JimBob

Dad had an employee named JimBob.  I forgot about him for awhile but then I remembered him once again.  JimBob was a drunk.  An alcoholic.  A dipsomaniac.  He drank too much.

JimBob was brilliant.  He was an excellent worker when he worked.  Liquid lunches did him in.

Dad didn't know anything about recovery from addiction back then.  He tried to help JimBob.  I don't know what form the "help" took.  I was only aware of Dad spending extra time with him, talking.  But talking is not what JimBob needed.

Most people-- stats say 90% but it may even be a bit higher than that-- don't have problems when they party.  JimBob did.  Once he started, he had to finish it.

Dad finally was forced to fire him.

JimBob, I don't know where you are today.  Or if you are even still alive today.  Abstinent or still using or dead or locked up somewhere.  I hope you've gotten healthy in the intervening years.
I hope someone knew how to help you.

sapphoq on life says:  We do not know enough about how to treat people who have addictions.  I know there are tons of programs-- detoxes and crises centers, in-patient and out-patient rehabs, counseling and self-help meetings and mutual aid societies.  The hard truth is that Twelve Step programs and treatment based on them is not right for everyone.  There needs to be more research done in order to find and develop options that help more people.  The success rate of the ______________ Anonymous groups is dismal at best.  Rehab facilities remain prone to paternalistic viewpoints and attitudes towards their patients as evidenced by the almost automatic assumption that all of the patients are there to be treated, that their "best thinking" got them there, that if there is a lack of a traditional god figure that must be remedied.  The creative and the freethinker get lost or "therapeutically" discharged from such places.  Those with serious mental disorders have even higher rates of returning to active addictions than those who don't do.  Something has to change.

Those are my thoughts tonight.  I hope that JimBob has found his way to health in spite of the Addictions Treatment Industry System.