‘Recovery’

You may or may not have heard about ‘alcoholics’ who stop drinking and remain in ‘recovery’ for the rest of their lives. This, apparently, is one of the symptoms of being an alcoholic. One of the many books I read about alcohol was The Joy of Being Sober by Jack Mumey. In it he states quite categorically that you are different to everyone else, that you have inherited your ‘disease’ from your family and that alcoholism is in your genes. He also states throughout his book that the recovery process is hard, long and, oh yes, it never ends. He tells you this at the very start of the book and, to be honest, I think Mr Mumey should have been done under the Trade Descriptions Act for calling it The JOY of Being Sober. It sounds a riot from the start, doesn’t it?

Incidentally this isn’t the only book that refers to this ongoing ‘recovery’ period; in fact all the books on alcohol do. In any case, how long does it take to recover fully? Well here’s the problem: apparently you never can. You can only expect to achieve a satisfactory way of life, taking each day as it comes, according to leading experts in alcoholism. So why can’t we ever recover? It is because there is apparently no cure for this disease. When you confront these ‘experts’ and ask them what disease they are talking about, they simply say ‘ alcoholism .’ When I ask them to explain what is the cause of the disease, they tell me the answer is not clear but that once you have the disease there is no cure. They

go on to say that maybe once we establish the cause we can begin finding a cure. Find the cause? Hellooooo, is there anybody home? What are ‘they’ talking about? Do you really have to have a BA Honours in common sense to figure out that alcohol is the cause of the disease? If somebody takes heroin regularly or smokes cigarettes, do we say that the answer is not clear? Do we say that we do not know what the cause is? Of course it’s clear, it’s very clear.

The actual chemical addiction to alcohol is a disease in itself and I agree with that. If you want to call the disease alcoholism, fine, but the disease can only get worse while you are still taking the drug. The disease can also only be there while you are taking the drug. The disease ends the second you stop taking it. The disease is the drug. The ‘recovery’ process takes place all the time when you are drinking alcohol as the body desperately tries to heal itself, not when you aren’t. The disease has completely gone the very second you purge it from your mind and body. What is so difficult to understand about that?

They say that you are never really cured but in recovery for the rest of your life. This is because if you have just one drink then it will trigger the ‘disease’ again. If you cannot be cured in the first place, then you must still have the disease even when you are not drinking, so how can it start again if you have a drink? How can something start again if, apparently, it could never be stopped in the first place? Even the experts’ own arguments don’t make sense. By their rationale, every

person on the planet was born with a disease called ‘heroinism.’ If you were to start taking heroin, then the chances are you will want to take more and more. It would destroy you mentally and physically and affect every area of your life but, please remember, if the drug takes hold it’s not actually the drug that is the problem , it’s you. The problem lies in the fact that you were born with this disease called heroinism. Who in their right mind would believe such rubbish? This recovery nonsense has nothing whatsoever to do with people’s genetic make-up, character or personality. It is simply mental deprivation because they believe they are missing out on a genuine pleasure or crutch. I hate to simplify it but it really is that simple.

Can you imagine somebody falling into quicksand and afterwards their rescuer saying, ‘Now, I am afraid to tell you that you are not truly free. You are now in “recovery” from quicksand which will last for the rest of your life. It is not going to be easy as you will always want to jump back in. You will have a constant battle with yourself every day for the rest of your life but you must understand that you are not able to jump back in because, if you do, you will probably sink and die. You must make a vow to yourself that you are going to stay on firm ground for one day. Just one day and that is today. Take each day as it comes but always remember, once a quicksand sinker always a quicksand sinker.’ To which you might reply, ‘But that will mean spending the rest of my life wishing I could jump into quicksand with the knowledge that it will destroy me if I do. I feel

as if I’m in a no-win situation. Does quicksand do this to everyone who jumps in?’ Their answer would be, ‘No I am sorry to say, you are the problem, not the quicksand . It is in your genetic make-up – you were born a quicksand sinker.’

