Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3256-3260 (4-8 July 2016)
oddtail:
OK, important disclaimer: I do not have professional knowledge regarding the biology or psychology of alcoholism. Whatever I say next is based on information I trust, but not information that has hard scientific data behind it, and it's information that I am not able to verify.
That being said:
I used to listen in to a weekly radio broadcast on a Polish radio station. The broadcast is half music, half stories and experiences regarding alcoholism. As the guy who runs the broadcast says every week, he's a long-time alcoholic, and he wanted to talk about his experience. So he went to the radio station and said "hey, let me talk about this". And they let him.
(I'm relaying the opening almost verbatim - well, except that "it's in Polish" part)
The broadcast alternated between taking calls from listeners (alcoholics, their families, friends) and talking to people who have had professional or semi-professional experience with treating addiction (to alcohol or drugs). That included doctors, workers at rehab centers, etc. It's also my strong impression the man running the show, in addition to having had experience of alcoholism firsthand, also did his homework on the effects of alcohol and how it is handled when trying to manage addiction.
One thing I remembered being said over and over and over again in the broadcast is this: alcoholism is a disease, it is an incurable disease and it is in the end a fatal disease. You can live with it, but it never goes away. This was repeated ad nauseam, to the point of almost being a mantra. Callers and guests to the show said things to the exact same effect. According to the broadcast, alcoholism is not something you recover from, not something you can cure, you can only opt to stop drinking. The most memorable thing about the show was that the guy running the broadcast introduced himself, every single time, as "I am [name] and I am an alcoholic". I happen to know a guy who is family with that man, and from I gather he has been clean for years and years now. But this very matter-of-fact and direct "I am an alcoholic" that was said every time is still something he decided to share with the audience every single week.
So, I don't have medical data regarding addiction, but if what I heard on that radio show is accurate, there is no such thing as fully recovering from alcoholism so that you can go back to drinking. You can be an alcoholic and function, you can be an alcoholic and appear to function, or you can be an alcoholic and it will damage your life and one day kill you. Both the explicit things said and the general vibe of the broadcast was that if you are an alcoholic and still drink, you still have a problem even if you appear to function OK. It may not kill you or ruin your life directly, but you're still not completely fine.
I thought I'd share this, I'm sure there's someone from the forum who has more grounded information regarding the medical side of things, but it appears to many, many alcoholics who decided to speak their mind on the show, it's either "drink" or "control your problem", with no real in-between.
And once again, take what I wrote with a grain of salt, I have no firm confirmation of this. But the stories I heard and the talks they had were very convincing. And they do mesh with the addiction problems I've seen in members of my close family and friends (mostly not alcohol-related, although it's there, too).
alanari:
--- Quote from: Skewbrow on 05 Jul 2016, 01:47 ---But have the patients really been "healed" unless they can use alcohol like normal people?
--- End quote ---
I understand the thought, but there is no healing or cure when it comes to addiction. It's a lifelong condition. An addict has this thing in his brain, I don't know the English name, the literal translation is "addiction memory". It never goes away and it doesn't allow a normal drinking pattern. It's what controls the whole behavior of an addict and is the reason why all addicts behave strikingly similar, regardless of which drug is used, including gambling.
When a clean addict starts taking his drug again, it slowly regains control over him. Inevitable. Can take days or years.. but it will happen.
Mr. Skawronska:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 03 Jul 2016, 21:48 ---I wonder if we'll find out Bubbles's story.
--- End quote ---
She will tell it when she is damn good and ready and not a moment sooner.
swapna:
When we're on the topic of anecdotal evidence - maybe the reason I feel different is because I've seen more than one way of how things like this could end.
I know alcoholics who can't and won't stop, people similar to those you're talking about, but I've also seen people who were blackout drunk on a regular basis (including hospital visits for said problem) for a while but then stopped gradually until they only drank safe amounts of it; it was a matter of both improving their life situations and ditching the people they were drinking with. They still like to drink, and if you'd put the label 'alcoholic' on them, they'd be very guilty of regular relapses (and probably feel very guilty about it, too), but like this, it worked out guilt-free and just fine.
I've also seen people change with the help of treatment and medicine; successfully so, even though some aren't afraid of alcohol and still drink. They just do it in safe amounts and not alone. Some don't touch it, but that's just the solution that works for them.
I've seen similar things with other drugs; kicking the habit and the difficulty of doing so depends very much on the person, if they have support from their friends and family, if they figure out why they abuse those drugs so much, how long they've waited (drugs do a lot of damage) and how deep they're in the rabbit hole.
On the comic: Aww, Faye. Maybe she figured out that not all things are being shitty - Palkyrie (I'm going to use that name foreverrr... it is the best name!) is being a great friend, and her presence and her sympathetic microphone might stop Faye. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
BenRG:
--- Quote from: Morituri on 05 Jul 2016, 02:23 ---
--- Quote from: BenRG on 05 Jul 2016, 01:28 ---I think that Bubbles is not going to get anything done tonight; Faye's mental and emotional state will be too delicate for her to do anything but hug her as she cries.
--- End quote ---
You say that as though you think holding someone while they're crying isn't doing anything important for someone's mental and emotional state?
--- End quote ---
I think that you may be reading between the words and seeing things that aren't there.
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