5 ms·
I don't know how effective Alcoholics Anonymous really is (not saying one way or the other), but having the accountability placed on you by friends is a helpful
by mdip 11y ago
I don't know how effective Alcoholics Anonymous really is (not saying one way or the other), but having the accountability placed on you by friends is a helpful thing in many other tough situations in life. You can see it underlying many useful bits of advice ("Have a cofounder" always comes to mind -- someone to motivate you when you're unable to do so yourself, perhaps?)
Addiction is no joke and anything that can provide relief or help to those who have found themselves caught up in it would be a huge thing. I always think back to a former friend of mine who battled with opiates. She lost her family and children -- well after she had completed a recovery program and been sober for a year. When she started with pills there was a very good reason -- several surgeries and a lot of pain management. When the pain was well and gone, she was left with a strong addiction. The woman she was before she started popping pills regularly and the woman she is now (completely sober) are different people. She told me that long term opiate addiction changes your brain chemistry in such a way that depression becomes a way of life -- I'm not sure if that's true, but it looks like it is with her. The worst part is that her marriage problems started well after she had cleaned up. Her husband, still a friend, said he couldn't stand the woman she'd become and confessed to me that he sometimes wished she'd never stopped. Before the judgement starts, he's a solid guy and I stand by his decision to fight for full custody of his children (you'd have to understand the whole story which I can't do justice to here).
Her description of addiction still haunts me, though. She said "you need it like you need food after having not eaten for a week". She's done a week long fast (as have I). She'd know. That description is the only thing I've heard that adequately explains why addicts will put their children in harms way if it means getting their next fix (ever wonder why cigarette prices can go up 600% in two years and people still smoke?). I watched her become completely broke buying pills from scary people in scary places. I've heard from others some of the things she was willing to do to get enough pills to get her through a day; it's way beyond what you already couldn't imagine a suburban mother of 4 doing.
- blazespin 11y agoAlcoholism isn't so much about addiction as it is about binge drinking. Lots of people have a couple of drinks everyday and function quite well. It's the four manhattans in quick succession where things go awry.
- rdtsc 11y agoCaution, couple of drinks every day could be problematic. What happens if they can't get the drinks one day? Do they get agitated? Does it impair their lives in any way?
- sonofagun 11y agoAlcoholism is when alcohol drinking interferes whit your life, every alcoholic likes to think he's not one and deceives himself into thinking he can stop anytime: " is just a couple of drinks, is not like I binge drink every day..."
- venomsnake 11y agoNo it is not. Binge drinking is completely different (and harmless compared to alcoholism phenomenon). You usually grow out of binge drinking by your 18-19th birthday.
- simoncion 11y ago> You usually grow out of binge drinking by your 18-19th birthday. Except when you don't, as was the case with some adults that I spent a large chunk of my life with. Binge drinking is a different kind of alcoholism, but it is still alcoholism.
- dmgbrn 11y agoAs a recovering alcoholic, I can confidently say that this is not correct. Although many alcoholics get in trouble by drinking too much too fast (this seems like an acceptable definition of binge drinking that takes tolerance into account), the key feature of alcoholism is addiction -- that in the face of the consequences, alcoholics do not stop. At the height of my drinking, I was going through about two liters of vodka a day. Despite this, I tried and usually succeeded not to lose control of my behavior. After all, getting in trouble jeopardizes your ability to get drunk, and as an addict, every action I took and decision I made was driven by a simple principle: don't let anything come between me and booze.
- DanBC 11y agoA couple of drinks could be harmful drinking, but it is nowhere near alcoholism. To get a medically supervised withdrawal in England you need to be drinking 40 units a day - that's a litre of 40% spirits every day. (That number drops if you have severe and enduring mental illness, or are female). Binge drinking - having most of the week alcohol free and ten having a bunch of drinks over a few days is associated with increased risk of sexual violence; unplanned pregnancy; STDs; accidental injury; etc, and the the alcohol harms on top. But uaving those drink free days is somewhat protective. Drinking a couple of drinks everyday makes the alcohol harms much more likely, and reduces the other risks. (It depends how big those drinks are.)
- bjwbell 11y agoI'll admit it, I love drugs. Uppers, downers, I love them all. But I TRULY do not understand addiction. I just don't, and I've tried plenty of soft and hard drugs. I'm not sure what I want to say but perhaps just that it's important to realize that your or mine experience is not at all the same as others.
- dmgbrn 11y agoIn the recovery community we call this state of being "dry", as in "dry drunk". The concept is that while she's managed to stop taking the pills, she hasn't addressed the underlying problems. It's especially likely when someone is getting clean in order to accomplish something (getting one's kids back, for example) other than freeing themselves from addiction.