AHS Views

I read an interesting interview with William C. Moyers, son of TV (and other venues) journalist Bill Moyers). William, who has long since recovered thanks to a lot of addiction help, had a serious problem with cocaine in the past.

His interviewer asked the question “If you think you might be drinking too much, does that mean you’re an alcoholic?” Moyers came up with one of the most interesting answers I’ve heard: “It doesn’t mean you’re an alcoholic, but it means you are pondering issues that most people don’t ponder.”

I’m not sure I agree with him 100%. Lots of people ponder those same issues – but they have chosen, for one reason or another, to not use alcohol (or drugs) as a solution to those issues. They’ve also chosen to continue to ponder them, rather than try to escape from them.

But, unfortunately, it’s not that cut and dried. There aren’t too many people out there that are self-aware. They don’t realize they have ‘issues’ and they might not be ‘pondering’ anything.

A friend of my son’s is a good example. He’s not a stupid guy by any stretch of the imagination but I certainly would not describe him as self-aware. He was staying with us for a while – he’s in his early twenties – and drank like a fish. Although he admitted it wasn’t good for him and he probably should be doing it.

But when I asked him what was going on, what was he thinking about, he had nothing to say other than “I just like to have a few beers when I get home from a day at work.” That was it. No amount of prodding could get him to look at what’s going on in his head.

There has to be something not optimum going on in someone’s head to want to be blotto half the time. There are a lot of good things about life. Why would someone choose to be oblivious to those things by being semi-conscious?

In truth, whether they know it or not, they’ve got a problem. Not a drinking problem (although they now have that, too), a problem that makes them want to be semi-conscious and not perceive themselves or what’s around them.

Addiction help services can help them get to the bottom of it. Even if someone says “I just like to have a few beers ….”