January 30, 2006

• MONDAY READING

  A Million Little Pieces
  by James Frey

  Fact: The American Psychiatric Association began to use the term “disease” to describe alcoholism in 1965, and the American Medical Association followed in 1966.  The disease concept was originally applied to alcoholism and has been generalized to addiction to other drugs as well. The “disease of addiction” is viewed as a primary disease. It has these symptoms – physical withdrawal when the drug is removed, increasing tolerance to any drug the longer the body uses it, and a history of being terminal unless remission is achieved. In spite of this information, there are many who still feel that addicts are bad weak people who should “Just Say No.” During the recent hubbub about this book, I saw two female newscasters discussing the confrontation by Oprah of the author in which righteous indignation beamed from Oprah’s eyes while Frey looked like the proverbial deer caught in her headlights. One newscaster said she had to turn it off, that it was too painful to watch this public flogging. The other said with a grin, “I enjoyed every minute.” For me, it wasn’t quite that clear a reaction. I’d begun reading the book before the whole shockeroo exploded and, after 21 years of Recovery in 12-step programs and approximately 1100 meetings where I’ve heard basically the same stories over and over again, I was finding the actual treatment center descriptions totally believable. I myself didn’t go through treatment but I’ve been into many of them over the years to bring meetings in to people who can’t come out. I must say the part about the dental work with no anesthetic didn’t seem likely – what I would have expected was novocaine during the surgery but then sent away with non-narcotic pain medication afterwards. Frey has apparently fessed up to embellishing details. I could care less if he vomited three times or 850 times. What speaks to me so far in his telling is the sense of hopelessness, rage, exhaustion, and despair which every addict I’ve ever known has to reach before he or she can turn a corner and choose life over death. And frankly, most go ahead and die. That’s how powerful the disease is. And most who begin recovery relapse and die. That’s how powerful the disease is too. I’ve lived in the same city and gone to the same meetings for all these 21 years and today I see only a handful of the dozens of people who began their journey back to life when I did. Oh sure, some of them moved away and some of them just don’t go to meetings anymore (though that is the #1 reason everyone always gives when they return from a relapse) and some of them died of other causes. This particular addict decided to write a book and called it a memoir. It’s clearly not a work of literature by a Harvard graduate or Shakespeare. He got hooked up with a publishing company that apparently in all the time they worked together did not have the foresight to fact check such things as dental work without anesthetic. What were they thinking??!! It was their job to know about legalities. So it gets published and the Mighty Oprah likes it and finds it a tale of redemption. That gets it the attention of a web site whose job it is to bring the mighty down – kind of like the paparazzi do. That leads to the “public flogging.” Now there may be a class action lawsuit. In my humble opinion, there have probably been countless memoirs that could also have been fact checked to death and come up short of rigorous honesty (which by the way is one of three principles drummed into every new recovering addict’s head – honesty, openmindedness, willingness). James Frey wasn’t able to do rigorous honesty to the satisfaction of Oprah or probably most folks who’ve never been addicted to anything (like Oprah to food, for example) or known or loved or grieved an addict in their lives. The gist of his journey is an old familiar story for me, and I hope in the end it’s a good story for him. As for Oprah, well…….
  

  ---

  Deep Thought: ““If you ever crawl inside an old hollow log and go to sleep, and while you’re in there some guys some and seal up both ends and then put it on a truck and take it to another city, boy, I don’t know what to tell you.”
  Today I am grateful for: Storm drains
  Guess the Movie: “You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains. You run twice you got yourself two sets. You ain’t gonna need no third set, ’cause you gonna get your mind right.” Answer: Cool Hand Luke, 1967. Winner: RnBoW_SPOT.
  Rep. Waxman Requests GAO Investigation into Multi-Billion Dollar Medicare Windfall for Pharmaceutical Industry
  WASHINGTON – January 27 – Today Rep. Henry A. Waxman wrote to GAO regarding concerns that the transfer of drug coverage for dual-eligible beneficiaries from Medicaid to Medicare, mandated by the Republican Congress, which will likely result in a multi-billion dollar windfall for drug manufacturers. The text of the letter follows: (Rest of article here.)

  • 9:32 am
  • 26 Comments