DaXin's New Year's Commentary on Alcohol Consumption in our Culture

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DaXin’s ALCOHOL COMMENTARY 31 DEC 2012

1. I worked at an alcohol treatment center owned and ran by the retired head of the Long Beach Navy center that treated Betty Ford as one of my internship field placements.

2. The format was group process pairing a PhD candidate and an AA counselor.

2.1 Almost all the clients were court ordered into the program.

3. One session, a new fellow . . . introduced himself. It turned out he'd had about 8 drunk driving ARRESTS. I think he was now court ordered into our program on yet ANOTHER DUI. One of those, he'd nearly killed a mother and children who were hospitalized with multiple injuries. Another, he almost killed himself.


THE FIRST WORDS OUT OF HIS MOUTH WERE:

I don't need to be here. I don't have an alcohol problem.


4. Perhaps you can appreciate that after 30+ years of counseling folks who have had an alcohol problem or were related to someone who did . . . I don't relate to alcohol consumption as a hilariously funny activity.

5. Pastor Henry Wright asserts, correctly, I think, that ALL addictions are a DESPERATE SEARCH FOR


qualities and quantities of DADDY'S LOVE that were not present the first 6-8 years of life.


I believe he's totally correct.

6. I'm often soundly criticized for the following conviction--however, it is a strong one that has only been reinforced with the decades.

7. It has been my observation, that


IF someone drinks 3 or more alcoholic beverages within 24 hours--particularly regularly at all--they already have or will have before too terribly long--a serious problem with alcohol abuse.


8. A standard professional truism is that if someone cannot go 6 months without a single alcoholic drink AND NOT PINE AWAY FOR IT, then they likely have an alcohol problem.

9. Father Martin used to do the "Chalk Talks" on alcoholism. He mentioned a fellow who binge drank one weekend and lost his driver's license. He binge drank another weekend and nearly lost his life. He binge drank a 3rd weekend and lost his freedom. He concluded, correctly, in prison, that he was an alcoholic after 3 drinking sessions.

10. The only difference between alcohol and ether used for surgery is one water molecule. They take people with ether down to just above death and hold them there for the operations. That's why their insurance premiums are so high.

11. It used to be that death by drinking was rare because folks became so drunk they passed out without sufficient amounts to kill themselves. Given a lot of more potent drinks and a lot of absurdly stupid group macho feats . . . it's a fairly common event in our era.

12. I'm not a tee-totaler. I'll probably have 1-3 glasses of low alcohol wine a YEAR. I don't like the taste of more potent stuff. Around 3-6% is my preference.

13. One of my college English assignments was to go into a bar, a bus station or a train station and just listen to the conversations and take notes. Having never sat in a bar, that I could recall, I chose a bar. A couple of friends joined me. Of course we had to be non-alcoholic drinkers for the assignment. The conversations were some of the most inane, foolish, seriously pathetic, sad, dreary of any I'd ever heard. And NO ONE was truly listening to anyone else in any of the conversations.

14. It has always flabbergasted me how mostly anesthetizing one's brain and fine motor coordination was successfully sold to the population as "elite," " smart," "clever," "cool," "sophisticated," "wonderful FUN," a "GOOD TIME," . . .

14.1 I mean, if someone came up to you and said . . . Every Friday night, I'm going to take you out to eat salty, artery troubling food and inject you with a substance that will immediately anesthetized your JUDGMENT CENTER in your brain--the center that decides when you've done something too much or too little; gotten too close or too far from a moving vehicle; said something cruel and stupid; etc. And, the substance will give you a high risk for a life-long addiction that will destroy your family relationships; your work reputation and all your dreams. The substance may well cause auto accidents and cause you to lose your license. And, it will probably shorten your life 10-25 years or more. And, it will cost you a lot of money on a shrinking income.

WOULD YOU BE THRILLED TO SIGN RIGHT UP FOR A REGULAR DOSE? Would you consider someone who did the sharpest knife in the drawer?

15. How is it fun to do high risk things; insult those closest to you; act utterly foolish to down-right cluelessly stupid . . . to wake up the next morning with a lot of pain and revulsion . . . NOT REALLY REMEMBER MUCH after the first 3-6 drinks and then brag lying about what a wonderful time you had?

16. Family time drawing closer to those you love or with a group you love--with your entire brain functioning normally has no bad aftertaste. Spending the time showing folks you love how much they mean to you, has no bad after taste.

Anyway . . . /rant
(C) 2012 DaXin

The goal of this post is not to hinder authentic lastingly constructive true FUN.

However, IF one potential drunken abuse of one spouse or one child is decreased by this post, then it is well worth whatever assaults and cat calls it may foster.

Cheers--with maybe sparkling cider.


