Archive for June, 2011
An alcoholic, a child of an alcoholic, and a fool: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Anthony Weiner
Although alcoholism explains most misbehaviors, it doesn’t explain them all. The more severe and the greater number of misbehaviors, the higher the likelihood alcoholism is involved directly or indirectly; the fewer and less severe the misbehaviors, the lower the likelihood. Three recent cases involving politicians may offer some evidence that the degree of vileness of misbehaviors, including sexual ones, depends at least in part on whether the connection to alcoholism is direct, indirect or non-existent.
Early in my research when I learned that about half of compulsive gamblers are alcoholics, I hypothesized the same is probably true of the sexually compulsive. As I wrote in ...
Will Amy Winehouse ever get–and stay–sober?
Runner-up for top story of the month:
Amy Winehouse, once again proving that alcoholics don’t go into rehab willingly: in her latest travels to rehab, a “friend” reported that Amy downed a small bottle of Smirnoff enroute. Nor did it “take,” as she checked herself out within the week, went back on tour and was booed and jeered off stage in Belgrade after she stumbled onto the stage an hour late and mumbled through her songs. Part of her tour has been cancelled; we can only hope for her sake the rest of it will be cancelled as well and she heads back to rehab and stays longer.
Talk show host Ed Schultz and actor Doug Hutchison show behavioral indications of alcoholism. (So does a 16-year-old girl’s parents.)
Under watch:
In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine suggests there may be some truth in something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a couple of recent stories follow for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behavior itself.
MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz, who took a week-long unpaid leave of absence after calling a talk show host on the other side of the political spectrum, Laura Ingraham, a slut. While he apologized for ...
Voters and even recovering (?) alcoholic Dog the Bounty Hunter enable. It just keeps the addict going.
Enablers of the month:
56% of the constituents of Anthony Weiner’s 9th New York Congressional District, who said they would have re-elected him despite what at the time seemed pretty good evidence that he sent sexually explicit messages and photos to at least six women who were not his wife and putting himself into a position in which he could easily be blackmailed and, therefore, corrupted. My hunch is after his resignation, a large plurality if not majority still would vote for his re-election. Consider the former mayor of Washington, DC, Marion Barry, who was elected to a fourth term after being convicted of cocaine possession (and there’s much more on Barry at Wikipedia, which is a classic case of a ...
Shocking: a white collar criminal had a “drug-abuse” record, and a teenage alcoholic remembers little of his escapades. Classic quotes of the month.
Quotes of the month:
“Inside Trader At Nasdaq Had Drug-Abuse Record”—Headline of a June 10, 2011 story in The Wall Street Journal on Donald Johnson, who pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of insider trading, raking in $750,000 in illegal gains while working at Nasdaq’s market intelligence desk. No surprise to those who know that where misbehaviors of either the blue or white collar variety are evident, alcohol or other-drug addiction will usually be found, Mr. Johnson was discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves in 1986 for stealing narcotics and using them while stationed in an Army hospital. Within a year, at a private hospital, he faked medical records 73 times in less than a month to get drugs for his ...
Current alcoholic stories that would make a good movie: the stories of “the barefoot bandit” Colton Harris-Moore, baseball/would-be financial guru Lenny Dykstra, anthrax killer Bruce Ivins and “tot mom” Casey Anthony.
Movies and docudramas are often based on real-life alcoholics and their antics or tragic outcomes
Television and movies are often based on real-life stories. If we didn’t know the background, we’d often smirk and mutter “yeah, right, like this could really happen.” Yet crazy stuff does happen, frequently due to alcoholism-fueled egomania. Truth is often stranger than fiction only because alcoholism is so pervasive and alcoholics have an impact way out of proportion to their numbers. In that vein, here are several movie ideas we expect to see sooner or later based on "believe it or not" events happening now.
The Barefoot Bandit
Culminating in a guilty plea, no doubt heading to theaters soon is the story of Colton Harris-Moore, aka the “Barefoot ...
Accusations of molestation are often false. Here’s a classic–a sudden accusation by a 42-year-old who’s had all sort of “other” problems, which are likely rooted in alcoholism.
Daughter from hell
Dear Doug:
I have been a good mother to my 40-year-old daughter. Despite this, about a year ago she accused her 42-year-old brother, with whom I am very close, of having molested her when they were children. She tried to turn me against him, perhaps out of jealousy. Since I do not believe there was any abuse, ever, I refused.
She has had many problems since her father died, including depression and the commission of many mistakes. She has turned her children against me because I won’t take her side. Now she trashes me to anyone who will listen and is trying to turn the rest of the family against me. When I tried to talk to her reasonably about ...
An MFT suggests we find out “why” a 14-year-old drinks and that it could be a cry for help. What nonsense. The little girl likely inherited alcoholism.
“The most important thing is to find out why she’s been drinking. It’s very likely that her drinking is a cry for help.”
So wrote Stephanie Anderson Ladd, a licensed Marriage Family Therapist (MFT), responding to a letter in her column from a worried mother who found that her 14-year-old daughter has been drinking after school.
As is all-too-typical of MFTs, Ms. Ladd doesn’t grasp the fundamental idea of alcoholism: that the biochemistry of the addict impels the addict to drink. They do not drink heavily and end up as addicts; they process the drug alcoholically, which allows them to drink heavily. Any excuse will do.
Because alcoholism causes “euphoric recall,” which makes those with alcoholism view all they do through self-favoring lenses, ...
Brushing one’s teeth while driving is, among many other unnecessary movements while driving, a clue to DUI.
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“AT LEAST HER SMILE'S BRIGHT: Should you brush after drinking? Cherie Margaret Davis, 65, seems to have thought so. After a bout of drinking, Davis put the car she was driving in Marlborough, New Zealand, on cruise control and, at 100 kph (62 mph), ‘got out her toothbrush and started brushing her teeth,’ a police spokesman said. The car veered left, she steered right, and woman and car made the abrupt acquaintance of a rock bank -- hard enough that she was treated in a hospital. Her blood alcohol level measured .135 percent. Davis had been banned from driving after a drunk-driving incident less than two months earlier, in which ...