Monday, October 5, 2009

One minor detail....


Well, my cold finally went away and I am feeling much much better. This comes as good timing because I finally am going to get some time off this week.


Wednesday I am going to go to another high school and speak again to another group of 9th graders about alcohol. This time I am going to be showing them a photograph of what I looked like shortly before I entered this program – vanity is always a good deterrent I suppose.
Now, here’s a question that I have been struggling with – some of my friends went away recently – they are in treatment because they had severe drug addictions but were left pretty much untouched by the ill effects of booze before they got here. So, they decided to drink and party while they were away.


Our group of guys is struggling with this one because some of the guys in my accountability group say this is a relapse, while others maintain that it is not because alcohol was not their addiction. They make a valid point that tobacco is also a drug and we are required to stop smoking while we are here in rehab and that if we begin smoking again, this could be a relapse.
The reason that no one is quick to label this a relapse is because in the mind of an addict, once a relapse has occurred, it is common for them to completely relapse into other behaviors (namely, their real addiction) because they adopt that, ‘Well, its already done,’ attitude.


I am of the camp that any drug that changes your reality window is a relapse. Then I was told that if I was given prescription medication, this could do that. So, I am stumped.


Is it a true relapse if you imbibe in a behavior that you didn’t have problems with before. I am not a gambler, I never have been, but is it a relapse if I go to Vegas and make some wagers?
Its pretty interesting debate and I am not sure how I feel about it. Your thoughts?


Robert has been my dorm mate since JT moved away a few weeks ago. This weekend he was in rare form, he actually wanted to speak. He said that I make him feel really comfortable and I kind of like that he said that.


I remember when he arrived on the ranch – it was Father’s Day – and he was so extremely strung out and detoxing so bad, he didn’t even know it was Father’s Day until a week later when he got a card from his daughter in the mail.


He decided to come to the ranch after one strange and fateful night in February. He had been living in a trailer that was in an abandoned trailer park. He and his roommate had spent nearly two weeks on a serious meth binge and the effects of a drug binge can quickly become a series of unlikely thoughts very quickly. If people made wise decisions while on drugs no one would be in rehab.


Anyway, after several days of being up and smoking meth they got the brilliant idea that they should rob a bank to finance a trip to California where they were promised a land of plenty – a Meth-mecca. They meticulously planned their heist – observed the bank for several days, cased the place, planned their get away, they had it all planned out to the time. Looking back, he laughs at it because he was far from the professional criminal he thought he was – in fact, in hindsight he remembers that the bank he cased wasn’t even the bank they were enroute to when the fateful day finally arrived.


Now… everything was ‘going according to plan’ but Robert started to get a little bit nervous and decided to go and find some liquid courage in the form of a bottle of Jack Daniels – this must be a pretty common guest in a bank robber’s gang.


They decided to take a detour to the nearest liquor store and as they fumbled out of the car and made their way to the liquor store, they were greeted with the sign that clearly stated that Sunday liquor hours were noon – 6 and the store was closed for another 30 minutes.


So they went back to the car, and decided to wait for the doors to open so they could get their final companion, the bottle of Jack Daniels, and make their grand entrance to the wrong bank and their ticket to financial freedom would be claimed. While they waited, they again went over the plan – detail by specific detail. And while they did this, after a half hour of replaying the plan of attack, it donned on one of them – if the liquor store wasn’t open because it was Sunday, then the BANK wouldn’t be open either.


A minor detail.


And so the next day, a Monday, Robert woke with a pounding headache in his occupied trailer in the abandoned trailer park – looked out his window, reminded himself of how close he came to the stupidest thing he had done in recent memory, and he called the ranch.


He gave his cat to his mom, packed up and came in on the fast-track.


I start Addictions 2 this week – I’ll fill you in on the fun stuff.
Anyway, its going to be a great week, I can just feel it. Take care all.

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