Perhaps this sounds a little stupid but then so is the whole business of recovery. Maybe you are thinking, ‘Why would you go through the rest of your life wanting to jump back into the quicksand when you know what it is like and have already been pulled free?’ That’s a very good question but why would you want to inflict a disease on yourself after you have already been cured of that same disease? Why would anybody want to have a disease anyway?

This recovery is nothing more or less than the willpower method of trying to come off any drug. With other drugs it’s called willpower; with alcohol it’s called recovery. Why? Because we have been so brainwashed and conditioned to believe that the imbibing of alcohol is normal and people who cannot control their intake are not normal. The only logical thing to say is that they have a disease but, as I have illustrated, there is no such thing as a normal drinker and nobody is ever in control ; it’s just plain drug addiction and drug addiction is a disease in itself. The normal drinker already has the disease, they just don’t realise it. The people who realise are labelled alcoholics.

The reason why the willpower method is so difficult is because the person stopping believes they are making

a genuine sacrifice. They really believe they are giving up a genuine pleasure or crutch so the second they say ‘I am never going to drink again’ they feel very psychologically deprived. Think about it logically. Even if the person doesn’t drink again but believes they are missing out on a pleasure or crutch, the feeling of deprivation can be there, not just for that day, but for the rest of their lives. It is this and this alone – the waiting, the doubting and the uncertainty – that people call ‘ recovery .’ Is it any wonder that someone who stops drinking after being told they are not normal feels miserable? What a prospect and what a disincentive to being free of your addiction.

When you actually confront the experts about where this recovery takes place and where it hurts, they don’t actually know. They will go on about the DTs but even a lot of that is caused by the mental deprivation. Besides, they only last for a few days, if they happen at all, so where is the problem after that? It’s purely psychological and is caused only by the feeling of deprivation; no more, no less.

This explains why there are some people who haven’t had a drink in years but are still pining for one. In fact, unlike smoking where there are now millions of ex-smokers out there who don’t miss cigarettes, with drink, not only does around 80 per cent of the UK population drink the stuff and believe the illusions and brainwashing but the 20 per cent who don’t are largely made up of whinging ex-drinkers.

I attended an AA meeting many years ago at which I heard a complete diatribe of sheer gloom, doom and misery. I must stress once more that AA has helped many, many people and not all their meetings are like this. Some can be very entertaining but I also believe that there is no need to go to a building every week, state your name and complain about no longer having to drink. It would be a lot more understandable if they went somewhere every week and shouted at the tops of their voices, ‘Isn’t it great, I don’t have to drink any more!’ The first person in this AA meeting stood up and said, ‘I am John, I am an alcoholic.’ It turned out that he hadn’t had a drink in twenty years! Twenty years, yet he still said that there wasn’t a day that went by when he didn’t miss it. Miss what? There is simply nothing to miss. The pleasure or crutch of alcohol is merely an illusion based on the removal of natural fears and years upon years of advertising, conditioning and brainwashing . Think about this for a moment, twenty long years and probably until the day he dies, that poor man has been and is probably still mourning something he hopes he will never have again. Now that is a ludicrous and intolerable way to go through life, isn’t it?

I read Frank Skinner’s excellent and, as you’d expect, very funny autobiography. In it were a couple of things that illustrated just how some people are never mentally free from alcohol and remain in a permanent state of recovery. Sometimes he’s asked after a performance, ‘Were you happy with that?’ His reply? ‘No I haven’t been happy since September 24, 1986.’ This was the

last time he had an alcoholic drink. I must say I love Frank Skinner. I think he’s really funny and sharper than Mr Sharp of Sharpsville (each to their own!) but, after reading that, I felt really sorry for him. He, like so many other members of the ‘recovery gang,’ is in a no-win situation. Does he spend the rest of his life wishing he could have something which he hopes he will never touch again or does he give in to his own frustration and become the lab mouse once more? What a choice. He has simply opted for what he believes is the lesser of two evils called ‘recovery.’

People who stop drinking for a couple of weeks also suffer from this mental deprivation as they have to exercise immense willpower, discipline and control in order to ‘give up’ for just a short time. Are these people in recovery ? After all, they are going through exactly the same thing as the people in AA – mental deprivation. They cannot say it’s recovery otherwise they would be seen as an alcoholic and that would mean their having to admit, for the first time, that alcohol is a drug like any other and that they are simply hooked.

