ALCOHOL MOST HURTS THOSE IT FIRST HELPS
It is better to listen to the quiet words of a wise person than to the shouts of a ruler at a council of fools.
ECCLESIASTES 9 v 17
A ROMANCE THAT KILLS
My romance with alcohol led me from respectability as a member of a family who were pillars of the community, to a life of destitution. It took fourteen years for me to realise alcohol had destroyed any potential I may have had, and that my physical and mental health were disintegrating to the point of total destruction.
I failed dismally at self-help groups and failed to understand the logic of any of the treatment approaches I encountered along the way; there seemed to be only one logical step to take, I had to devise my own method of recovery.
From the outset confusion reigned supreme and it eventually became clear alcohol did different things to different people. On the one hand it inspired those who imbibed to do great things which varied from winning wars and overcoming enormous hurdles in business and the arts, to the pursuit of gaining social acceptance and establishing personalities which endeared. Confusingly and inexplicably it transformed too many, often quickly although mainly over time, into committing out of character behaviour; all the way through to some of the most bestial and heinous acts of cruelty and murders most foul.
When I founded the Chaucer Clinic (CC) in the late 1980’s I specialised in the roofless homeless and was even appointed as an adviser to the Department of Health, where I worked with Sir George Young on the Rough Sleepers Initiative. I sincerely believed alcohol addiction was black and white, you either were an alcoholic or you weren’t; you can’t be nearly pregnant and the only cure was abstinence and I would have bet my life on the fact. I would have ridiculed vociferously any suggestion that one day I would write a BLOG offering a slender hope for a small proportion of problem drinkers to be able to continue drinking. And yet I have done just that with my ACR (Alcohol Consumption Regime).
I have always been one for conducting surveys amongst my patients. These are probably to psychiatry what straw polls are to politics, and would more than likely be greeted by my learned friends with cynicism at best, and ridicule at worst. However, it did not take a rocket scientist to determine that my patients in the early years at CC were only ever going to recover if they opted for a life of abstinence.
As the years progressed and word began to spread of our successes, we began to receive applications for admission from people who were employed, had mortgages and were frequently extremely well off. It did not end there; we began to admit patients from the world of sport, industry, commerce and even members of the aristocracy. The outcome of one of my long term straw surveys directed at why any of this group would wish to be treated alongside life’s losers, revealed a simple form of reasoning. One of the top five banks had referred one of their senior executives who we had returned to them in excellent health; later when he informed me he was now drinking acceptably and normally, I crossed him off my list of successes. During the years that followed I encountered a small percentage of my patients had also gone on to drink moderately and remained gainfully employed; and several had been promoted to even more senior positions. Those I spoke to strongly extolled the virtues of what they described as being able to experience the shock of seeing what might become of them, if they did not take alcohol seriously. This of course had taken place during their stay at CC.
Inspired by this, I devised a working tool I called the ACR威而鋼
rong>. Providing it is used absolutely as directed, it offers a helping hand to avoid irreversible addiction, and will also establish irrefutably whether an individual has crossed the line into it or not.
I founded the Gainsborough Foundation (GF) in 2007 thanks to an innovative GP who had the courage to put his head above the parapet having recognised the successes of my recovery programme. GF serviced thirty three surgeries across Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire and we discovered for the most part we were assessing patients between six to eight years before they would have been admitted at CC. This time one of my straw surveys revealed around 10% of those referred to GF were not alcoholics and responded well to the ACR. Currently this tool is an option being offered to those admitted at A&E departments at several hospitals.
To neatly conclude the introduction to the ACR, I would like to tell you the story of how one day during my Chaucer Clinic days, an ex-prisoner on parole asked if he could introduce matchstick modelling as a hobby into the pursuits section of the recovery programme; and it gave me an idea.
I agreed on the condition that his first project was to make me a matchstick model of a courtroom, complete with judge, jury, officials and public gallery. He did so and I placed a bottle of alcohol in the dock.
From that day onwards, once a month, we ran a mock trial with patients in the roles of prosecution and defence lawyers offering their evidence for and against the guilt of alcohol. Court officials, jury and public gallery personnel were portrayed likewise. Alcohol wasn’t always found guilty; it has some very eloquent and educated friends. The ACR is available as an ultimate test.
So now it is your turn. From this moment onwards, and as you read through the wide expanse of case histories chosen from my life’s work, you must see alcohol on trial in your own life.
The court is now in session… And the verdict has to be yours!!
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