Other recovered alcoholics take little jabs at us.

“I never chewed my beer.”

“I have managed to stay sober without the big bottle or little bottle.”

“…and I have not taken any mood altering substances in my xx years of sobriety.”

My response: “Well, good for you.”  But in my head I am thinking, “Maybe you should have.”

There persists – despite decades of peer-reviewed research, anecdotal proof and the admission of LSD use by AA founder Bill Wilson – ignorance in the recovery community about the use of antidepressants and mood stabilizers. They backhand us with their belief that we are not clean and sober because we take psychotropic medications for other mental illnesses.

I have listened to these recovered alcoholics – many with no more than a high school diploma – spew their self-righteous ignorance in rooms filled with silent, suffering, dual-diagnosed alcoholics. They puff themselves up with their pretentious proclamations,  oblivious to the angst, shame and confusion they have inflicted. They do not make the connection between their words and the the gun in the mouth of an alcoholic who stopped taking his medications because of their ignorance. At his funeral they will say, “At least he died sober.”

This week I celebrate 12 years of sobriety. For nearly half of those years I have been on antidepressants and a mood stabilizer. I challenge anyone to tell me that I am not clean and sober. I am alive today because I kept and open mind and was willing to follow suggestions and seek outside help.

I found experts who have devoted their careers and countless hours of studying pharmacology to treating dual-diagnosed alcoholics and addicts. Would I like to get off my meds? Heck yeah, but not if it means risking my sobriety or daydreaming about tailpipes and hoses.

I know this is going to tick off a lot of people. But research has shown that about half of us are dual-diagnosed.  God love you folks who have only one mental illness – alcoholism. But some of us will not be “happy, joyous and free” until we treat ALL our mental illnesses.

Please, don’t judge us and treat us like we are less than you. Stop with the snide remarks and give a second thought to how much you really know about depression, bipolar, anxiety disorders and other mental illnesses.

Just give us a chance.

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    Last reviewed: 24 Aug 2010