The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 20

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 20 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

The Vietnam War was executed from 1965 to 1973, the period of time when U.S. troops were on the ground engaged in combat activities in Southeast Asia.  A total of 3.4 million U.S. men and women were in the air, afloat or ashore in the combat area over that time and over 58,000 died, nearly 10x the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. With the post-WWII generation coming of age and engaging in critical scrutiny of the American experience of the 20th Century at that same time, it was also an intellectually and emotionally charged era.  Those of us who fought in the war were not given the license or honor of our service to the national community as were our fathers and mothers after WWII. It created a very dangerous place for the warrior archetype in all of us, veterans and otherwise, trying to achieve the peaceful transition that is accorded all warriors in the aftermath of war.

The warrior is a strong part of all of us, an archetype that is a critical part of being human.  Much of mythological stories and the literature and theatre of all eras deal with this element of our being.  When this element is suppressed, not given the ability to find the right outlet either in its combative state or in the process of recovering therefrom, there can be dangerous outcomes for all concerned.  The process of trying to regain a peaceful place in society after a wartime experience, when not accorded a proper recognition of service nobly performed, can be long and difficult.  For many Vietnam veterans, it never happened…and descent into addiction, homelessness and death has been an all-too-frequent outcome.

The story of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey is a wonderful compendium of various tragedies that can befall a warrior trying, unsuccessfully, to find his way home. Much of what Odysseus experiences on his journey, his odyssey, mirror the experiences of the Vietnam vet. The journey back to wholeness for these particular veterans, to a place of peace in society and our own hearts, has been long, conflicted and riddled with disaster.  It is, once again, a perfect expression of the hero’s journey and a parallel to the journey to Sobriety for us alcoholics. For many, like me, it has been the same journey…and it has taken the embrace of the recovery process of the 12 Steps to achieve any success at all.

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 19

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 19 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

In the 1960’s, the focus on the race to the Moon created a consciousness of the Cosmos beyond Earth and the spawning of a different, more elaborate culture of science fiction genre in the arts, TV and cinema.  Star Trek debuted on TV in 1966, and 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered in 1968.  There were literally over a hundred movies in this genre in that decade, not to mention the dozens of books like A Clockwork Orange, Dune, and Slaughterhouse Five. What set the video material of this time apart from the much less elaborate Buck Rogers of the 1940’s and 50’s was the expansive and intricate detail and mechanisms of the space machines;  they created a deep felt-sense of wonder and awe, at least to me.  They also had profound story lines that fit the Hero’s Journey pattern we have been discussing in connection with our own Journeys to Sobriety.

But, for me, what always struck home in these pieces was the one tagline intro from Star Trek that said that the Enterprise’s five year mission was: “…to boldly go where no man has gone before.”  Many of us have come from a history of Alcoholism that goes back through the generations.  For some of our ancestors, it may have been just an imbedded culture of the time, but the abuse of the myriad of spirits was equally as voluminous and extensive.  So for us to pursue a sober life, free of the compulsion to consume any of those substances, required us to initiate a massive, cultural and spiritual break from a long familial past. We had to boldly go where none before had gone.

In  1995, Pete Hamill, a journalist in New York, published an autobiography of sorts called A Drinking Life: A Memoir.  It is a story of his Irish family drinking history, his own early life consumed with alcohol abuse, and his career associated with a community of people of some renown where the one defining constant was alcohol.  He hit a bottom one day and, recalling his familial history with alcohol, he said to himself: “The madness must stop.  The madness stops here,” and he stopped drinking forever.  It is precisely the recollection I have of that point early on the day after my last consumption of a molecule of alcohol when I made the commitment to stop, finding myself in that same abyss of “pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization.”

It is fascinating to see the science fiction genre over the years in somewhat the same light, where the exploration of the Cosmos beyond the gravity of the Earth is seen as just such a brave, new, exploratory journey into a world of unimaginable wonders alongside our very own higher power….within the Sunlight of the Spirit.

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 18

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 18 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

On August 25, 2017 at approximately 10:00PM, Hurricane Harvey slammed ashore at Rockport, Texas, with sustaining winds of 130mph.  Over the next 4-5 days, it moved inland about 50 miles, then turned back out to the Gulf, meandered just offshore Houston and Bay City and finally came ashore again at Cameron, Louisiana.  Over the period of time that it lingered in or around Houston, it dropped approximately 9 trillion gallons of water in the Greater Houston area, Katy to Bay City, the Woodlands to Clear Lake.  To put this volume of water in perspective, if this volume was in a cylinder one mile square, about the size of the Inner Loop of Houston, the column of water such a cylinder would create would be 8 miles tall, a column reaching a higher point than the peak of Mt Everest.

