I was just barely getting through a local meeting one night when I heard roughly this from the speaker:
“By the way, if you’re a pothead hippie or some shit, then go to another meeting for like potheads anonymous. This is alcoholics anonymous. AA is for alcoholics, not drug addicts. If you smoke pot, you don’t even need to come here ’cause you’re still sober.”
The guy was excruciating but I ended up laughing, as this sort of attitude is so common in my region. Clearly the speaker wasn’t an alcoholic. In fact, thousands of AA members around here aren’t even in the vicinity of alcoholism. What we’ve got is a slew of heavy drinkers who procured a few DUIs and were court-ordered to attend AA. Having no prior social skills and therefore no social life, they grab onto it like the bottle, come religiously, and saunter around the halls like Holier Than Thou ‘old timers’.
Yes I know that is a generalization but you can trust me when I say I’ve been to just about every meeting on the north shore and there is virtually NO distinction. AA meetings around here are a shining example of untreated alcoholism.
So regarding the difference between addicts and alcoholics, let’s just say that the notion itself is an oxymoron. There is no difference. The body of an addict is no physiologically different than the body of an alcoholic. Plus, if any of our so-called old timers picked up the Big Book, they could learn about how our allergic reaction to alcohol crosses all lines. If we experience the phenomenon of craving when we take a drink, then we will experience the phenomenon of craving when we take any mood-altering substance.
Try it, if you want.
If you’re a north shore drunk, go dump a pile of cocaine in front of you and call me at 6am when you’re practically seizing out but need another bag. Or why don’t you throw down a couple OC 40s every day for a week and then talk to me about how you need to get your hands on the OC 80s instead. Or perhaps you should start taking your wife’s anxiety medication and try not to rack up another DUI after passing out behind the wheel. But sure, of course you’re not also a drug addict… just an alcoholic, right?
It doesn’t matter what your poison is. It doesn’t even matter if you hate coke or weed or benzos or dope. If you have the allergy, you are 100% screwed and therefore any substance will deliver you straight back to detox. But until then, have fun at the semi-annual sober dances.
God, teach us that the allergy crosses all lines and therefore we are not safe from any mood-altering substance…
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