EASEPRESS 3.3
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Letter From A Reader For nearly thirty years I have been continuosly sober and attending AA meetings . I credit my sobriety with attendance at meetings. Quite a number others ascribe their long-term abstinence to the same source. The Twelve Steps gave me a structure that I lacked. They gave me a path to follow and that appealed to me. Seeing others successfully sober gave me hope. Having meetings to attend on a regular basis gave me a certain sense of stability. I felt that, if I drank, I would be letting down the people who tried to help me. I accepted positions of leadership within several groups and this added other reasons for me to avoid drinking. I began to see respect in the eyes of others whom I respected when I told them how long it had been since I had taken a drink, and [seeing respect] was an experience unique in my life. I was offered the opportunity to help others and that too was appealing. My self esteem grew to a more healthy level while the image that I had of myself when I was drinking began to fade. I loved the knowledge and wisdom that has been passed on to me by others. My experience in AA is at the same time both common and unique. The positive effects that I've mentioned are commonplace to those who have embraced the Program. On the other hand I am acutely aware that those benefits are far from the average of those who attend a meeting. Far and away the majority of attendees do not have a positive experience. I have no way of knowing how many people have come to one or two meetings and have found nothing of value. I believe that most active alcoholics can not benefit from participation in the AA culture. I don't know why this is, I simply know that it is so. Some members of AA feel that this exposes a vital quality that is lacking in in those people who don't benefit from the Program. Chapter Five of our Big Book refers to these people as "those unfortunates" who are "constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves". I don't agree. I see these people as being quite honest with themselves, and perhaps more honest than I was willing to be with myself. While I embrace the concept of Powerlessness others recoil from it. While I eagerly accept the notion of a Higher Power others feel only contempt. As I enjoy the fellowship of AA there are those who seek solitude. This is NOT a moral failing. It is a personal choice, or perhaps a calling to a different way of living. We need a longer menu of recovery techniques. The notion of AA being the only way, or even the best way, is worn and no longer useful to a society that suffers from alcohol and chemical abuse. For this reason I strongly endorse and encourage the efforts of EASE and hope that the medical establishment, as well as the courts and treatment professionals, will support the goals of this organization. From the library of Debra Riel: Thomas Szasz. The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct (New York: Harper and Row, 1974) pp. 1-2 "My aim is...to suggest that the phenomena now called mental illness be looked at afresh and more simply, that they be removed from the category of illness, and that they be regarded as the expression of man's struggles with the problem of how he should live... "...I refer to that explosive chain reaction that began with man's fall from divine grace by partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Man's awareness of himself and of the world about him seems to be a steadily expanding one, bringing in its wake an even larger burden of understanding. This burden is to be expected and must not be misinterpreted. Our only rational means for easing it is more understanding, and appropriate action based on such understanding. The main alternative lies in acting as though the burden were not what in fact we perceive it to be, and taking refuge in an outmoded theological view of man. In such a view, man does not fashion his life and much of his world around him, but merely lives out his fate in a world created by superior beings. This may logically lead to pleading non-responsibility in the face of seemingly unfathomable problems and insurmountable difficulties. Yet, if man fails to take increasing responsibility for his actions, individually as well as collectively it seems unlikely that some higher power or being would assume this task and carry this burden for him. Moreover, this seems hardly a propitious time in human history for obscuring the issue of man's responsibility for his actions by hiding behind the skirt of an all-explaining conception of mental illness."
Humor: FWD: SmarmyTribune 06-26-2000: Research Links Dermal Density to Immunity. Researchers at NINH (The National Institute of Naltrexone Health) Saturday announced results of a five-year study which may reduce the incidence of many mental disorders. Testing on 300 rats showed far less incidence of depression, chemical dependency, and bi-polar disorders among those specimens showing high dermal density. "By increasing the dermal layer in the depression-prone group," said Mel Hyman, chief research coordinator of rats, "we found that we could reduce naltrexone levels and addict fewer rats to opioids. This indicates that the thicker skin altered the brain-chemistry such that immunity to addiction, and most importantly, to alcohol and opiate-seeking." In the bi-polar group, Hyman was able to increase seratonin re-uptake while reducing MAO inhibitors. "We don't know why the dermal density alters the brain-chemistry, but we are determined to demonstrate by these results that drug-seeking and mood disorders are a result and not the cause of diseases of the brain.... Rats don't think much, they are just machines which respond to chemistry in thier brain. If we can show similar results in human subjects, we will someday be able to cure depression, addiction and dissociative disorders with out-patient skin grafting." Hyman says that Hazelden of Center City, MN, has purchased the results of the study and plans to seek FDA approval of grafting for addictive-disease treatment, and for prevention among adolescents. Hazelden could not be reached for comment. The rats have been returned to society on close scrutiny and supervised vitamin regimens to allow observation of thier moods when the epidermis returns to the natural level, said Hyman. "We don't want to deny humans thier antagonists; we should all be doling out naltrexone; but if this dermal thing catches on, it may prove to be appealing to those holistic types out there who just will not take the pills or the injections."
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