'Bunks for Drunks'

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Phang

do you think people about to jump off a bridge should be talked out of it, or should we respect their choices?

In general the latter. There are some instances where we should try to stop them if we thought they didn't understand the consequences of their action, etc. Once they had assured us they knew what they were doing, of course I would let them. That's freedom.

[JonnyBGood]

It's friday afternoon and if I don't get out of soon here I'm going to jump off a bridge

[Tietäjä]

Originally Posted by Phang

Some people recover from cancer, some people don't - we don't castigate the latter group for not having a hardy enough immune system, or for not being god enough at chemotherapy or whatever the hell else.

Comparing cancer to alcoholism is a bit harsh. Really. Imagine a 6-year-old bone marrow cancer patient and a 40-year-old that has spent 20 years drunk.

[s|k]

Alcoholism is very much a physical dependency. If you don't drink you feel physically sick, and your body goes through withdrawals. It is horrible.

I have an assignment for some of you. Please look up this word: empathy. It's not sympathy, and it's not pussy ass emo hold your hand while you **** me up the ass bullshit. Sympathy is telling people how they should feel, empathy is trying to understand how they feel.

You probably imagine that it is impossible to learn anything useful from an online forum and from the web in general, but that's not true. It is possible that some people online know more than you about certain things, and some times that's more obious than others. On matters of law and physiscs and the like it is more obvious but when it comes to social oriented things like social problems, culture, and even health people get the idea that it's all about opinion. And that's not true, so you know put down your big steel shield that you use to fend off ideas with when you come online and realize that there may the possibility that not everything on the internets is the angst ridden spew of thirteen year olds.

So go look up empathy.

[dda]

Originally Posted by s|k

So go look up empathy.

Originally Posted by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Empathy: 1. The imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object apperars to be infused with it. 2. The capacity for participation in another's feelings or ideas. syn. see SYMPATHY

Which are you advocating?

1. Taking my subjective state and projecting it into the drunks and then seeing them as I wish to see them, or

2. Participating in their feelings or ideas?

I am unclear on which way to go.

[s|k]

Originally Posted by dda

Which are you advocating?

1. Taking my subjective state and projecting it into the drunks and then seeing them as I wish to see them, or

2. Participating in their feelings or ideas?

I am unclear on which way to go.

2, and obviously I wasn't talking about you.

[Tietäjä]

Originally Posted by s|k

Alcoholism is very much a physical dependency. If you don't drink you feel physically sick, and your body goes through withdrawals. It is horrible.

Yes, I acknowledge that, obviously! What I originally commented on, was, though, that in my opinion suffering from alcoholism and recovering from it are things that are pretty broadly dependant on personal choices you make in your life. Unlike certain "illnesses", which can hit you no matter what you do. Hence, alcohol is, more or less, a self-inflicted illness or problem. And recovering from it takes descisions and hard work from yourself; there's no much of medication for it (compared to certain others, again). Of course, social circumstances such as bunks for drunks are great helping people to the way of recovery.