Of course alcoholics care–when they get sober.
Jim Leyritz “just didn’t give a damn.”
So said sports journalist Shaun Powell of Newsday.com in commenting on Jim Leyritz’s decision to get behind the wheel of his Ford Expedition and drive off while obviously stinking drunk. Sorry, but we cannot know that Leyritz, or any other addict who kills, doesn’t really care.
We do know the evidence that Leyritz has the disease of alcoholism is compelling, in which case consequential brain damage makes him think he is god-like and therefore invincible while under the influence. Therefore, Leyritz, like all alcoholics, should be given the benefit of the doubt: he probably cares during periods of clarity and will care deeply if and when he gets sober. As pointed out in myth # 73, “Most people who engage in destructive behaviors are just bad people” in Alcoholism Myths and Realities, most are alcoholics first.
Misconceptions like this take our focus off the ball. We might think, “All we have to do is make him care,” which suggests we can talk to him about it. We saw how well “talk therapy” worked for Robert Hawkins and his victims. Maybe if we simply punish him others will learn the lesson and start caring. But those who need this lesson are also addicts and do not learn rationally. If instead we figure he’ll probably care when sober, then we need to focus on coercing abstinence, which is often required to inspire in the addict a need to get sober.
Myths often lead to false cures. This increases the odds that tragedy will occur–at which point many people figure the instigator must not have given a damn. If instead we assume that addiction-induced brain damage interferes with a caring attitude, we’ll focus on sobriety and prevent the tragedy–and never give anyone a reason to think he “didn’t give a damn.”