Doug Thorburn on Early-Stage Alcohol and Drug Addiction

The General Petraeus affair: everyone involved except for Petraeus shows numerous behavioral indications of addiction. Petraeus may be an unaware codependent.

May 30, 2013 at 11:18 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Gen. David Petraeus’ Biographer Paula Broadwell and Socialite-Friend Jill Kelley: Possible Alcoholics are Enmeshed in Positions of Power The story is worthy of a soap opera or “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”: a highly respected General (also former director of the CIA) has a 10-month affair with a woman who, becoming obsessed with him, sends another woman, who she believes is flirting with him, threatening emails. Most people probably think, “it’s not real,” or “whatever.” However, there’s a lot more to this story, which should be taken very seriously by concerned citizens because it’s all-too real—and its likely genesis is all-too common. A core theme of my work, from Drunks, Drugs & Debits (which we are selling to subscribers for $1 each ...

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Internet security company mogul John McAfee and a biker gang. Anyone can be an addict.

May 30, 2013 at 11:12 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Runners Up for Top Story: Software millionaire John McAfee, 67, who sold his anti-virus Internet security company in 1994, apprehended in Guatemala after his Belizean neighbor, Florida restaurateur and builder Gregory Viant Faull, 52, was murdered execution-style. Belizean authorities claim they simply want to question McAfee, but they likely believe he killed Faull after a long-running feud boiled over into the poisoning of McAfee’s dogs, for which McAfee blames Faull. Considering the fact that the heavily tattooed and reportedly paranoid McAfee is known for violent behavior, engages in odd sexual proclivities, keeps at least a half dozen under-25-year-old girlfriends and has long been suspected of psychotropic drug use (including “bath salts,” an extremely dangerous drug related to methamphetamine), addictionologists wouldn’t be ...

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The City of Bell’s former police chief Randy Adams and L.A. County Assessor John Noguez show indications of alcoholism.

May 30, 2013 at 11:10 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Under watch: In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine mentioned 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, recent stories follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behaviors themselves. Former city of Bell, California police chief Randy Adams, whose attempt to more than double his yearly pension to $510,000 was rejected by administrative law judge James Ahler, who determined it was never properly approved by the Bell City Council. Adams ran the tiny police ...

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Actor Johnny Lewis takes out an 81-year-old, and then himself.

May 30, 2013 at 11:09 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Alcoholic victim of the month: Catherine Davis, 81, who was bludgeoned to death by actor Johnny Lewis just before Lewis, 28, either jumped or fell to his death from the roof or balcony of Davis’s two-story home. Lewis, who had a long history of drug addiction, was arrested at least four times this year on various charges of burglary and battery. Only on the third arrest was he ordered into a 30-day outpatient program for addicts, but was likely not ordered to undergo random and regular drug testing, which might have saved both lives. Davis died of blunt head trauma and had been strangled; her cat was also killed. Because there were two reported instances in which victims fought back and ...

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A “Survivor” star tells us her mother never knew of her amphetamine addiction; lotto winners are told everything they need to do to keep their stash except the part about getting and staying sober; arsonist and meth addict Rickie Lee Fowler finally convicted.

May 30, 2013 at 11:08 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Codependent retrospective find of the month: “Survivor” competitor Dana Lambert told her mother she was hooked on amphetamines and asked for a rather unusual 21st birthday gift: a stay in rehab. Her stunned mother asked: “you’ve got a problem with drugs?” This lack of awareness, even in close family members, is not uncommon. A great example involves “Full House” child star Jodi Sweetin: she grew up and was married to an LAPD cop for five years, two of which she was a full-on methamphetamine addict. The cop husband didn’t have a clue. Codependents, including parents, are frequently unaware of addiction in friends, co-workers and even family members. Dana, now 32, spent 28 days in rehab and has reportedly been ...

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JZ Knight, cultist, likely alcoholic–but I repeat myself.

May 30, 2013 at 11:02 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Video of the month: JZ Knight, the cult-like head of The Ramtha School of Enlightenment, was filmed making derogatory comments about Mexicans, Catholics, gays and others. Clue # 14 in the chapter (and category) “A Supreme Being Complex” in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics is “Belittles others.” While belittling others, including entire classes of people, is a subtle way to inflate the ego at others’ expense, I’ve long noted it’s a wonderfully accurate clue to alcoholism, and often the first observable one. But in a wonderful video that has unfortunately been removed we get much more: she’s high as a kite. But then, what would we expect of a cult-like leader claiming to channel a 35,000-year-old warrior? The school is ...

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You had to spend other people’s money to prove those who “pre-drink” act more recklessly?

May 30, 2013 at 11:00 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Study of the month: A Swiss study concluded that students who “pre-drink,” which is drinking alcohol before heading out to an event (such as, in this study, a bar, club or sporting event), are much more likely to have a blackout, unprotected sex, unplanned (other-)drug use or injury. Researchers found that students who pre-drank consumed on average seven drinks in an evening while those who drank only at a bar or event consumed just over four drinks. The difference is night and day: alcoholic vs. non-alcoholic drinking, and alcoholic vs. non-alcoholic behaviors. The addictionologist would have predicted precisely this outcome. The wonder is the researchers even bothered with the study (except why not: they probably used other people’s money). We’ll make ...

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The definition of chutzpah: it’s someone else’s fault. Or some imaginary personality.

