Has it actually struck anyone that people with habitual alcohol issues usually have those issues snowballed by the social blowback they experience? It's fuelled purely by resentment and society shovelling hatred and fear towards people who are most vulnerable to it compounds the problem - this thread is a great example.
Imagine someone in so much psychological pain and self loathing that they're already killing themselves only to come across ideas that they are just narcissistic, potential murderers who deserve to be killed. What's the likely natural consequence? "**** you all and forever," as that certain someone raises their next glass.
Good point. You can't treat the substance abuse until you fix the cause of the addiction in the first place. Sometimes the damage is too severe...so what to do? The self-loathing is fueled by how people respond to them. You can't hate them more than they hate themselves.They don't live but only exist. Alcohol is sometimes their only friend.
One of my dearest friends is an alcoholic with so many rehab visits, she has lost count. She has been done for drink driving a few times and lost her license for years at a time.
My last visit to her in hospital was when she rammed someone's car in a unit complex. She doesn't even remember getting in the car, so that would explain the attempt at driving when she shouldn't have. When I asked he what she had done and why she drove, she just shrugged and said, "I don't know". She only avoided a police charge because the incident happened on private property...something the police want changed where I live.
Knowing this lady's background (child sexual abuse, both parents alcoholics, lost every sibling to alcohol abuse, no extended family close by, and recently lost her husband who was always there to pick her up and put her to bed)...need we ask why she drinks? Her pain I believe, is beyond human capacity to fix. Alcohol numbs it and takes it away temporarily. But it then causes more problems than it fixes. She has a dilemma. She is trying her best to get on top of it, but she has been an alcoholic for over 30 years. I am amazed that she is still alive.
Should the programs for substance abuse be mandatory early, before they become a lifelong, intractable problem....and can you force someone to take medication against their will? These are ethical questions and knowing other alcoholics, I can honestly say that I have yet to meet an alcoholic who was not using alcohol to treat their depression or mental illness. It is their medicine of choice; they don't need a consultation or a prescription, and unless we have something to offer them as an alternative that works, how can we condemn them? (though we must condemn what they do)....why have we nothing to give them to take away their pain and help them to feel like normal valued human beings?
I am not for one moment condoning what drink drivers do, but we should be looking for solutions, not just condemning them as if they do not already condemn themselves. If they do not value their own lives how can we expect them to value others? Some understanding would not go astray on this issue. Its too easy to sit and condemn when you have no idea what that person is enduring. It doesn't excuse them, but gives you insight as to why they don't seem to care about others.
