From: morley@Apple.COM (John Morley)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs
Subject: Re: Partial Legalization
Summary: Alcohol is not the problem
Date: 22 Jul 92 17:55:16 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA

In article <pffmh_n.rcain@netcom.com>, rcain@netcom.com (Robert Cain) writes:
> 
> Just to be redundant I'll say to this also that the AA and NA programs
> achieve modest success using this paradigm.  Modest but better than any
> other.  A saying that I have heard there is "the alcoholic's main problem
> is alcohol."  Nothing helps so much as that realization.
> 
> Bob

WRONG!  The alcoholic's main problem is not alcohol, it is the alcoholic.  The
problem with 12 step (i.e. AA, NA, etc.) programs is that instead of helping
an individual free themself from the assumption that they are dependent on
something external, they instead promote the notion that anyone who has had
a problem in their relationship to a substance is condemned to a lifetime
of dependence that can only be kept under control by avoiding any contact
whatsoever with that substance forever.

I have to say that for myself I would rather die of liver chirrosis or whatever
other lethal complications that may be the result of alcohol abuse, than to
spend the rest of my life believing that I can never be free from the
inescapable desire to continue that abuse.  The key to healing an abusive
relationship with a substance (IMHO) is to find an alternative outlet for the
feelings that prompt one to seek out the abusive relationship.  Attending a
12 step meeting may be one way to rechannel those feelings, but it has the
fundamental flaw of reinforcing the beliefs that prompt the abusive behavior
(i.e. the belief I AM AN ALCOHOLIC).  No matter how many times you repeat the
words I AM AN ALCOHOLIC, you still aren't one.  At worst you are a confused
human being that has a problem relating to alcohol, and a stubborn belief that
there is something fundamentally wrong with you that causes that problem.  The
minute you erase the belief that you are flawed, you can begin to reexamine
the ideas that drive you to have an abusive relationship to alcohol.  Drop
those ideas (ideas do not contain SuperGlue) and you never have to feel
trapped again.  You may choose to never use alcohol, but you won't cringe in
fear when you are in the presence of it.  A much happier state of being IMHO.

I fully expect to get flamed severely by people that will insist that there
are physical/psychological/hereditary/etc. causes for a disease called
alcoholism, and to them I say that even if this were true, everyone carries
with them the antidiote to that disease, the power to change your beliefs and
consequently your behavior.  I personally know people that have been or are
addicted to alcohol, crack, gambling, overeating, to name just a few of the
more popular human obsessions.  The ones that I have seen get over their
addictions are the ones that stopped giving importance to the beliefs that
motivate that behavior.  The ones that I see fight endlessly with their
compulsions are the ones that glorify the problem and try to interpret all of
life through those puke-green colored glasses.

- John

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Organization: Sophomore, Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA