I’ve attended enough AA meetings to know that their books and pamphlets refer to “god” and they pray and they have group prayer circles. If that’s not religious, I don’t know what is. Yeah, yeah…they told me I could make a doorknob my higher power, but really…who the hell do they think they’re talking to?
Maybe I’ve just been involved in a splinter sect of AA, but the fact is, everyone who quits drinking does it on their own, regardless of what the group may want them to believe. That’s nice that some athiests altered the word of the organization to fit their needs, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a religious organization.
I’ve just been reading some of the other articles on the website Counterpunch.org, from which the OP citation came, and it seems now less scholarly in intent and clearly more slanted to an anti-Bush agenda than I thought. Consequently, while I would still like to see comments from people close to the problem of alcoholism, dry or otherwise, I think this topic might serve better in IMHO. If a mod agrees, I think a move would be in order.
How does the most powerful man in the world exaggerate his self-importance?
And in any event, I see the opposite. I think Bush comes across as the most humble president since Carter. Unlike Clinton, who was always interjecting himself into photo-ops, Bush stays in the background. Remember when the crew of the P-3 that crashed in China came home? Bush didn’t go out to meet them at the airport, rightly saying that it wouldn’t be seemly to put himself between that crew and their family reunions for political purposes.
Example?
Yeah… Him and about 100 million Christian Americans. Are they all dry drunks?
He does not suffer fools gladly, from all accounts. Neither do I, and I don’t drink.
Examples?
Examples? If you’re thinking of the war, I would have to point out that 75% of the American people do not think it is irresponsible.
I’d need more examples of this behaviour.
This sounds a lot more like, “Bush does a lot of things I don’t agree with. Therefore, he must be wrong about all of them. Here’s a trumped up justification for his behaviour.”
Alcoholism runs in my family. My dad, brother, and sister are recovering alcoholics. My first (ex-)husband is a practicing alcoholic.
These folks are the type alcoholic who drinks to mask emotional/mental problems. The drinking is not really the disorder; it is a symptom of it.
When one stops drinking, that’s good; however one must address the underlying *cause(s) * of the drinking or be forever doomed to a crabby outlook on life.
In our circles (AA, Al Anon, Ala Teen, and Adult Children of Alcoholics), the term “dry drunk” is reserved for someone who stops drinking but refuses to do the work of changing themselves so as to get rid of the causes of their drinking.
Example: my dad quit drinking, went to a psychologist for depression, also began taking Lithium. 25 years later, he’s still sober. He continues to be sucessfully sober because he works on his depression & emotional issues which caused him to drink.
My ex-husband has tried to quit several times; however he refuses to get any counseling and often switches one addiction for another (for example, porn). During his “sober” spells he is still tormented by emotional problems because he refuses to weed them out. This is the “dry drunk” of AA.
Did that help?
P.S.: To the OP: anyone who thinks that they can diagnose another with “dry drunk”, who has not counseled with that person, and can only regard them from afar, is really an idiot.
It’s not enough that the guy hasn’t had a drink since his 40th birthday. Now we have to have the 12 steppers, and pyscho babablers judge the quality of his sobriety.
Thanks, NinetyWt, your response was what I was looking for. Katherine van Wormer (who is, a sociologist, not a psychologist or psychiatrist) tries to tie “dry drunk” syndrome to a person she’s never met. Assuming (as I do) that your definition of the disorder is correct, her use of it to skewer Bush is dishonest. I don’t mind when individuals lambast GWB with personal opinion. I love Molly Ivins columns, for example. Von Wormer, though, has presented what purports to be a scholarly article, but is really just an opinion piece.
I’m glad for your dad, sorry about your ex.
Sam Stone, you seem to think that these were my ideas. You ask for examples and cites when I was quoting an article by somebody else. All I wanted was clarification. I was asking if von Wormer was right, not asserting that she was. The cites you want you can get from her, as her email address is at the end of the linked article.
He continues to be sucessfully sober because he works on his depression & emotional issues which caused him to drink.