“Alcoholism” Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Homelessness

In my experience it seems that the people who engage in highly destructive behaviors related to substance use always have a dual diagnosis of substance abuse AND antisocial personality disorder.

When these people fall into the hands of the chemical dependency treatment industry they are virtually always given a single diagnosis of “addiction” and their antisocial personality disorder goes unrecognized.

Yet the junkie on the street who will rob you for ten dollars is NOT representative of junkies in general–there are a lot of white collar junkies that fly under the radar.

The same is true of boozehounds.

In self righteous American society we always talk about “alcoholism” causing homelessness and never the reverse.

Yet I often wonder if most of the alkies living on the street were driven to drink like that BECAUSE of the fact that they had to live on the streets.

I would like to see some evidence of whether drunkenness is more likely to cause homelessness or homelessness is more likely to cause drunkenness.

Copyright © 2009, The HAMS Harm Reduction Network

Calling People Bad Names Never Solved Anything

It is quite amazing to me how so many people who consider themselves liberal and enlightened go around calling other folks bad names like “alcoholic” or “addict”. These same people would never think about calling others bad names based on their race, ethnicity, religion, IQ, sexual orientation or even sanity.

It seems that even most of the liberals in American society need a scapegoat and people who like to engage in recreational intoxication or other vices such as gambling or even promiscuity are now subject to getting labeled as an “alcoholic” or an “addict” by every uneducated un-degreed yay-hoo on the street.

The fact is that the words alcoholic and addict do not even occur in the DSM-IV and even if they did then you would still be diagnosing folks without a license if you used them to label people.

The simple fact is that “alcoholic” and “addict” are merely dirty words that some people use to make other people feel bad about themselves. If you use them, then shame on you–you oughtta have your mouth washed out with soap.

Copyright © 2009, The HAMS Harm Reduction Network

Let’s Get Rid Of The Stigma For Real

It is just as wrong for the segment of society which does not use drugs or alcohol to attempt to impose their value system upon people who choose to engage in recreational intoxication as it is for the heterosexual majority to impose their value system and sexual practices on the homosexual minority. We no longer lock homosexual men in prison for the practice of consensual sodomy. Nor do we send them to therapists to “treat” their “mental illness” of homosexuality. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association voted that homosexuality was no longer a disease and removed it from the DSM.

We are told by many people that homosexuality is genetic and inherited and that since people cannot choose to be other than what they are that we should accept it and not blame them for who they are–they cannot help it.

Yet we are also told that people who choose to engage in recreational intoxication by using drugs or alcohol are diseased. Why are they diseased? Because they are born that way and they cannot help it and therefore they must be treated until l they change whether they like it or not.

Homosexuality is NOT a disease. This is because it is genetic. Recreational intoxication IS a disease. This is because it is genetic. HUH???!!

What an outrage it would be to take all the homosexuals in America and lock them up in religiously oriented brainwashing camps and to tell them that every time they engaged in homosexual sex it meant that they had “relapsed” into their “disease” and that their only hope was to admit that they were powerless over their homosexuality and to ask a “Higher Power” to give them a daily reprieve from their homosexual behavior.

Yet this is exactly the sort of gross and repellant violation of basic human rights which is accorded to those in America who choose to engage in recreational intoxication. Just get caught even once in possession of a joint and you will be locked up in a religious brainwashing camp and be told that that which you like to do is a disease and that the only cure for your disease is to spend every day for the rest of your life sitting around some godawful religious meeting. Good grief–it is enough to drive one to drink!

Calling something a “disease” or a “mental illness” does not remove stigma. Calling it a personal lifestyle choice is what removes the stigma.

No gay person of my acquaintance has ever said to me “Let is put homosexuality back in the DSM and call homosexuality a mental illness instead of a lifestyle choice so that we can remove the stigma.”

Classifying things as crimes or diseases stigmatizes them. Classifying them as lifestyle choices removes the stigma. The NIAAA wants to refer to recreational alcohol intoxication as “binge drinking” in order to stigmatize it and to force people to stop engaging in it because the NIAAA feels that it has an inalienable right to force its value system upon others against their will.

From my perspective forcing one’s values upon others against their will is a far worse addiction than is engaging in a bit of recreational drug or alcohol use. So is locking someone up in a religious brainwashing camp and forcing your conception of a “Higher Power” on them against their wills.

I do not believe that G.O.D. stands for Group Of Drunks. I don’t believe in creationism in the first place–but even if I did I would not believe that a group of drunks created the universe. Nor do I believe that AA created the universe. Group Of Drunks = G. O. D. indeed!

Let us recognize that engaging in recreational drug or alcohol intoxication–just like homosexuality–is a lifestyle choice. Yes–drug or alcohol use can be a high risk behavior–but so can homosexuality. Both call for personal responsibility and good harm reduction practices to reduce the accompanying risks.

Just as safe sex is good sex–safe intoxication is good intoxication.

