America, Can We Talk About Your Drinking?

Waddaya know? I’m a binger. Reading this after a boozeless night not sleeping and surfing to sleep on benzos and something like meditation. I can go without. I’ve been known to impress my other drinking friends with my ability to do so. But in the pits of the flâneur stage of my life I ask: What else am I gonna do?

To one point in this story I have a comment:

Many people are afraid even to discuss the topic with their doctors for fear of being labeled. But in fact, researchers have long shied away from using the term “alcoholic,” because it’s both negative and dated.

I believe that’s true regarding patients not wanting to discuss the matter with doctors for fear of being labeled. But I think it goes both ways, with some medical doctors whitewashing their encounters with patients in not wanting to use the term alcoholic, ask uncomfortable questions, or focus on matters that are not within their field of expertise. That’s what therapists are for, right? There is a “good news” mentality that inhabits all disciplines and I think many doctors are guilty purveyors.

Interesting as well to see that modern medicine thinks most people who drink excessively are not addicts. I have never felt “addicted” to alcohol, or anything else, at least not in the sense that I gotta have it and if I don’t I’ll get belligerent. Maybe that’s a self-serving observation, but I’ve always thought that my biggest problem with drinking is that I still find it fun.

I may not look the part of an addict but, like many of my friends who drink, I do get shaky sometimes.