The 1811 Eastlake apartment building in Seattle houses homeless alcoholics without requiring them to stop drinking.
Fairly obvious study, although the important distinction is that the study looked at programs that did not require alcoholics to completely stop drinking in order to stay in the shelter.
After two years, “everyday” drinking was cut by about 50%. Impressive.
250% increase overall in 2009 over 2003, but most frightening is that the number of incidents involving those under 21 quadrupled over the same period. What do you think is causing the spike in underage spiking?
Daily News: Alcohol-related emergency room visits skyrocket in New York: 74,000 in 2009
Psychology Today online has a great article about mindfulness and acceptance as part of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. More.
Alcoholics in the News Today:
Music Review from UW Oshkosh’s AdvanceTitan.com: Out of the throes of addiction to alcohol and heroin, Elliott Smith produced heart-rendingly beautiful melodies and lyrics before committing suicide in 2003.
Memoir Review from The Week: Born-again Christian George Bush quit drinking in 1986 and went on to wage war against imaginary enemies in foreign lands resulting in very real tragedy – casualties include hundreds of thousands of human beings, global financial systems, and the Geneva Conventions.
Genome Mapped: Ozzy Osbourne, known as the “Prince of Darkness” during his Black Sabbath days, survived alcohol and drug abuse/addiction for over forty years apparently by virtue of an extraordinary genetic constitution. Despite his crass and rude behavior, he seems to actually be kind of a peach.
According to a new study by Britain’s Center for Crime and Justice Studies finds that alcohol is more dangerous and lethal than illegal drugs including crack cocaine and heroine.
The study ranked the destructiveness of substances like cocaine, heroin, alcohol, ecstasy and marijuana according to factors such as addictiveness, damage to the human body and to families, and economic and environmental costs.
Alcohol More Dangerous Than Heroin, Study Finds, by The Associated Press
Google alerts can give you a little extra help staying sober. Setting up a daily alert for “alcohol” will put an email in your inbox every day providing you with hundreds of news articles articles from around the world describing drunk driving accidents and deaths, health-related effects of alcohol and alcoholism, etc. – basically a daily rundown of the mayhem that alcohol brings to the world. Be sure and check “news” for “type.”
Setting up an alert takes five seconds. You can do it here.
I also have one set up for “alcoholism.” Other suggestions?
“The Drunkard”: Howard Thoresen, left, and Michael Hardart in this 1800s work at the Metropolitan Playhouse.
Theater review from the New York Times, “Saved, Before Alcoholics Anonymous” by Wilborn Hampton.
Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East Fourth Street, New York City
Vanity Fair: Fox on the Rocks; Glenn Becks Despised by Network President, Other Employees, by Juli Weiner, September 29, 2010.
New York Times: Being Glenn Beck by Mark Leiobevich, September 29, 2010.
Just goes to show that AA just helps you get sober; it doesn’t necessarily make you a better person.
Comments?
A woman identifying herself as "Carol W." holds the Big Book, the basic text for Alcoholics Anonymous, at a meeting in Seattle in this June 10, 2010, photo. (John Lok/The Seattle Times/AP Photo)
More than 70 years after the publication of the Alcoholics Anonymous “Big Book,” which provides the framework for the AA program including the twelve steps, Hazelden is publishing the original manuscript as written by co-founder Bill Wilson. This original manuscript contains far more and more overt references to Christian doctrine than the originally published version, which was intended to reach a more diverse religious audience. While some criticize the existing AA program as presented in the published literature as being far too Christian already, this new publication shows the original thinking behind the program.
ABC News report on the publication of the original manuscript
AA Original Manuscript Shows Debate over Religion from AddictionSurvivors.org