This truly was a storm for the ages…and in its wake a treasure trove of heroic stories were spawned.  Consumption of alcoholic beverages and addictive substances spiked, and I am sure that there were instances of pretty bad behavior resulting there from. But the dominant behavior patterns seemed much more of the heroic, good-Samaritan type where people of all walks of life reached out to help everyone, thousands of people stranded in muddy, putrid water.

The storm affected everyone. The sight of the man of means struggling to salvage precious possessions wading out of his palatial house in waist-deep, flowing water to get to high ground, only to stop to help an elderly neighbor not able to get there, losing some of his possessions in the process. It was all repeated over and over.

The concept of the hero’s journey played out in everyone’s psyche. For the recovering alcoholic or addict, the ability to use the tools of recovery, the boon of the hero’s journey, allowed him/her to stay in the moment, serenely focused on the needs of those helpless souls who were otherwise stranded.  Service in the highest tradition of the 12th Step.  What a great gift it all was for all of us….

Proper Disposal of Pain Medication is a Key Factor in the Opioid Fight

The Addiction Policy Forum recently partnered with a number of local organizations in Ohio, a state hit hard by the opioid epidemic, to distribute free Rx disposal kits. The kits include an Rx disposal pouch and educational materials about the risks of holding onto unused medications. The Addiction Policy Forum hopes that this will become a biannual ritual in the U.S. when Daylight Saving occurs.  

Opioid Clock for the Disposal of Opioids
Opioid clock representing the disposal of old prescription medication during Daylight Saving. Photo Credit: Addiction Policy Forum.

Want to help address addiction in America? Start with your medicine cabinet.

Heroin is involved in many of the opioid-related deaths, but addiction doesn’t always begin with the use of illicit drugs. Studies have shown that two in three people who currently use heroin started out by using prescription pain medications for nonmedical purposes. According to the Federal Government, more than 2,000 teenagers will misuse a prescription drug for the first time today, tomorrow, and the day after that. Many of these first-time encounters with opioids happen in homes with leftover medications that were initially prescribed by a physician.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that two-thirds of surgical patients end up with unused pain medications, such as oxycodone and morphine, after recovering from a procedure. Because most of us aren’t educated about the risks of keeping unused medication in our homes, these prescribed drugs are often neither secured nor disposed of properly but stashed in medicine cabinets and bedside table drawers because it seems wasteful to throw them away and we keep them around “just in case.” Getting rid of a bottle of pills may seem like a shuffle step on the long path toward addressing the opioid crisis, but decreasing access to these medications is as crucial as it is easy.

Can I safely dispose of medication without a pouch?

Yes! Follow these instructions to safely dispose of unused medications at home using common household items, or visit the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) website to find an authorized drop-off location close to you.

Proper disposal can be tricky, due to the fact that Rx disposal laws differ by state, some medications require specific disposal procedures, and others can pose a significant threat to kids, pets, and even adults and require urgent disposal.

To learn which medications fall into the above categories, or to get more information about safe at-home disposal, visit the FDA website or call the DEA’s toll-free hotline: (855) 543-3784.

How to for the Disposal of Opioids
Four ways to dispose of old and unused prescription drugs. Photo Credit: Addiction Policy Forum.

What is prescription opioid misuse?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) defines prescription opioid misuse as taking a medication in a manner or dose other than prescribed, taking someone else’s prescription (even for a legitimate medical complaint such as pain), or taking a medication to feel euphoria (i.e., to get high).

This excerpt was originally published at www.addictionpolicy.org.

To order an Rx Disposal Kit and to join the Addiction Policy Forum’s campaign to properly dispose of old and unused medication, please visit www.addictionpolicy.org. To learn more about counseling and treatment programs for those fighting addiction, visit www.councilonrecovery.org or call 713.914.0556.

