July 6, 2005 at 10:48 am ·
Filed under General
One response to the previous set of posts on a libertarian-themed e-groups list was, "Attributing misbehavior to alcoholism or other addictions provides people with an easy way to evade personal responsibility."
Not if you redefine alcoholism.
Alcoholism is commonly believed to be a choice, because it is defined as a loss of control over use. The question I asked as I began my research was, what does it look like before there is such a loss of control--in most cases, decades earlier?
Alcoholism is, as I have redefined it, a genetic disorder that causes the afflicted person to biochemically process the drug alcohol in such a way as to cause that person to act destructively, some of the time.
This, ...
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July 6, 2005 at 9:52 am ·
Filed under General
I sent the following email to Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist who investigates and has mostly debunked "recovered memories," particularly of abuse. The LA Times article referred to was the Column One piece by Maura Dolan of June 21, 2005.
Hi Ms. Loftus,
I just read the LA Times article on your work in the Nicole Taus case. It took the Times' writer 49 paragraphs, but she finally mentioned alcoholism. False accusations are commonly used by addicts in an effort to wield power over others, which in turn is intended to shore up the ego. Since alcoholism is at the root of most power-seeking misbehaviors, the affliction in the father should have been stated at the outset. Oh well, we have a ...
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July 5, 2005 at 4:31 pm ·
Filed under General
In response to a comment following up the last blog entry in which the writer points out that the cause of most "I am always right and you are wrong" attitudes is adolescence, I said:
You're correct in assuming that the most common cause of an "I am always right and you are wrong" attitude is adolescence. However, by definition, that cannot be at the root of this attitude (and others like it) in adults.
Recovering alcoholics tell us that their emotional growth stopped the day they triggered alcoholism--average age in the U.S., 13. Therefore, when we deal with alcoholics, we deal with emotional adolescents. Now, reverse the idea. If an emotional teen is observed in an adult body, look for ...
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July 5, 2005 at 3:23 pm ·
Filed under General
Someone responded to my previous note that there are some on most lists who display are certain argumentative irrationality. My response:
I know that the argumentation applies to all discussion lists. Note that the "one out of ten" applies to everyone in the U.S. in the aggregate, across the board. Therefore, we'd expect it to apply to the other lists as well as this one.
However, the form that addiction (or child-of) often takes among libertarians, who are disproportionately NT in personality type, is of the "I am smarter than you" style. We really need to be more cognizant of this if we hope to get our message across. I don't expect to appeal to any practicing alcoholics, whose brain damage makes ...
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July 5, 2005 at 12:51 pm ·
Filed under General
A offered a few thoughts for a libertarian e-groups list:
Please allow me to offer a rather unique view of the discussions I have witnessed here over the last few weeks. I will admit to not reading the posts carefully, but I think if I was more diligent in doing so, my opinions would only firm up.
As a long-time libertarian (well over 30 years), I have witnessed the sort of childlike argumentation exhibited on this forum on many other occasions. I probably was once guilty of it. However, I grew out of it.
I was a bit slow at learning a more adult style because I am a child of an alcoholic. While alcoholics stop all emotional growth the day they trigger ...
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June 28, 2005 at 10:21 am ·
Filed under General
Hi Vernon,
I've followed your case on and off again via Cassingham's online column. I just visited your web site (http://www.aldotwaste.com/_sgt/f10000.htm). What a jerk of a writer in the comments section. His enabling is an example of why I removed the ability of others to make comments on my web site.
You write that this is a case of David vs. Goliath. More important, it's a case of the non-alcoholic vs. the alcoholic. The comment on racial slurs did it for me: I've never found a racist in whom I could not eventually identify alcohol or other drug addiction.
The code of silence indicates a culture of alcoholism--insuring that people aren't required to bear the responsibility for misbehaviors. While most ...
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June 28, 2005 at 10:12 am ·
Filed under General
I just discovered your website via a link from the "This is True" newsletter.
Doug, you have a great thing going here. The hard and measured style is such a welcome change from the self-serving fluff usually found in the media on this subject.
I've been sober since 1993.
I come from a family that (as the joke could go) put the 'dys' in dysfunction. Both my sisters and I began drinking in high school: not on a daily basis, but never just to get a buzz; always to get plastered.
I mostly drank just to feel comfortable in my own skin. Does that make sense? The emotional abuse was pretty cutting and nearly constant, so the booze would help drive ...
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June 28, 2005 at 8:12 am ·
Filed under General
Dear Doug,
What are your thoughts on eating disorders?
Fred
Hi Fred,
Overeating is probably a biochemical response involving ancestors who never knew where their next meal was coming from. Other disorders may be psychological responses to psychological and emotional abandonment by an alcoholic parent. Some may be connected to alcoholism, since according to some in the eating disorders 12-step programs, 40-50% of compulsive eaters are alcoholics. OTOH, this may be self-selection at work--alcoholics who know about the 12-step programs gravitate toward Overeaters Anonymous, etc.