I have repeatedly emphasised throughout this book that it’s easy to stop drinking and, more importantly, to stay happily stopped for the rest of your life. People only disbelieve this because of the brainwashing, largely perpetuated by other people’s attempts to stop or by watching others who have tried to stop by going about it in the wrong way and feeling miserable. This gives the impression that it is difficult or impossible to achieve freedom. There are, after all, whinging ex-drinkers who

moan because they have a disease from which they can’t be cured. You have seen people off the drink for two weeks telling you every day that they haven’t had a drink for x number of days. At the same time they opt out of their normal lives by saying they would love to go out but just can’t as they are not drinking. This simply perpetuates the false belief that people cannot enjoy themselves in the same way without a drink.

People, possibly even you, who cannot drink just for one evening because they are driving have been heard saying that the evening was pretty lousy because of it. So you think, ‘If it’s like that for a day, then what the hell would it be like forever?’ If you have been conditioned to believe that you are an alcoholic, then you begin your attempt to stop with the knowledge that you will never be free. Isn’t that at the root of the fear that keeps people hooked? The fear is that you will always be missing out so it’s no wonder people don’t start off with a feeling of excitement, elation and freedom. We have been so brainwashed into believing that we can never get free or that it is not normal to be sober, that we begin our attempt to stop drinking with a sense of doom and gloom, as though we have just made a real sacrifice. Instead of feeling elated, liberated and joyful at the knowledge that we have just freed ourselves from one of the worst slaveries ever, that we have just stopped a progressive disease in its tracks and will never have to suffer again, we are led to believe that it is the end of nothing more than a disease and not the beginning of something great.

Let me ask a question – at what point did Nelson Mandela realise that he was free from his imprisonment? At what point was he free, never to return? Was it a year after he was released from that prison, a few months, a week, a day or was it the very second he was released? It was, of course, the very second he was let out, the very second he stepped outside to freedom. Do you think he ever had a craving to go back in? No, he knew for certain that he was free the moment he stepped out but at what point can the poor ex-drinker say, ‘Have you heard the news, I’ve done it, I’m free. I never have to drink alcohol again, isn’t it marvellous!’ At what point can they become elated to be free. At what point will the craving go? The answer is never, or at least not while they still believe they are making a sacrifice.

I accept that, in order to free yourself from any disease, you have to accept that you have the disease but it’s just as important to realise when you don’t have it any more. There is nothing sadder than a person who has freed themselves from a slavery, an addiction or a disease but has no idea that they have. The problem is that society gives you the impression that you have indeed made a genuine sacrifice and that you will be the one missing out. So, when people stop drinking they don’t start with a celebration of their freedom from an awful addiction but with a sense of doom and gloom, wondering when they will fail. If the poor drinker believes that he or she can never escape, they never will. Even if they don’t drink for the rest of their lives, they will simply be waiting to see whether or not they will fail.

The trauma that ex-drinkers suffer when they stop is not caused by the awful physical pain of the drug leaving the body or by anything in their genes, but by the mental deprivation. It feels like a child being deprived of a toy. Our theory is that if we suffer the misery of this frustration for long enough then, eventually, we might be able to reach the stage where we can say, ‘I’ve done it. I’m free.’ However, true freedom is impossible that way. While you still believe you have made a sacrifice the frustration will be there forever as, unless all the brainwashing is removed, the sense of deprivation will always remain. This is not recovery or remission, it is simply mental deprivation which results in a feeling of missing out. Exactly what is there to be deprived of? What does alcohol do for you or anybody for that matter? The answer is absolutely nothing. It’s just one massive confidence trick. Once I stopped for three months and whinged constantly. Looking back now, I see that it was all unnecessary as I was moping about something that did not exist.

In order to succeed, it must be clear in your mind that nobody is ever born an alcohol addict, any more than anyone is born a coffee drinker or Mars Bar eater for that matter. There is only one reason why people get hooked on alcohol and that is the brainwashing, or to put it another way …