HERE’S TO YOUR HEALTH

This week’s HTYH is a continuation of Scott’s story: I was originally diagnosed as a drug addict because of my heroine abuse. I entered a treatment center and my intensive therapy began. Psychiatry treated my quirks and foibles, but I was dieing from untreated alcoholism. Psychiatrists partially understand alcoholism and drug addiction because A.A.’s diagnosis for alcoholism came from a Swiss psychiatrist named Carl G. Jung. He said: “Alcoholism and addiction are but symptoms of a great malady that’s spiritual in nature and therefore require a spiritual solution.” Therein is the psychiatrist’s dilemma they can diagnose the malady, but they have no tools for treating a spiritual malady–unless they are active members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Many psychiatrists are agnostic or atheists and they’re especially not qualified to deal with spiritual matters. During Dr. Jung’s internship at the Zurich Mental Institute they had a zero success rate for alcoholics and addicts. This phenomenon was noted and observed by the staff and they called in a Methodist Minister who did help some of them. This was Jung’s first inkling that chronic alcoholism and addiction are maladies that are “spiritual” in nature and therefore they required a spiritual solution.

While I was undergoing therapy, I sincerely believed that I was getting better, but in reality it was just a therapy merry-go-round. I was on my way to being a young corpse without an Oedipus complex–free of phobias, but nevertheless dead. If you’re new to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous but believe your main problem is drugs, stick around because you might be an alcoholic–an alcoholic who’s using drugs. If a certain kind of compulsive thinking and behavior has control of you and you’re denying it and you’re beyond human help–you are probably suffering from untreated alcoholism, or a soul sickness.

A.A. specializes in the treatment of spiritual illness. Their 12 suggested steps, sponsorship, meetings, textbook and simple daily actions, if honestly applied, can effect the needed spiritual awakening, experience, or complete psychic change needed to survive a spiritual illness.

If you’re getting drunk and high at exactly the wrong times, or continually sabotaging your own success it’s likely that you are a chronic alcoholic and you belong in Alcoholics Anonymous. If you’ve built a promising future for your family, but then tear it asunder in a senseless series of binges and sprees—you are probably suffering from untreated alcoholism. If you fail to remember the embarrassment, pain and suffering of your last insane spree—you are probably an alcoholic. If you repeat the same anti-social behavior while expecting different results—you are probably an alcoholic. If you adamantly defend your right to vomit between beers—you might be an alcoholic. Normal people will go to any length not to vomit and they would never lie, cheat and steal to get more of the same crap that caused them to vomit. No sane human being would pay money for something that causes him, or her, to vomit, or shoots up, pukes, and says, “Man that’s good stuff.” The Dr.’s opinion in the book Alcoholics Anonymous states that: the alcoholic way of life will become normal for the alcoholic. I had no idea that at an early age, I had arranged my life-style to accommodate alcohol. I lived in a middle class Jewish home and was introduced to an Old Testament God of fear whom, I wouldn’t want to get caught with in a dark alley. I was taught that Jews don’t drink alcohol because it might dull our pain and suffering. To be continued…

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