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 17

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 17 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

In my earlier life, I was a rather serious marathon runner, training for and running a series of marathons over 13 years.  Marathoning, like other extreme sports, can be seen as therapeutic, having the effect of significantly strengthening various bodily functions.  It can also be seen as addictive.  Scientists have discovered that, during two hour runs, runners’ pre-frontal and limbic regions spewed out endorphins which are natural body chemicals that act a lot like medically engineered drugs such as morphine. The greater the endorphin surge in these brain areas, the more euphoric is the feeling of such runners.  For me, my alcoholic, obsessive-compulsive psyche sought relief in the imbedded highs of long distance running much as I did with alcohol and other substances and behaviors later in life.Boston Marathon Pic1

Marathoning also has a wonderful mythic history, dating back to the Peloponnesian Wars between the Greeks and the Persians.  In 490 B.C.E., after the badly outnumbered Greeks somehow managed to drive back the Persians on the coastal plain of Marathon near Athens, an Athenian messenger named Pheidippides was dispatched from the battlefield to Athens to deliver the news of Greek victory. After running about 25 miles to the Acropolis, he burst into the chambers and gallantly hailed his countrymen with “We are victorious!” And then he promptly collapsed from exhaustion and died. This was the genesis of the original idea of this race in the Olympics, although luckily there have been no recurrences of the fate of Pheidippides.

For our purposes here, rather than look at the addictive elements of such extreme sports activities, it is worthwhile to recall the Greek history of the event and see the process in a recovery, celebratory light. Making the decision to run a marathon, committing to and doing the training, and actually running the race follow the pattern of recovery quite nicely.  A marathon, running continuously for 26 miles, is not something the body can do easily.  The decision to pursue it must be taken quite seriously.  The training must be pursued in great earnest, planned meticulously and executed over a minimum of three months.  Running every day, sunshine, rain or snow;  eating and resting according to a disciplined schedule; and developing the mind set to run the race with some element of control and precision requires a focus not unlike the road to recovery from addictions.  The process is very much like the march through the Steps of Recovery…the exhilaration of the final yards of the 26 mile race before a cheering crowd measured against the congratulatory applause of a fellowship group as we share our experiences in “carrying the message” of the 12th Step.

In 1978, I had the opportunity to run with a high competitive group in the Boston Marathon.  To this day, I remember virtually every step of that race, from the start in the tiny town of Hopkington, Mass, along Route 16 to Commonwealth Avenue, past Wellesley College with the lead women around me, up over the “heartbreak hills” of Newton and past Boston College at the zenith. The road down Beacon Street in the waning, exhausting miles, lead finally to the vision of the Prudential Center and the cheering crowds at the Finish Line in Copley Square.  It was a highlight of my life at the time…and one I can remember with great delight from a much different perspective today in Sobriety.

 

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 16

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 16 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

Dante and Virgil, having finally escaped Hell, the Inferno, find themselves traveling through the Earth into the light of day, on the other side of the world. Now they must traverse upward, through the circles of Purgatorio. In the Church of the time, Purgatory was a place where souls, otherwise in God’s grace, needed further purification, further temporal punishment to become holy enough to enter Heaven. In Dante’s poem, Purgatory is effectively the reverse of Hell, structured as a mountain with rising terraces, each dedicated to one of the Seven Deadly Sins, in reverse order from The Inferno. Each terrace is where souls with one of the sins encounter a process of purification dictated by the representative sin.

The punishments are much less severe, temporal in length, and designed to “correct” and “purify” the soul.  We could see this as a representative parallel to our efforts in our early stages of Sobriety.  This seems a reasonably good parallel to the practice of working the Steps of Four through Nine.  We must record our history in the disease and then reveal it to another.  From this we identify our “defects of character,” ask God for their removal, and then work to correct the effects they had on our life by seeking forgiveness from all those we had harmed.

Having achieved such a purification in Purgatorio, the souls reach a pinnacle, a sort of paradise on earth.  The top of the Purgatorio mountain is just such a paradise, it is the Garden of Eden before the Fall of Man. For us, this could be seen as a place of Steps 11 and 12, where we develop the conscious contact with God and begin to practice the principles and pass on the revelations.

From here, Dante proceeds on to Heaven, Paradiso. Virgil has had to leave him in Purgatory, since, in the beliefs of the Church of the time, his not being a Christian has obviated his worthiness to enter Heaven. In his place, Dante has connected with Beatrice, the love of his early life and the symbol of purity and perfection, and she becomes his companion in Heaven. They ascend above the Earth, traveling to the Moon and the Planets, each housing a realm more beautiful and bright than the one before, until finally reaching the company of all the angelic beings and the Trinity.  The brightness and serenity of this final place is a perfect representation for those of us in the glow of fully committed Sobriety, perhaps the most perfect rendition of the “Sunlight of the Spirit.”