TDA Salute

The Discovering Alcoholic Salutes are a special recognition I like to bestow upon those in recovery who have overcome long odds, achieved great things, or added significantly to my recovery or the community in general. In the past I have honored a wide variety of individuals including an actress, astronaut and even my own dentist.

Tonight I would like to honor a fellow recovering alcoholic and addict, Frankie.

I am a 45 year old ex-con, recovering alcoholic/addict who was recently released from prison. I am finally getting a life for myself after so many years and it has been rough. ~ Frankiecon.blogspot.com

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“Captain, that’s not logical.” Dr. Spock said it often to Captain Kirk, but Leonard Nimoy also said something similar to William Shatner before his wedding.

He said just one sentence, 'Bill, you do know that Nerine is an alcoholic.' I'm not sure what Leonard expected me to say. 'I know she is,' I told him. 'But I love her.' Leonard didn't speak for a minute and then he said, sadly, 'Well, Bill, then you are in for a rough ride'."~ The Age

Nimoy was not channeling his Vulcan character, as a recovering alcoholic he knew first hand the potential pain Shatner could face. Nine years later Shatner came home to find his floating face down in the pool, dead from an overdose of alcohol and valium.

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I am really impressed by the Pennsylvania DUI Association and its ongoing effort “to address the DUI problem in all of its many stages -- from prevention to enforcement up to, and including, adjudication and rehabilitation.” They produce there own public service announcements, raise public awareness though special events, and offer a huge range of training and certification courses. There is a massive amount of info and links available on the Team DUI website, but one of the coolest things you will find there is the Safety Bug.

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Saint Apollonia is the patron saint of dentistry and of those suffering from tooth aches and dental ailments. She gained martyrdom during the age of the Roman Empire when a drunken mob of pagans took her captive. They brutally busted out all her teeth and threatened to burn her alive if she did not renounce her faith. Rather than commit blasphemy, she willingly embraced the flames.

While probably not as bad as a pagan assault, a generally poor lifestyle and the neglect from years of alcoholism had left my teeth in very bad shape. During my first year of recovery in the mid 90’s I was suffering from what turned out to be a severely impacted tooth and my new dentist was out of town for the weekend. He had arranged a prescription of painkillers to help me get by until he could see me, but did not realize the severity of my condition nor the fact that I was fairly adept at abusing pills. I did not fill the prescription, and proud of my discipline I prepared to tough the pain out (embrace the flames)… and failed miserably.

Around midnight I had caved and called my sister who is a pharmacist to see where I could get the prescription filled at such a late hour. She didn’t know of an all-night pharmacy, but mentioned that one of her friends from college was a newly minted dentist that was living in the same apartment complex. Maybe she might help me if I was truly suffering that bad. So at Oh-my-God it’s early in the morning I went knocking on the door of this dentist and with a little urging from my sister she actually opened it. She did more than just let me in; she loaded me up in her own car, opened up the office, and extracted the offending tooth. Oh yeah, did I mention she did all this for free.

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It’s been a good while since I’ve made an advocacy update on my activity with the Governor’s Substance Abuse Task Force in Alabama, so here’s a report on today’s monthly meeting.

The mission of the task force is to enhance and promote substance abuse and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery. The group is made up of 22 very talented members from different fields of prevention, treatment, recovery... and one simple-minded blogger. The meeting today covered two main topics, the planning of quarterly community outreach programs and National Recovery Month (NRM) activities.

The outreach programs focus on reducing the stigma associated with substance abuse and addiction, discussing treatment and funding sources, and to allow those in the community to voice their concerns. Not only do the experienced task force members attend, but local law, judicial, and community leaders are also invited to attend and speak. My intentions were to plan a community outreach program in my home county in July but the travel schedule for my job that pays the bills was just too unpredictable. Even though it is later than I had hoped, today we set a concrete Dec.11th date for the program in my home area.

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A friend of mine sent me a link to a local news report when the Project Prevention van visited her area. I had initially titled this piece “An Uncomfortable Subject” because to be honest I’ve been sitting on this story for over a week now trying to figure out an official TDA stance on the issue and that was the best I could come up with… it’s uncomfortable.

