What You Can Change _. And What You Can't - Martin E. Seligman [102]
Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
There is an addictive personality.
One drink, and relapse is inevitable.
All of these statements are commonly believed. All of them are probably useful. People who abuse alcohol are better off believing them. People who try to help alcohol abusers can be more effective if they believe the statements to be true. Indeed, these beliefs are at the cornerstone of many self-help groups, including the granddaddy of all self-help groups, Alcoholics Anonymous.
Strangely, however, none of them is clearly true. At the very least, each is controversial; many scientists view these “truths” skeptically. Some view them as excusing misbehavior by relabeling it as a medical symptom (as psychopathic is substituted for evil, kleptomaniac for thief, sexual deviant for rapist, pedophile for child molester, temporary insanity for murder), others view them as political slogans, and others say they are blatant falsehoods.
My primary job is to see if alcohol abuse is curable. Along the way, however, I cannot avoid looking at these beliefs. I will not be able to settle the controversies about alcoholism as a disease, an addiction, a bad habit, or a sin. I do not have the final word about the addictive personality, nor about controlled drinking. I will give you my opinion about these issues, but opinion is all it is. No false modesty here: While I am an authority on emotion, and an active researcher on sex and dieting, I am only an educated reader in the substance-abuse literature. I can give you the latest word, but my clinical and research experience in this field is limited.
Are You an Alcoholic?
First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man.
Japanese proverb
Do you have a problem with alcohol? Is it “abuse,” or, worse, do you “depend” on drinking to get through the day? It will not surprise you to find out that the lines between handling liquor well, abusing alcohol, and being dependent on it are far from clear. As a rule of thumb, the more symptoms you have, the worse your problem. Take the following quiz:
MICHIGAN ALCOHOLISM SCREENING TEST
(adapted from Melvin Selzer, M.D.)
POINTS YES NO
0 0. Do you enjoy a drink now and then?
2 1. Do you not feel you are a normal drinker? (By normal, I mean you drink less than or as much as most other people.)
2 2. Have you ever awakened the morning after some night before and found that you could not remember part of the evening?
1 3. Does your wife, husband, a parent, or another near relative ever worry or complain about your drinking?
2 4. Can you not stop drinking without a struggle after one or two drinks?
1 5. Do you ever feel guilty about your drinking?
2 6. Do friends or relatives think you are not a normal drinker?
2 7. Are you not able to stop drinking when you want to?
5 8. Have you ever attended a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous?
1 9. Have you ever gotten into physical fights when drinking?
2 10. Has your drinking ever created a problem between you and your wife, husband, parent, or other relative?
2 11. Has your wife, husband, or other family member ever gone to anyone for help about your drinking?
2 12. Have you ever lost friends because of your drinking?
2 13. Have you ever gotten into trouble at work or school because of your drinking?
2 14. Have you ever lost a job because of your drinking?
2 15. Have you ever neglected your obligations, your family, or your work for two or more days in a row because you were drinking?
1 16. Do you drink before noon fairly often?
2 17. Have you ever been told you have liver trouble? Cirrhosis?
* 18. After heavy drinking have you ever had delirium tremens (d.t.’s) *(5 points) or severe shaking *(2 points) or seen things that weren’t really there *(2 points)?
5 19. Have you ever gone to anyone for help about your drinking?
5 20. Have you ever been in a hospital because of drinking?
2 21. Have you ever been a patient in a psychiatric hospital or the psychiatric ward of a general hospital where drinking