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- The Common Sense of Drinking (1930)
The Common Sense of Drinking (1930)
- By Misc Author
- Published 01/2/2007
- Alcohol
-
Rating:
While the past is doubtless responsible in one way or another for present conditions, the future is going to determine whether or not these conditions are to be changed.
To be more explicit, the pursuit of suitable work and the enjoyment of interesting hobbies are without doubt the easiest and surest method of substituting sensible ideas for stupid ones.
The discovery of an interesting occupation to which the nervous system is suited is certainly one of the most important goals to be striven for in the reeducation of alcoholics.
If a suitable occupation can be selected in advance, much effort, often useless, in trying to adapt a personalities to an unsuitable one can be avoided.
A man with an unstable nervous system cannot successfully carry on a business which perpetually worries him even though it may be interesting.
As an incitement to seek the relief of alcohol, invariably go worry, boredom, and discouragement. An occupation may be in itself distasteful; lack of future opportunity may produce a sense of futility.
The energy, both physical and psychic, that a person can expend beneficially depends much less on the quantity of the work than on the quality of the emotional reaction to it.
Where a person is continually performing a disagreeable task, he is in a constant state of conflict, though he may be unaware of it because of repression.
The greater the conflict and the longer its duration, the more the individual feels himself to be trapped.
If he reasons, as he generally does, that his condition is no fault of his own stupidity, then he is sure to feel that he is entitled to forget his troubles in intoxication.
To combat alcoholism without making every effort to combat what may well be one of the chief external causes is putting undue emphasis on psychological persuasion„ which may naturally be unable to carry the whole load in the face of too great an obstacle.
If possible, a man should leave a distasteful job for one which holds out a natural appeal even if the transfer involves a temporary reduction of financial return.
This is much easier to write about than to put into effect, but, in general, plans can at least be made for an eventual change so that the individual substitutes for the trapped feeling a more philosophical acceptance of a status which he has come to regard as temporary.
Where a change seems to be impossible, depression can often be alleviated by the development of some hobby to be pursued in the evenings and over the week-end.
If a man has something to look forward to at the end of the day, time passes more quickly and with considerably less bitterness. Dr. Myerson comes to my support here.
"A hobby, or secondary object of interest," he writes, "is therefore a real necessity to a man or woman battling for a purpose whose interest must be sustained. It acts to relax, to shift the excitement, and to allow something of the feeling of novelty as one re-approaches the task." [The italics are mine.]
Where the predominating conscious conflict in a man's life revolves around another personality rather than around a material object, a radical change in the relationship should be deferred if possible until the drink problem has been settled, when a man will act according to the ideas resulting from a free functioning intelligence rather thin those of an unstable alcoholic emotionalism.
It is true that he may consider with justification that the other personality, when most displeasing, is a distinct stimulus to his habit.
Nevertheless he cannot be sure of his opinions until he finds out by actual trial to what extent both the conduct of this person and his own ideation are a result of chronic drunkenness, occasionally interspersed with grouchy and uncertain periods on the water wagon.
(One of my patients who recovered eventually from alcoholism bitterly regretted a divorce which he had prematurely precipitated because of a disorganized state of mind.)
An inebriate does not know his own true self. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that this knowledge does not come in its entirety for many months after a man has been sober on a "for-all-time" basis.
The chances are that his drinking started in late adolescence, and thus he has never known either the extent or the direction of his adult potentialities.
Therefore all important decisions, other than that definitely to stop drinking, should be postponed until the treatment is well on its way to a successful culmination.
To be more explicit, the pursuit of suitable work and the enjoyment of interesting hobbies are without doubt the easiest and surest method of substituting sensible ideas for stupid ones.
The discovery of an interesting occupation to which the nervous system is suited is certainly one of the most important goals to be striven for in the reeducation of alcoholics.
If a suitable occupation can be selected in advance, much effort, often useless, in trying to adapt a personalities to an unsuitable one can be avoided.
A man with an unstable nervous system cannot successfully carry on a business which perpetually worries him even though it may be interesting.
As an incitement to seek the relief of alcohol, invariably go worry, boredom, and discouragement. An occupation may be in itself distasteful; lack of future opportunity may produce a sense of futility.
The energy, both physical and psychic, that a person can expend beneficially depends much less on the quantity of the work than on the quality of the emotional reaction to it.
Where a person is continually performing a disagreeable task, he is in a constant state of conflict, though he may be unaware of it because of repression.
The greater the conflict and the longer its duration, the more the individual feels himself to be trapped.
If he reasons, as he generally does, that his condition is no fault of his own stupidity, then he is sure to feel that he is entitled to forget his troubles in intoxication.
To combat alcoholism without making every effort to combat what may well be one of the chief external causes is putting undue emphasis on psychological persuasion„ which may naturally be unable to carry the whole load in the face of too great an obstacle.
If possible, a man should leave a distasteful job for one which holds out a natural appeal even if the transfer involves a temporary reduction of financial return.
This is much easier to write about than to put into effect, but, in general, plans can at least be made for an eventual change so that the individual substitutes for the trapped feeling a more philosophical acceptance of a status which he has come to regard as temporary.
Where a change seems to be impossible, depression can often be alleviated by the development of some hobby to be pursued in the evenings and over the week-end.
If a man has something to look forward to at the end of the day, time passes more quickly and with considerably less bitterness. Dr. Myerson comes to my support here.
"A hobby, or secondary object of interest," he writes, "is therefore a real necessity to a man or woman battling for a purpose whose interest must be sustained. It acts to relax, to shift the excitement, and to allow something of the feeling of novelty as one re-approaches the task." [The italics are mine.]
Where the predominating conscious conflict in a man's life revolves around another personality rather than around a material object, a radical change in the relationship should be deferred if possible until the drink problem has been settled, when a man will act according to the ideas resulting from a free functioning intelligence rather thin those of an unstable alcoholic emotionalism.
It is true that he may consider with justification that the other personality, when most displeasing, is a distinct stimulus to his habit.
Nevertheless he cannot be sure of his opinions until he finds out by actual trial to what extent both the conduct of this person and his own ideation are a result of chronic drunkenness, occasionally interspersed with grouchy and uncertain periods on the water wagon.
(One of my patients who recovered eventually from alcoholism bitterly regretted a divorce which he had prematurely precipitated because of a disorganized state of mind.)
An inebriate does not know his own true self. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that this knowledge does not come in its entirety for many months after a man has been sober on a "for-all-time" basis.
The chances are that his drinking started in late adolescence, and thus he has never known either the extent or the direction of his adult potentialities.
Therefore all important decisions, other than that definitely to stop drinking, should be postponed until the treatment is well on its way to a successful culmination.
