November 8, 2005 at 9:54 am ·
Filed under General
Dear Doug:
Do you have any suggestions on how to help a long-term alcoholic (started age 12, is now 38). He is the father of my 4-year-old grand-daughter and currently in rehab for the 10th time. My daughter is not married to him. He doesn't see my grandchildren.
--Lupe
Dear Lupe,
My heart goes out to you, Lupe. Some cases, especially of multiple drug addiction, are surprisingly tragic for the afflicted person at a young age. OTOH, ten times in rehab is not the record before sobriety somehow came about.
Do anything you can to coerce abstinence and insure there are no more enablers left in the addict's life. Unfortunately, government acts as enabler of last resort, but do what you can. Miracles happen.
Because every ...
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November 8, 2005 at 9:51 am ·
Filed under General
I have take great care to emphasize certain points when using the online Thorburn Substance Addiction Recognition Indicator. Unfortunately, a few do not carefully read the caveats. Here's an example:
Doug:
Out of curiosity, I looke over your addiction signs test. Then, I had my husband take it for me. There were only 'yes' answers to three questions: 1. I smoke; 2. I am an extremely good liar; 3. I have intense mood swings.
You indicated in your evaluation that you found that 80% of people with this pattern were addicts; and, strongly suggested that the ones who were not were suffering from some other mental illness. As it happens, I am neither an addict nor am I mentally ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:28 am ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
Cooking meth
Story from "This is True"by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:â€
"GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN: Marlena Adams, 24, of Wasilla, Alaska, was burned over 50 percent of her body when a concoction of methamphetamine blew up in her household oven. She told police she does use meth, but the drugs weren't hers; rather, she says, someone put them in her oven in an attempt to kill her. In addition to drug charges, she faces a charge of reckless endangerment since her 3-year-old son was in the house at the time. (Anchorage Daily News) ...In her defense, she claims she was just teaching him how to cook."
Meth addicts will do anything for their drug, including ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:27 am ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: (a possible half-truth) Unprotected sex is the root cause of the AIDS epidemic among gays.
"We are concerned that widespread alarm about crystal meth may divert attention from what must remain the chief focus of H.I.V. prevention"safe sex. Our recent online survey of more than four thousand gay men from all over America found that sixty-four per cent of those who reported having anal sex without a condom in their last encounter with a new or casual partner did not use drugs."
So said Mary Ann Chiasson and Sabina Hirshfield of Medical and Health Research Associates of New York City in a letter to the editor in the August 1, 2005 edition of The New Yorker. Granted, the instigation ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:26 am ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Long married to an alcoholic
Dear Doug:
I've been married for 24 years, spending that time raising our five children and tending to our family business. Two years ago when he was 45, my husband, "Rick,"retired from the business, promising he'd find other work to make up for an expected reduction in income. After failing to find other work, he returned to manage the business, which is suffering.
Rick has experienced depression, anger and alcoholism, which is still there. I'm tired of an emotional roller coaster and while ready to leave, I am unsure about my rights in regard to the business, which we have agreed to sell. In the meantime, I've taken a promising job with a good salary. ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:25 am ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
Radio Review: "Handel on the Lawâ€
Bill Handel is the brilliant and incredibly funny and entertaining host of the weekday "Bill Handel Show"5am to 9am on KFI 640am in Los Angeles. This is remarkable, because he's an attorney. He also happens to be a recovering addict with about 20 years of sobriety.
Handel is also an amazingly busy guy. He owns a fertility clinic, is married and has a couple of pre-adolescent kids. And, he hosts "Handel on the Law"on Saturday mornings, 6am to 11am, in which he fields legal questions and gives the best"and often most amusing responses"possible. It's syndicated in other areas of the country, so you may have an opportunity to listen in. It's well worth your time"Handel ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:25 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
New Orleans, Alcoholism and the Next Catastrophe
The role that alcoholism has played in exacerbating a natural disaster has been completely ignored. Failing to properly deal with it could make the next disaster"natural or otherwise"far worse.
"I don't understand how people can shoot at those who are trying to help New Orleaners in their hour of need.â€
"The sentiment of a number of reporters
Tragedy brings out the best and the worst in people. The catastrophe brought to the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina is no exception. Heroes, at great risk to their own lives, have rescued countless strangers. Many are opening their doors to those they've never before met and charity has been given on an unprecedented scale. Yet, some survivors ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:24 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Runners-up for top story of the month: Reporting on the tragedy in New Orleans while failing to identify the role that alcohol and other drug addiction may have played is hardly unique. The media completely ignored addiction in the reports of the Joseph Edward Duncan lll kidnapping of Shasta Groene and the murder of her brothers Dylan and Slade, the children's mother Brenda, and Brenda's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, which occurred in June. An article in the August 5 Los Angeles Times may have been the first to disclose the fact that in 1994, after serving over 14 years for a 1980 rape of a 14-year-old boy, Duncan was released with the proviso that he abstain from alcohol and other drugs. ...