In a nutshell, Project Prevention offers a cash reward to drug addicts and prostitutes if they will go on long term birth control like an IUD or be sterilized. The goal of course is avoid pregnant substance abusers and children born that have to be withdrawn from drugs.

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Taking advantage of a story about Jamie Lee Curtis and her battle with pain killers that popped up on my news feed this morning, I went hunting for a good picture of her to use for the TDA famous alcoholic feature.

I though it would be cool to get a shot of one her characters that earned her the title “the queen of scream” from the horror movies like Halloween, Prom Night, and my personal favorite, The Fog, but ran across something far better. The photo to the right is of Lindsay Lohan five years ago presenting Mrs. Curtis with an award for helping troubled teens… especially those dealing with alcohol problems. Now that’s a scary picture!

"Being a teenager is really tough," Lohan admits. "But I also see how hard it can be for parents like Jamie. While we were shooting she told me she worked with Teen Line, and I immediately thought that it was amazing that people my age have a resource to turn to. Someone they can call their own age to talk to and get help." ~ USA Today

Ms Lohan may no longer be a teenager, but it would probably do her a world of good to give Jamie Lee a call these days.

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Just as having a mother named “Moon” seemed to denote a special destiny for Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr. out among the stars, it is easy to believe that her alcoholism and eventual suicide played a role in the development of his own addiction.

Known as Buzz” since his childhood, Mr. Aldrin is best known for piloting the lunar module from Apollo 11 and landing it on the moon. He became the second person to ever set foot on the heavenly body for which his mother was named after stepping out of the lunar module behind mission commander Neil Armstrong. Unfortunately, Buzz never handled being second or success very well.

Always an overachiever; he was a jet fighter pilot in the Korean war, obtained an degree in astronautics from M.I.T., and was critical in creating the complex science required to rendezvous module with capsule in orbit before actually performing the maneuvers himself. After the lunar landing, there seemed little left to accomplish. Following an overwhelming media and publicity blitz Mr. Aldrin began to suffer from an ironic sense of inadequacy, depression, and alcoholism.

After we got back, I wasn't prepared to be in the public eye. I traveled around the world and met many people. At one point, we visited 23 countries in 45 days. I also thought that going to the moon couldn't be topped. So I left NASA and returned to the Air Force. But I don't think the Air Force knew what to do with someone who went to the moon. ~ Yahoo

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Alcoholics by nature create so much negative press that sometimes the success stories slip by unnoticed. Fortunately this will not be the case for one of my favorite celebrity alcoholics and host of the CBS The Late, Late Show, Craig Ferguson who hit a rating milestone last week.

The CBS "Late Late Show" averaged more viewers than O'Brien's "Late Night" (1.88 million to 1.77 million) for the first week during which they each competed with all-original shows since Ferguson, a Scotsman, started in January 2005. ~ Fox News

Not exactly a pop culture Einstein I first noticed Craig Ferguson in the Drew Carey Show, where in an apt bit of casting he portrayed a cocaine addict boss. But it was his monologue about alcoholism and Britney Spears that gained my admiration when he obviously worked through part of his own recovery in front of a live audience… and made it funny! One of my favorite lines is at 6:50 when he says, “… one thing led to another and I forgot to kill myself that day.”

So here’s a TDA Salute to Craig Ferguson, a very funny and a very successful alcoholic.

As a weekend bonus follow the story below to see Mr. Ferguson interview another one of my favorite celebrity alcoholics in recovery. Hint: Golf is a major part of his recovery program.

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"Science has shown that the brain has a remarkable ability to recover from addiction. With continuing advances in medical and behavioral treatments, addiction will soon be commonly accepted as a manageable chronic disease."

This summary statement is displayed at the end of the 30 minute interview with Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, done by HBO in its series on addiction. I agree whole heartedly that the brain has the remarkable ability to find ways around the damage caused by prolonged drug and alcohol abuse. However, the premise that addiction will soon be commonly accepted as a manageable chronic disease seems a little far-fetched to me.

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