Proverbs 22:3
A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. NLT
 

i think you need a drink
happy new year to you
not all drinkers are daddy didnt love me drunks
just like not all sober people in a bar are mind numbing preaching bores

reply to post by xszawe


Hmmmmmmmmm

Sounds like some assumptions on your part . . .

And perhaps the content was experienced as a bit tweaky.

I have known some drinkers who have only one glass of wine per night. I don't consider them to have had an alcohol problem.

Personally, I do NOT need a drink to cope with the stresses and pains of living.

Nor do I need to have a drink to anesthetize me in order to have "fun."

IF I'm going to truly have FUN, I WANT

TO BE FULLY AWAKE SO I CAN ENJOY IT FULLY.

Alcohol prevents that--even at a two beer level. Certainly it does at a 6 beer level.

Thank you for this thread. I do not drink, I once did. I used alcohol as a stress reliever, and I still want it for that reason now and again, which is why I don't drink. I drank to numb myself, to escape.

Alcohol is not the answer to anything. I am a retired RN and one of the places I worked was New Mexico where at any given moment in time 40% of the population are drunk. I saw first hand how alcohol destroys families, and lives. I will never forget a patient I had, 29 years old in end stage liver failure. He began drinking at age 2 on Daddy's knee. He looked 9 months pregnant from fluid that accumulated in his abdomen. He died.

I hope your thread makes a difference, as you said, even if it is only one person, it matters.

Originally posted by Iamschist
Thank you for this thread. I do not drink, I once did. I used alcohol as a stress reliever, and I still want it for that reason now and again, which is why I don't drink. I drank to numb myself, to escape.

Alcohol is not the answer to anything. I am a retired RN and one of the places I worked was New Mexico where at any given moment in time 40% of the population are drunk. I saw first hand how alcohol destroys families, and lives. I will never forget a patient I had, 29 years old in end stage liver failure. He began drinking at age 2 on Daddy's knee. He looked 9 months pregnant from fluid that accumulated in his abdomen. He died.

I hope your thread makes a difference, as you said, even if it is only one person, it matters.

Yo tryin' ta drown my keyboard?

THANKS TONS for your kind words. AMEN! AMEN!

Yeah, the 4 Corners and Reservation areas can be highways of death far too routinely.

Alcoholism, Obesity and diabetes are huge problems for many.

Sometimes it seems like all those problems are part of the oligarchy's UN Agenda 21 efforts to cull the herd.

I most grieve over the children abused and at hazard for ever being able to have a decent life from such abuse ridden factors.

Thanks for your kind experienced words.

[color=6699FF]You are soooooo accurate about alcohol "as a stress reliever." Folks also tend to reach for it when depressed. Reaching for a DEPRESSANT for relief from depression is like reaching for a rattlesnake as a relief from poison. I counseled my students to never drink as a relief from anything. It's a vicious trap. Bit by little bit it wraps deadly tentacles around one's very life and certainly one's relationships via such thinking. "Just this time" becomes weekly, daily then hourly.

Again, if someone is already drinking more than 2 drinks in 24 hours--at all--they are already on the very greased slippery slope.

If anyone is rationalizing daily consumption that has any compulsion and "I can quit any time" thinking when there's more than sufficient evidence that they are lying to themselves . . . they need to stop, cold. Period. Forever.

It's like justifying sleeping with a rattlesnake pretending the pretty skin is sufficient reason.


Thanks so much.

May God bless, provision, protect and draw you and those you love close to Himself in the coming challenging year.

Sigh.

.

Originally posted by Iamschist
Thank you for this thread. I do not drink, I once did. I used alcohol as a stress reliever, and I still want it for that reason now and again, which is why I don't drink. I drank to numb myself, to escape.

Alcohol is not the answer to anything. I am a retired RN and one of the places I worked was New Mexico where at any given moment in time 40% of the population are drunk. I saw first hand how alcohol destroys families, and lives. I will never forget a patient I had, 29 years old in end stage liver failure. He began drinking at age 2 on Daddy's knee. He looked 9 months pregnant from fluid that accumulated in his abdomen. He died.

I hope your thread makes a difference, as you said, even if it is only one person, it matters.

Yo tryin' ta drown my keyboard?

THANKS TONS for your kind words. AMEN! AMEN!

Yeah, the 4 Corners and Reservation areas can be highways of death far too routinely.

Alcoholism, Obesity and diabetes are huge problems for many.

Sometimes it seems like all those problems are part of the oligarchy's UN Agenda 21 efforts to cull the herd.

I most grieve over the children abused and at hazard for ever being able to have a decent life from such abuse ridden factors.

Thanks for your kind experienced words.

May God bless, provision, protect and draw you and those you love close to Himself in the coming challenging year.

Sigh.