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September 14, 2005 at 8:21 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Under watch: Topanga record producer Christian Julian Irwin who, after telling a friend he was being pursued by Nigerian scam artists, disappeared for five days and was found naked in a stream and reportedly delusional. Hedge fund Bayou Management LLC operator and founder Samuel Israel, suspected of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars, telling his clients he was shutting the doors due to family troubles including an impending divorce. A former partner, Daniel Marino, admitted in a suicide note to defrauding investors and accused Israel of once holding a gun to his chest. Physicist John Schreifer, who pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter in an incident in which he killed one and injured seven while driving at more ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:33 am ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
Too many beers in the ice-cream truck
"DING-A-LING: Denell Heller was watching out her New Berlin, Wisc., window and commenting on the irritating tune spewing from an ice cream truck as it drove by: "Pop Goes the Weasel". When she saw the driver toss something on her lawn she called the police. "I told them I don't want him in my neighborhood if he's going to litter," she said. An officer stopped by and picked up the object -- an empty malt liquor can -- and tracked down the treat vendor nearby. David A. Blundell, 43, admitted tossing the can, but insisted he had only drunk one beer, for breakfast, two hours before. Police say ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:33 am ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: She's too sweet.
"She couldn't possibly be an addict -- she's a councilperson, a successful mom, has a decent job and donates much of her time to charitable causes.â€
So the thinking seems to have gone in the heads of countless friends and acquaintances of Burbank, California City Councilwoman Stacey Jo Murphy, 47, one of the town's most popular politicians and a favorite of law enforcement, arrested on charges of cocaine possession and child endangerment. Detectives said an 18-month investigation of the Vineland Boyz street gang led them to Murphy's long-time boyfriend, Scott Schaffer, 51, who was arrested on drug and weapons charges, after meth, cocaine, nine handguns and a large amount of ammunition were found at his home. ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:32 am ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Self-centered brother-in-law
Dear Doug,
A few years ago, I married a wonderful guy. Unfortunately, in the bargain, I got his brother -- a rude, overbearing and self-centered man name Patrick. Recently, he asked that we watch his kids while he vacations. We've done this before, but not when we were taking care of his sister, who recently moved in with us when she became very sick with cancer and developed a need for constant care.
When I told him over the phone the timing was not right for baby-sitting, he complained that his sister is a whiner and she has the family wrapped around her finger. After trying to reason with him, he swore at me and hung up.
Doug, over ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:31 am ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
DVD Review: "Titus"
"My father never missed a drink, or a joint, or a party or a chance to get laid in his life. But he also never missed a day of work, or a house payment, or a car payment."
This is Christopher Titus's description of his father, Ken, played by Stacy Keach, at the start of Episode One on the new DVD release of the first two seasons of the Fox series that began in 2000 (the third and last season will be released in December). It perfectly sets the stage for an honest portrayal of a highly functional but verbally and psychologically abusive alcoholic, based on Christopher's real-life upbringing. His biological mother, Juanita, identified as "insane,"is an even worse ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:31 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Tantalizing Clues to Alcoholism in Suicide Bombers
There's probably addiction somewhere -- but it could be either the bombers -- or the mentors
"I became stronger. I climbed on top of the roof of the car. They gave me a weapon and put some marks on my face. I was no longer human. I could do anything."
--A child-soldier given amphetamines and tranquilizers that enabled him and certain other children to go on murderous binges for days during the Sierra Leone, Africa civil war.
Radical Islam "is not about religion but about domination and control."
--Salman Rushdie, interviewed by Shikha Dalmia in "Reason" magazine, August 2005
The recent string of London bombings brings terrorism close to home in areas we normally consider safe. Yet, ...
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September 13, 2005 at 11:29 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Runners-up for top story of the month: Retired actor Robert Sorrells, 75, who appeared in Westerns and on TV in the 50s and 60s, sentenced to 32 years in prison after confessing to killing Arthur DeLong last year. After drinking at the Regency Lounge in Simi Valley, Ca., he was escorted out by DeLong for "unruly behavior"and, after "reflecting on his perceived mistreatment,"went home, retrieved his gun, returned to the bar and shot DeLong at point blank range. Sorrells admitted his judgment was impaired because of his "biochemical state."Jimmy Lee Smith, 74, one of two men convicted in the 1963 "Onion Field"murder in which LAPD officer Ian Campbell was shot to death, sent back to prison for three years after ...
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