Best guess. Why do you ask?
Doug
Dear Doug,
I read your site and I was married to women who secretly had bulimia/anorexia. Since she did not drink to excess, to all outward appearances she seemed like someone who had it ...
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June 28, 2005 at 7:49 am ·
Filed under General
Doug--WOW, I am bowled over by your site. You have guts for this field and and I am so grateful to see you in it! what a great message--hold the addict responsible for his or her behavior!
I am a specialist in the field also (and a sober alcoholic/addict). I have been on the leading edge--as you are--in concepts regarding recovery. My Brother Dr. Marshall and I have just written a book for parents (drug crisis response manual) Ready, Aim, Inspire: Targeting your child's drug crisis and not the way you raised them. We too look at finding them early and using personal responsibility (not parent blaming) as the recourse. Of course everyone would like to think that if you ...
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June 24, 2005 at 3:25 pm ·
Filed under General
This is a series of emails in which the writer first thought I was cold and callous, but after which she realized that I am, as she put it, the polar opposite. It's a wonderful exchange.
Dear Doug,
I am in utter disbelief that such cruel and heartless methodology could have come this far as to support not only a website, but book(s).
I work in the medical field, and at one time married to an addict. I see addiction on a daily basis, and have witnessed first hand, the devastating aftermath addiction creates. Are you unaware however, who suffers greatest from this "biological genetic disorder?" None other than the addict himself. And your advice suggests to further ...
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June 20, 2005 at 9:09 am ·
Filed under General
Hi Doug,
I just wanted to say I came across your article on Alcoholism in the Daily News on Friday, 6/17/05. It was a fine article on a subject that is touched very little by the media today. You tell it like it is ( in your opinion) and I couldn't agree with you more. As you know, my sister Joyce is married to an alcoholic and I know first hand some of the ways in which they operate. I thank you for exposing this illness in its many forms and enlightening the public. Keep up the good work!
And another:
Hello Doug,
I presently read your article in the daily news. I was wondering if at all possible for you to help ...
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June 20, 2005 at 9:07 am ·
Filed under General
Thank you Mr.Thorburn for the article on alcoholism in the paper. I work as a receptionist for a doctor in Valencia, and on day two, when we heard about the killings, I ask the doctor how God could allow this to happen?
He said, "We will learn that he was a deveant, and society has let us down." So his take turns out to be the same as yours. How sad that he was not dealt with before such a horrible tragedy.
I have a nephew who is a recovering acholic, and a daughter who is in the denial stage, anyway it has not been talked about. She starts with rum and coke about four in the afternoon and ...
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June 20, 2005 at 9:04 am ·
Filed under General
Dear Mr. Thorburn,
I appreciated the clear point-by-point educated guess as to why the killing
rampage took place.
I have a grandson, age 21, who hangs around with life long-friends who,
being Irish, take a kind of perverse its-inherited - attitude that
drinking is cool. This grandson cannot afford to drink and I would like to
influence him to understand what he is getting into. Pictures of brain
deterioration, for example. Statistics about holding jobs, etc.
Can you recommend a book, documentary, some source material, that I can
obtain to start his education on this subject? It would be much appreciated.
I lived with an alcoholic step-father for many years - though they didn't
call it then back ...
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June 20, 2005 at 8:59 am ·
Filed under General
Dear Mr. Thorburn:
I was deeply disturbed by your letter in the L.A. Daily News. It would seem your opinion is that "alcoholics" ar all potentially psychopaths, which at any time can go off on a rampage.
You mention the 'stigma" of alcoholism and addiction. Thank you, you've contributed to the continuation of that stigma.
Do you really know any alcoholics, either "recovered" or still drinking? If you did, you would know that, with the exception of a powerful thirst for alcohol, alcoholics are pretty much like other folks in temperment, noble aspirations, and moral failings.
Finally, are you such an expert on alcoholism that you can correctly diagnose someone without even determining their pattern of excessive alcohol consumption ...
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June 20, 2005 at 8:57 am ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
And, a Review of "A Dr. Phil Primetime Special: Escaping Addiction"
While Dr. Phil understands addiction, even he can misinform. This program is an excellent example of good information intertwined with bad.
The program, originally shown on CBS Friday May 20, featured an on-air intervention with the head nurse of an alcohol/drug rehab center, Joannie. A full-blown pharmaceutical drug addict, Joannie not only admits to her addiction, but also cops to manipulating, lying, cheating, stealing and even driving with her kids in the car while very much under the influence of narcotics. The most serious flaw in the show may have been the failure to explain that such admissions and self-diagnoses are exceedingly unusual in the early stages of the disease ...
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