How about doing away with abstinence-only programs for drugs and alcohol and teaching kids about safe drug and alcohol use instead?

And how about doing away with abstinence-only programs for sex and teaching kids about safe sex whether it is straight sex or gay sex?

The life you save may be your child’s.

Copyright © 2009, The HAMS Harm Reduction Network

How HAMS Split Off From MM

“Breaking up is hard to do.”

It was quite inevitable that the harm reduction faction within Moderation Management (MM) would eventually split off from MM and move on to do its own thing. The events of the summer of 2006 merely served to hasten things along.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for the MM program; MM was the only place for me to go when I was seeking support for the changes which I was making in my drinking. However–MM was never a good fit for me–although MM is a good fit for many people.

My other great source of support and learning was needle exchange where I worked as a volunteer–however since my drug of choice was alcohol and I didn’t do any illegal drugs much less shoot drugs there was limited support available to me via this avenue as well.

First let us look at some of the things that the MM program is about:

The following is from MM’s website (http://www.moderation.org/whatisMM.shtml, accessed Oct 4, 2009)

What if moderation does not work for you?

After completing 30 days of abstinence (step two of the MM program) and then starting the moderation part of the program, you may discover that it is more difficult for you to moderate your drinking than to abstain. In this case, consider a self-management goal of abstinence. Some members of MM who choose abstinence remain in our program; others find an abstinence-only group to attend.

MM’s definition of moderate drinking is as follows according to the current MM trifold (http://www.moderation.org/images/tools/trifold2008_sample.pdf accessed Oct 4, 2009)

For Men:

No more than 14 drinks per week or 4 drinks per occasion.

For Women:

No more than 9 drinks per week or 3 drinks per occasion.

For All:

3-4 non-drinking days per week.

Current statements by MM are actually somewhat milder than the ones found earlier in MM–for example those found on this earlier trifold of MM’s which reiterate statements in the Kishline book (http://www.doctordeluca.com/Documents/MM%20Tri-fold.pdf accessed Oct 4, 2009)

MM is not for alcoholics, chronic drinkers, or those who experience significant withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking. MM is also not intended for former dependent drinkers who are now abstaining. Chronic drinkers should consider contacting an abstinence-based support group. MM is intended for problem drinkers who have experienced mild to moderate levels of alcohol-related problems.

What I learned by volunteering in needle exchange was that it was essential to foster and encourage every positive change rather than to think about who was a “problem user” and who was an “addict”. Indeed–it would be nothing but bizarre to offer clean needles only to people who shot heroin in moderation but to tell those who exceeded some sort of imaginary moderate limit that they would not be allowed access to clean needles or other harm reduction resources because they were addicted and therefore needed an abstinence based program!

My harm reduction goal with alcohol was to drink a fifth of booze (17 standard drinks) safely at home one night a week and to abstain the other six nights per week–clearly a harm reduction goal when compared with the fact that I had previously gotten this intoxicated 4 nights per week–but also clearly at odds with MM’s definitions of moderate drinking.

I spent around four years from 2002 until 2006 working as an administrator for MM and during this time I introduced many harm reduction concepts which I had learned at needle exchange into the MM online community–these concepts were received with great enthusiasm by those who were unable to “toe the line” of the strict MM limits and who also did even worse if attempts were made to impose abstinence upon them.

Then around August of 2006 a faction arose within the MM online community which proceeded to viciously and sadistically attack anyone who failed to be either perfectly moderate or to be perfectly abstinent. I say a faction but it was primarily a single individual. Rather than banning these sadistic attacks the MM administration decided to ban swear words.

September 13, 2006 I created the modsabshr yahoo group as a subgroup of MM for people who wanted to escape the sadistic attacks and the censorship that was occurring on the main MM email group. I also resigned as administrator of the main MM email group at this point in time.

In December of 2006 I decided that it was a bit ridiculous for me to continue working a 40 hour work week running MM’s chat room since I had neither job title at MM nor even a nominal stipend from MM for doing so.

Therefore on January 15, 2007 I created the hamshrn yahoo group and thus founded The HAMS Harm Reduction Network as an entity independent of MM. HAMS was incorporated in the state of New York August 21, 2007 (the same date as our first live meeting by coincidence) and we were granted 501(c)3 status by the IRS November 15, 2007.

This is the first time I have spoken publicly about what happened since we split with MM way back in 2006. That is because I have finally calmed down a bit and can now speak objectively without flying off the handle and acting like an asshole.

MM is a good fit for a lot of early stage problem drinkers and many people have benefited from MM–if you are an early stage problem drinker then you may find that MM is a good fit for you, too. SMART is a good fit for rational abstainers and even the dreaded AA can be a good fit for some people who want to abstain and who have the right kind of personality type to fit with a 12 step program.

HAMS is a good fit for a lot of us who want to define our own programs and who want to make positive changes which might be quite different from moderation–HAMS also fits those of us who want to abstain or moderate in our own way.

Copyright © 2009, The HAMS Harm Reduction Network