ...

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Kids’ names may be a clue to parental alcoholism

March 20, 2009 at 9:02 pm · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month “The more unpopular your name, the more likely you are to land in juvenile hall.” So found a new study conducted by Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania, researchers purporting to show a link between a name and the likelihood of getting into trouble. The researchers ascribed a popularity score to boys’ names based on how often they showed up in birth records in an undisclosed state from 1987 to 1991. They compared the scores with the odds of landing in the juvenile justice system and found that “a 10% increase in the popularity of a name is associated with a 3.7% decrease in the number of juvenile delinquents who have that name.” In other words, there’s a proven correlation between less popular names ...

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