"Wet house" for alcoholics

An interesting read.

Not entirely sure this is the ideal solution, but then again, if nothing else works, it might be more humane than the alternatives.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

For. Requiring people to clean up in exchange of assistance is beyond retarded. Those that DO clean up won't need much of it. The ones that can't are the ones that need help to avoid becoming total train-wrecks.

edited 6th May '11 2:08:41 PM by SavageHeathen

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

Mixed feelings. Addictions can't be broken unless the addicted wants to break them. And this does give those who don't want to change a safe place to be. It also mentions that this is a last-resort sort of thing, where the occupants have been through multiple attempts at rehab.

I'd rather alcoholism not be a problem (for many reasons, one of which is that it gives my BF and I a bad name ) but I'd rather them have a safe place to go than die on the streets.

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

Better them just letting them die in the streets but not much better.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

I am ambivalent toward this. On one hand, not requiring people to fix themselves while helping them is a waste of resources and time. On the other, it lets people who aren't going to get help die in a corner out of the way.

Fight smart, not fair.

I think it is better than the alternativ, and well, that I roughly what I had to say.

A guy called dvorak is tired. Tired of humanity not wanting to change to improve itself. Quite the sad tale.

I'm for it. Drinking is a choice. Some people just want to drink above all else, and if that's what they choose, then so be it. If they really want to do something different, they'll find it in themselves to do so. And as the article says, its cheaper for society than letting career alcoholics blunder through the "care system" and waste money better spent elsewhere.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Reading the title, I wondered if this was going to be juicy gossip about the drinking habits of President Obama or something...

To respond to the point though, this sounds an awful lot like supplying heroin addicts with methadone because it's safer than heroin and in the hope they can be weaned off it. I believe that's still the usual treatment you get for heroin addiction in the UK; certainly it used to be. It's had mixed results to say the least. There are moral issues in facilitating someone's self-destruction because it's cheaper and less hassle than the alternatives, especially if you don't have the justification of giving them a safer version of the drug they're using anyway.

"Well, it's a lifestyle"

It's not about "getting them to clean up." It's about "Taking them off the gutter."

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

I am against.

Forced hospitalization is a thing, and if one person is so far gone that he or she just will kill himself in such a gruesome and unpleasant way then he or she needs it.

From the article:

Well, I do. I am not a fan of limiting personal freedoms; but if it's for the sake of preventing people from torturing themselves to death (and hurting their loved ones too, by the way) I am all for it.

edited 7th May '11 2:29:51 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

^^ Fully agree. This isn't an attempt to get them to dry out using a new method. It's providing shelter and support, and letting them make their own decisions. Look at it as a rehab plan, and yeah, it's stupid and counterproductive. But since it's not rehab, treating it as one makes about as much sense as boiling a pan of chocolate cake batter, then declaring that it's a bad recipe for chocolate cake because it didn't turn out good.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

The article touched me. I know the pain of isolation and hopelessness that some people fall into. Alcohol is the symptom - not the disease! Societal pressures and life-long rejection/disappointments are at the core of many guys' problems with alcohol. Remove the cause, and you may remove the addiction, in time.

edited 9th May '11 9:36:23 PM by thernaB

I would say that the core of their problems is that the GABA receptors in their brains are desensitized, that some other neurotransmitter systems are also compromised, and that many of their other organs are impressively messed up.

There may have been societal pressures which led them to this state, and it is certainly worthwhile to attempt to identify and remove them; but alcoholism, in itself, is both a medical problem and a psychological one. You cannot really expect to be able to fix the latter without fixing the former too, or vice versa.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.