May 30, 2013 at 10:49 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Chutzpah of the month # 1: Diana Williamson, MD, 56, once lauded for her AIDS treatment work including the founding of an AIDS hospital, convicted of defrauding Medicaid out of $300,000 in part by writing about 11,000 phony prescriptions for painkillers (purchased with Medicaid tax dollars) peddled on the street. Williamson, who pleaded guilty, blamed “Nala,” one of her “multiple personalities,” for committing the crimes. Defense lawyer Jonathan Marks explained that Nala was “mischievous, irresponsible, reckless and, as we have just discovered, criminal.” Williamson added that Nala “committed these crimes without telling Diana or the other parts of me about them…. Perhaps it sounds incredible that a part of me could be doing something that the rest of me would not ...

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Addicts can be heroes: Native American activist Russell Means, actress “Emmanuelle” Sylvia Kristel, Brooke Shields’ mom Teri Shields and “J.R.” Larry Hagman

May 30, 2013 at 10:47 am · Filed under 1 - Top Stories

Sometimes, it takes an addict: Native American and sometimes-libertarian activist Russell Means, dead at age 72 after a “general decline in health” subsequent to a reportedly successful battle with esophageal cancer. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s he participated in the occupation of Alcatraz, the seizing of the Mayflower ll (a replica of the original), the occupation and trashing of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Washington offices by the American Indian Movement (AIM) and, in the coup de grace, the occupation of the hamlet of Wounded Knee in the Pine River reservation where, in 1890, 300 Lakota Indians were killed by the U.S. army. Means, along with some 200 others, held out through blizzards and machine gun fire against federal ...

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Hey Bob Costas, it’s not the gun; it’s addiction. Jovan Belcher was an addict. Without addiction, he’d never commit murder-suicide. The real tragedy: no one forced him to get sober.

May 30, 2013 at 10:43 am · Filed under 6 - Public Policy Recommendations

Do gun owners or addicts cause tragedy? "'Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead. ...Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.'" So said Bob Costas during a National Football League half-time show on national television, channeling Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock after the tragic murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher, 25 and his on-again off-again girlfriend and mother of his child Kasandra Perkins, 22. He added, "If Jovan Belcher didn't possess ...

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Hey hubby, your wife’s alcoholism is right under your nose. But how can you know? Behaviors. They are everything.

May 30, 2013 at 10:35 am · Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...

My Wife’s a Drunk, But I Don’t Know it Dear Doug: My wife, to whom I have been married for eight months, is making me wonder if we got married too young. She’s just 23 and I’m 27. She has a habit of going out with friends, getting drunk, and staying the night at her friends’ homes. I don’t want to be a control-freak and tell her she can’t go out, but the fact that she wants to spend the night with her single friends and get drunk is troublesome. What should I do? Signed, Un-controlling husband Dear Codependent, Other columnists might say your wife is trying to “hold onto her carefree single days.” While they might suggest it’s unfortunate she can’t do that without getting smashed, ...

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A mom who makes unreasonable threats is alomost surely on something.

May 30, 2013 at 10:33 am · Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...

Mother controls via ultimatums Dear Doug: My partner’s mother has always been unsupportive and critical of her. Lately, she has given several ultimatums threatening she will refuse to come over for various family holiday gatherings. She “won’t come over” if we adopt two cats to be companions for our dog, or if we invite friends to Thanksgiving dinner, or if I invite any of my family for Christmas dinner. My partner says we should adopt the cats, invite our friends to Thanksgiving and have my family over for Christmas. If we do any of this, I fear we’ll never see her mother again. I feel torn. Signed, Torn between families Dear Codependent, Other columnists might correctly respond that this is a terrorist-like grab for control ...

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Myth: that she needs to get on her meds rather than off. No, it’s almost always addiction. Espcially when she drives onto a runway with a 2-month-old in the car.

May 30, 2013 at 10:28 am · Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month

“She’s not going to be stable until she gets on medication.” So said Bebe Anderson in explaining that her daughter, KoKo Nicole Anderson, 21, who had crashed through a gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and drove onto a runway with her infant son in the car, suffered from bipolar disorder. The trouble with this explanation is, as described in Alcoholism Myths and Realities, alcohol and other-drug addiction mimics (and sometimes triggers) mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder. Police found KoKo in her car with the 2-month-old baby’s pacifier in the mother’s mouth. She told officers she wanted her flip-flop shoe. She was acting so erratically, a drug recognition officer (DRE) was called to the scene. Since a charge of aggravated DUI ...

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If we are to prevent Secret Service agents from qualifying for “antic of the month,” they need to be screened and tested for alcoholism

May 30, 2013 at 10:23 am · Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics

Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:” “STRIKE TWO: After a sex scandal in Colombia, the U.S. Secret Service, which is charged with providing protection to the president and presidential candidates, issued an order prohibiting ‘excessive drinking’ by agents. Weeks after that order, President Barack Obama made a Florida campaign stop at the University of Miami. Shortly after the president left, a police officer found a man lying down at a busy intersection at 7:00 a.m. He told the man, who had a ‘strong odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath,’ to get up, but he refused. The cop helped the man up -- and the man allegedly punched him. The officer called for backup, and ...

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What would you do…if you are waiting behind someone you think is taking too long to pick up their food at a drive-thru — and you have alcoholic biochemistry? (TAR Lite # 24)

May 22, 2013 at 10:57 am · Filed under TAR Lite: What Would You Do?

Would you... 1. Patiently wait your turn, figuring some orders take longer than others? 2. Pull out of the line, park your car and walk into the restaurant to pick up your food? 3. Get out of your car, walk over to the drive-thru window and ask if there’s anything you can do to help move things along? 4. Drive around and park your car in front of the car at the window, get out, walk over to the other car, point your handgun in the driver’s face and yell, “You don’t know who you’re f***ing with!”? Congratulations if you selected # 4, because that’s what DeKalb County Police Detective Sergeant Scott Biumi, 48, did to the teenage driver he thought was taking too long ...

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