As required by our Federal grant, National Runaway Safeline (NRS) has an annual presentation on being a drug free workplace. Since I’ve been at NRS for a decade in July, I’ve sat through around 10 of them. The best presentation was delivered by a recovering addict. Yesterday was a close second in the thought-provoking category. The speaker was dynamic… essential in speech delivery. She knew the subject matter thoroughly, shared relevant anecdotes and covered a plethora of material in the allotted thirty minutes. The presentation focused on the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. She gave descriptions of a user, an abuser and an addict.
Except for my experimentation with pot last summer, I sip my substance from a glass. My go-to drink is a hearty red wine. I also like an occasional extra dirty martini or Maker’s Mark manhattan. Other than that, I might try a drink but if it’s too sweet I won’t finish it. Recently, when I helped my sister shut down her nightclub, I drained 15 gallons of liquor from the system. I ‘married‘ the bar inventory until we only had about 150 bottles left. This picture is Trixie standing guard as I take in ‘the view’ of bottles that stretched from here around the biggest bar counter into the next room. It was a lot of booze and I didn’t want any of it. My hands and clothes were already permeated with it. That was plenty.
Our speaker said the differences between user, abuser and addict is *choice.* When it’s no longer a choice, it becomes a serious problem. I’ve known addicts. Some are in recovery with several happily celebrating long term sobriety. Some are in denial and actively partaking. And at least one person I love died and it was directly related to his addiction.
Our speaker talked about the wiring in our brain. She explained that we all have instinctual survival skills: to eat, to drink, and even to kill. Our primal being is equipped to keep us alive. She explained that addicts have wires crossed. Drinking or taking drugs become their survival instinct. They believe without the substance they will perish. They have a stress induced deficit. They try to survive by chasing the high.
This explanation made a lot of sense to me. I don’t believe I have the genetic wiring to become an addict. I do know I can tetter-totter between use and abuse. I’m a social drinker. I like to have a couple glasses of wine. If I’m having a good time, I like to have a couple more. I have two superpowers that balance each other out. One, I rarely am hungover. Two, my body likes to get up early. Even if I’m out having a good time gulping libations, my body will shut it down. I get really tired and leave an outing. The second superpower has come with age. I used to be able to hang until the end AND get up early. Now, I’m rarely out past midnight… or honestly even 11pm.
I continue to be cognizant of my drinking. I make a conscious effort to limit the days I even have a drink. And on the days I have a drink, I try to limit the number of drinks. Last summer, I was even on a Red Wine Reduction Plan. The interesting takeaway from yesterday was the speaker indicated this type of management justification is a sign of abuse.