Jun 18 2008
Alcoholism Does Not Recognize The Social Order
When it comes to alcohol abuse, there are no class divisions. Everyone is equally susceptible to the siren-like pull of its addiction. The drunkard on a bar stool each night drinking beer and shots after a shift cleaning other people’s offices is no different from the CEO of a bank drinking a three-martini lunch when it comes to alcohol dependence. The cure is the same for both, there isn’t one. Only a lifetime of vigilance, avoidance, abstinence or modified drinking behavior will help both alcoholics.The detoxification from the alcohol may be more or less severe depending on different factors; each will suffer through a withdrawal based on the severity of their dependence. Physical health will be equally affected, pre-existing conditions aside. Emotional factors may vary based on mental capacity and again any pre-existing mental impairment. Rehabilitation and level of care may show understandable differences based on the ability to pay. Obviously, there are financial considerations for available forms of treatment for one alcoholic over the other.
All these factors aside, the result is two people of vastly different levels of affluence and social standing, both firmly in the grip of alcohol dependence. Both found it necessary to seek treatment for their addiction and regardless of their dependency, both would have a rough road ahead of them. To varying degrees, the physical withdrawal will be only just tolerable and may require acute care and monitoring.
Emotionally, the initial stages of sobriety will take its toll on both. They will experience a feeling of loss and uncertainty. Both will suffer the pain of guilt and shame to varying degrees especially if they have let down their loved ones. One or the other may be prone at any time to a relapse. Education or money in the bank has no bearing on who might fail and who may succeed in sobriety.
Spirituality may be the difference between the two alcoholics and could determine who has the most success with treatment. Are educated intellects more inclined to depend on themselves for the strength to steer clear of alcohol? Perhaps the lesser educated janitor has a solid grounding in faith that has been absent over the years due to life’s complications. Maybe one or the other is angry at the world, resentment simmering and the stressful commitments of daily life have taken a toll.
Regardless of initial treatment be it a $30,000 a month rehabilitation facility or the psychiatric ward of a hospital, these same two individuals could very well end up sitting beside each other discussing their alcoholism over lousy coffee at an A.A. meeting. All over the world in any given country on the planet there is a meeting taking place somewhere. You can bet that there will be all classes of people in attendance at any single A.A. gathering and they will be sharing their stories, offering guidance and support to one another so they can maintain their sobriety. If one needs the other they don’t care about social status, mutual support is what matters to them.
As alcoholics sharing the same illness, they soon learn that getting habitually drunk has the same devastating effect on a person’s life whether they hail from the Hamptons or Hell’s Kitchen. The result of uncontrolled drinking will eventually lead them into a state of distress and heartbreak, affecting them and those around them. Relationships will be in peril, dreams could be shattered. Big dreams or modest dreams, alcoholism knows no boundaries and treats anyone who is vulnerable with equal consequence.
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