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Where is the Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose?

Actually, good nutrition is very important for mental health and alcoholism. After my late husband’s heavy drinking became full blown alcoholism—coming home drunk at 2 or 3 in the morning 5 or 6 nights a week, I began to study alcoholism. Amazingly over 15 years he only missed ONE day of work from a hangover. I persuaded him to start taking suppliments as well as fixing healthy foods. One book about alcoholism said that AA was about 40% effective, but if combined with healthy food and supplements it was about 80% effective. To encourage young troubled people, who might be incipient alcoholics to improve their nutrition makes a lot of sense.

Below is a link and information about a program dealing with middle aged severe alcoholics through a residential program that encourages gradually tapering down alcohol use. People enrolled in this program have often cost the government far more in emergency and criminal services than this kind of program costs.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/26/homeless-shelter-ottawa-gives-wine-to-alcoholics

The pour makes the Oaks different from every other well-run facility of its kind. It solves the residents’ most urgent problem: where can I get a drink? Virtually all the clients have tried to quit, over and over, and failed. They have spent decades drinking themselves into a stupor each day. One man was taken to A&E 109 times in six months. Another was picked up by the police or paramedics 314 times in one year. They have caused enough chaos and disorder that they have been kicked out of, or barred from Ottawa’s other shelters. Before being accepted at the Oaks, if they could not beg or collect enough empty bottles to recycle to buy booze, many shoplifted rubbing alcohol or Listerine.

The pour is calculated for each resident to be just enough to stave off the shakes and sweats of detox, which for alcohol is particularly unpleasant – seizures from alcohol deprivation can be fatal. The pour is strictly regulated: Young cuts off anyone who comes in intoxicated. They won’t be given another drink until they sober up.

The Oaks is in a working-class neighbourhood in Ottawa, Canada. When residents first arrive, they tend to drink the maximum, every hour, every day. Many also drink whatever they can buy or shoplift outside the building. For most, this gradually changes. They stop drinking outside, begin to ask for fewer ounces, skip pours or have a “special pour” of watered-down wine. Two residents get several hours’ worth at a time to take up to their rooms and ration out themselves. One man gave up alcohol but gets an hourly pour of grape juice, to stay part of the group.

The pour creates trust: here is a system that understands residents’ needs. This system loosens them from their drinking friends. It keeps them away from Listerine. Without the pour, they would stay outdoors, begging or stealing, in danger of losing their feet to frostbite. Indoors, they take their medicine, see their doctors and mental health workers,
eat actual food, re-establish contact with their families. Giving free booze to homeless alcoholics sounds crazy. But it may be the key to helping them live a stable life.

So, what became of my husband? As I was studying alcoholism, I also got into therapy myself. I was able to sometimes help my husband get in touch with his pain and discharge some of it. He had a lot of guilt about killing people during the Korean War. When our son was 14 he had an intense episode about having killed a young Chinese communist soldier. Eventually I was putting together an Intervention and asked his favorite drinking buddy, sailing companion to take part. Next thing I knew husband had been taken to an AA meeting which he began to attend regularly. He never got drunk again. Unfortunately he also developed Alzheimers a few years later and died at age 75. Hope this information helps someone, and especially someone young before they damage half their life, or all of it.