High upon her horse she rode...

[lotsofsnowplease]

http://tomkoopalcoholdrugaddictsobriety.blogspot.com/BOOK LEARNED BOSS SAID SHE KNEW MORE ABOUT ADDICTION



While looking through my own eyes at addiction and it’s terrible rate of incarceration into inpatient treatment centers, psych units, halfway houses, jails and prisons…I see an alarming rate of put down from the outer fringes of society who are not addicted, closet addicted, and/or, have book learned degrees. They know all, the addict knows nothing…


Being a scholar on the subject of addiction takes years of flipping through endless pages of hardcover books, countless lectures on the subject, debating and running like mad people around endless tests to obtain that ultimate goal of being a person with a degree in addiction psychology. Smarts outweighs experience. Book after book, page after page they pound that knowledge into their brains to be the smart one. Page after page they flip to be narcissistic in their own ways. Arrogance knows no bounds when you are highly educated.


It is true in my view and hindsight while looking at those with degrees, they are looked upon to rule the world we live in and they are to be the keepers of our castles out in the money world. Ruling the world we live in takes many forms, yes. Ruling the world others live in can take more than a person with knowledge as far as the eye can see. Having been told which way to turn to better my life is all good in many aspects when it comes from a college educated person with multiple degrees. We listen to them and quickly do as we are asked, or as we are told, because they have the power of degrees behind their names. They are the all knowing great and powerful Oz’s in life. High upon their perch they give the orders to the people of their world.


Education is the ultimate goal for everyone. We teach ourselves daily. New ideas pop into our heads and with those ideas we motivate to get out and create with others. We evolve into smarter beings of compassion and worthwhile truth seekers because of new knowledge. Life is simple in many ways but very complex in many various forms. Studying life with books after lectures, and lectures after each book is read, with a test at the end to make the grade has some business in the field of addiction, but not much in that difficult world of life an addict leads. Teaching the addicted life to non-addicted people is fruitful, yet a waste of time to those the non-addicted try to teach if it is in a setting where many addicts are living or have lived. Going to that extreme causes much stress in an addicts life of education and psychological living. Think about that last sentence and put it to work in your life.


Would you want your life put in the hands of a person with book smart addiction/psychology knowledge, or would you put your life into the hands of a person who has lived the life and knows the ins and outs of that life? Been there done that, or have not been there, have not done that?


Tom was an out of control drunk who lived in the ghetto for years. Tom has ridden the boxcars to anywhere. He has hitchhiked more than 20,000 miles in his lifetime, and has walked more miles than he ever thought possible. He has pissed the bed, shit all over himself, and puked on himself many times. Poor Tom has been robbed and beat down. He has drank mouthwash, extract, cologne, perfume and all of the alcoholic beverages he could get his hands on. Bum juice, or fortified wines were among his favorites. Bottom shelf booze was the best. A bottle of nectar got him where he felt best. Passed out.


What can a book learned person tell someone who has been an addict for years? How can someone judge or wear the same clothes as a person who has slept in those pissed in clothes? Cocaine smokin, cocaine snortin, meth shootin, meth snortin…booze swillin addict knows nothing about addiction for that person is not book learned. They know not what the book teacheth! For the degree is all powerful!! The addict is just that…the addict.


Amazement comes to mind at the wonders of the intellectual arguments on this subject. I was told I did not know what cocaine psychosis was by a person with multiple degrees. I was put down by that person because I was at one time an out of control addict who knew nothing about life in the psych world. “You don’t know that about cocaine, I know all about it because I worked in psych for 20 years!!!” “I have a degree in psych, you don’t!!”. My life experience came into play by that person when I brought it up. I told that person I had smoked cocaine, and snorted cocaine for a few years which made me out of my mind in certain respects. I had cocaine psychosis at the end of some cocaine binges. “you do not know what psychosis is!!” she bellowed at me. I tried to talk common sense to her which was something I should of never done. Challenging this person brought out her pompous and narcissistic attitude to me. To her, I knew nothing about the addicted world and I never ever would know what she knows. I was that bum in her eyes. She knew where I had lived for 37 years of my life. She knew I had good relationships with our patients on the inpatient treatment center unit we work on. From our intense meeting over my speaking out about my knowledge on the subject of addiction to her…I was put in my place as “just a technician on the unit without a degree” to stop speaking to patients about addiction and to keep my stories to myself as they can cause harm to the patient. Little did she know that the majority of the patients on the unit loved the care and compassion I showed them all. They looked for leadership from me, and trusted my knowledge on the reasons they ended up on a drug treatment unit. If a patient was depressed or needing an experienced person to listen, I was there. I was not the book learned know it all with my head up my you know what. I was not better than anyone else as it was with my boss as her pompous swagger points out to those who know phony when they see it. Especially in the world of addiction psych.


Many of the patients I have had contact with are sad when they find out the drug addiction counselor they are teamed with is not an addict themselves. “man that lady don’t know where I have been, what I lived”. “She don’t know shit man”. How can an attitude like that change when the person they have to sit with in group, or during a one to one, know where and how they got to the point that drove them to treatment? Hard attitudes, judging and very rationalized thinking is inside the addict when they come to a treatment center. They come hoping to get their lives on the road to a recovery from drugs. The people on the unit want their hopes and desires pinned to someone who has lived the life of a piece of shit who has slept in their shit. The kind and gentle person in an addict comes out to me when we speak to each other. I hear where they are coming from, and they can hear from me where they can go if they are willing to do as it is required for an addict to survive without drugs or alcohol.


Book learned people can say all the right words with tons of compassion and mean it all deeply in their heart, but, the addict needs someone who has lived the life to point out where it’s at in the life of recovery from drug addiction. The psychology is in the words. It is in the game of the persons who would take your last nickel and smoke your last cigarette. The addict don’t care who you are, they will intimidate, manipulate and detonate a series of attitudes only an addict can see. The book learned person, as my boss tried to do with me, will only show through words how much smarter she is with them degrees of made of paper. She will try the right phrase to entice thought. The book learned counselor will do the same.


Smarts outweighs experience. Book after book, page after page they pound that knowledge into their brains to be the smart one. Page after page they flip to be narcissistic in their own ways. Arrogance knows no bounds when you are highly educated. One thing though, I must add to that thought: “an addict can see through your bullshit cuz they have been there and are better at it than you”.

"Don't let it bring you down it's only castles burning"

http://tomkoopalcoholdrugaddictsobriety.blogspot.com/

[NMDemDist2]

1. good post, much like the Big Book siccinctly says

We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge.

[Old Codger]

2. an x addict

with a degree is probably the best combination you can get.... I know some of each, addicts that are in recovery (we are in recovery the rest of our lives) who have achieved a degree and are involved in counseling at recovery centers, addicts who are in recovery and are involved in working with others through AA NA etc and others who by simply sharing their experiences at meetings give much help to others with hope of becoming and remaining sober/clean.
I also know several with book learning that have been able to come to a decent understanding of the complexities of addiction but only through experiencing years of contact with the addicts...
If I were asked to put my sobriety on the line by following advice from someone I will take the ex-addict every time.

[Ilsa]

3. This is why this forum is so necessary.

I am not an addict. But I've had questions answered here about addicts that have been or are in my life. The answers have been real and spot-on. The support here is genuine and compassionate.

[tavalon]

4. Yeah, it's a nice respite from the rough scrabble of DU

People disagree here but there is a kindness underlying. Perhaps it's something of a kindness that comes from sharing a foxhole.