I’ve been working in the addictions/mental health field for almost two decades now. The drugs the people use, and even the types of alcohol, may have changed a bit but the issues they are dealing with have stayed primarily the same. As has the way to help them. What has changed, to the detriment of the industry and clients, is that many of the workers and agencies have gone so far left and woke that people aren’t getting the help they need.
I do psychoeducational groups at work.
One of the groups I do is about denial and denial patterns. One of the patterns
I talk about is the Democratic Disease State.
The Democratic Disease State
– I convince myself that I have a right to continue to use alcohol/drugs even
if it kills me. Yes, I’m destroying my life. Yes, I’m hurting those I love.
Yes, I’m a burden to society. So what? I have the right to drink and drug
myself to death. No one has the right to make me stop. My addiction is killing
me anyway. I might as well convince myself that I’m dying because I want to.
This used to be something we could help people see and deal with. However, in today’s woke work culture many agencies and workers are telling people that they should feel this way. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that addiction is a disease and that we need to try keep people safe until they have that moment of clarity, however, this does not mean enabling them. By telling them they have the right to use, to provide free drugs/alcohol (on the taxpayer dime) and that no one should be able to tell them to stop is enabling them to stay in their addiction. Those agencies and workers are just providing another excuse, another denial pattern, for people to stay sick.
I’ve been sober over 20 years. I got sober primarily by being a part of Alcoholics Anonymous and working the 12 Steps into my life. When I got sober I went back to school so I could help people in similar circumstances to what I was in. Ironically, in the over 18 years I have worked in this industry I have had issues with a couple workplaces. Both of these issues, which ended in the loss of a job, were the result of unethical and unspiritual actions by people I trusted in AA. Rather than coming to me with an alleged problem they had they went to higher ups. One of these people actually pretended to be on my side when I was asked to head up starting a union. Instead he reported me to management, who found a way to fire me and he got my job. I take responsibility for my part in each of these incidents even if I thought I was right. The second incident some woke, alleged friend with alleged good recovery, found satirical comments anti-left and pro-science so they proceeded to try to destroy me.
When
I went to my last treatment centre (as a client) there were counsellors there
from all walks of life. Stubborn old timers who were overly strict, ex-hippies
who had got clean and sober, etc. Despite being different from one another they
had one goal in common – to help the still suffering alcohol/addict. Today’s
world has so much woke leftness in it that many organizations and workers have
forgot that this is their primary purpose.
