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Gull |
Posted on 07/29/2005 5:37:23 AM PDT by RobFromGa
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During a sentencing Thursday in Allen Superior Court involving a drunken driving fatal crash, Judge Fran Gull said alcoholism is not a disease – a comment that contradicts the beliefs of much of the medical field.
Gull later defended her statement, saying she was referring specifically to the case at hand.
Gull, who is one of three criminal judges for the court, also oversees drug court – a program that began in 1997 aims to rehabilitate non-violent offenders with drug and alcohol addictions through 12 to 18 months of intensive supervision and treatment. Participants must take other steps to improve their lives, and if they remain substance free, their criminal charges are dismissed.
Before Gull sentenced Todd Anthony Bebout, defense attorney Mitch Hicks asked Gull to consider Bebout’s disease, referring to his addictions to alcohol and drugs.
“He had opportunities to rehabilitate himself, but it’s a disease. It’s not only a matter of wanting to quit,” Hicks argued. “Well, you are the drug court director, you know.”
Minutes later, while reviewing what she would consider in sentencing, Gull said Bebout didn’t have a disease.
“It’s not a disease,” she said. “People say that time and again, but it’s not.”
Gull continued by explaining that the man had a choice, and his choices led to the death of a woman. She also emphasized the man’s failed attempts at rehabilitation through the criminal justice system over the years, which included counseling, probation and intensive treatment.
Alcoholism is recognized as a disease by both the American Medical Association and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which is responsible for 90 percent of the nation’s research on alcohol addiction, spokeswoman Ann Bradley said.
It’s a disease that involves compulsive use that cannot be controlled until the alcohol or addictive substance is removed, Bradley said.
The symptoms of the disease, according to the institute’s Web site, include craving alcohol, loss of control, physical dependence and tolerance. Those afflicted by the chronic disease can experience withdrawal symptoms, such as anxiety, sweating, shaking or nausea.
Bradley said alcoholism is considered a brain disease and that there are medications available to help alcoholics. The difference between the addiction being a disease and a bad choice is the loss of control over how much one drinks.
When questioned about the comment later in the day, Gull defended her statements made in court. She said her comment was referring specifically to that case only. She said the attorney who brought up Bebout’s addictions invited her to comment about the situation.
“He invited me to consider it as a mitigating circumstance for sentencing,” Gull said. “But there was no evidence to show that it was a disease.”
Gull said she would have considered it had Hicks presented a medical diagnosis to establish his client’s disease. Although she did not ask for such evidence during the hearing or even mention that it was lacking, Gull later noted in a sentencing order that the argument was not supported.
Addiction doesn’t necessarily mean disease, she said, and part of the problem is the lack of consistent information, saying that the topic is still debated among various professional fields.
There are times when Gull has received medical information supporting that an offender has an addiction that has been diagnosed as a disease, she said. In those situations, which do arise in drug court, she orders the offender to follow doctor’s orders and makes that a requirement of participation in the program.
“I very specifically considered what I had in front of me,” she said. “There wasn’t anything that supported it.”
Attributing drinking to depression, genetics, medication, or disease is attractive to the drunk because 1) it lifts a huge burden off their shoulders giving them an externally based excuse for their behavior choices, and 2) in current culture these are socially acceptable excuses believed by most people.
The ugly truth is that there is one and only one reason drinkers ever drink: for the temporary pleasure it brings. Any other explanation is simply an excuse, a sales pitch. The excuses used vary depending on what works.
True or not these excuses are not helpful to the drunk or to the people in their lives who buy them. Over drinking should always be framed as what it is: a selfish choice. Drinking is not a medical treatment for depression. In fact it causes depression, which the drunk then uses as another excuse to continue. This is not a helpful mind virus to keep in your head.
The ugly truth is that there is one and only one reason drinkers ever drink: for the temporary pleasure it brings
What about all those people out there who drink for the hang over the next morning? Don't they have a voice?
Also, it's probably more complicated than simple depression -- that's decade old thinking.
Congratulations!
I hope you're not giving God all the credit. He's not in the free-will interference business. Unless He knocked a bottle out of your hand with a bolt of lightning, the accomplishment is all yours. It's healthy to claim 100% credit for your very respectable personal free-will accomplishment.
You need help. I will start by praying for you.
I tend to agree with the judge. Some people may, indeed, be innately more susceptible to alcohol than others, but that by itself does not constitute a disease.
Very well put.
Hooray for judge Fran Gull.
"You need help. I will start by praying for you."
No sir. Too late for that. My feelings as pertaining to drunks are justified. Has anyone ever wondered what they are doing to their families? Do they care? I doubt it.
Have you ever noticed that most drunks have no personality when sober? Their personality comes from a bottle.
To all the "alcoholics" out there... Unless you want your kids to be as bitter as I am on this subject then you better STOP.
Thanks for the ping. I haven't been connected most of this past week. Awesome beach weeks here at the Cape. Alas, we're heading home in about an hour or so.
I'll chime in on the "not a disease side". It's not a disease in the literal, organic sense. This is something I’m rather closed minded about because part of the bedrock of my recovery is the abandonment of asking “why?”, “how?” and “what if?” Anyone who tries to raise those questions in me is trying to kill me.
On November 19th, 2001, I did seek medical help for recovery from alcoholism, and I did benefit from the treatment, but I doubt that the benefits I took from it were at the top of the list of the ones that the counselors wanted to convey. For me it was part of the process of giving up control, of accepting help, of doing what was suggested. I remember being in the nurse’s office at work that day like it was yesterday. He had the phone in his hand. He was dialing a local rehab, trying to get me in. It took four or five tries before he got through. All the while I was fighting the urge to say “just give me the number, I’ll call later”. That man was in the right place at the right time, to do the right thing. Thanks God I let him.
That said, who owns the word “disease” anyway? We spent the latter half of the nineties parsing words like “is”. If I think it’s helpful to tell someone to look at alcoholism as “diss-ease”, or that it’s a progressive, incurable, fatal illness, I’ll do it. Perhaps it’s a way to make a connection.
I'm sorry that you had such a childhood, but not all alcohol abusers are also family/child abusers in the sense that you are describing. And not all child abusers are substance abusers.
It sounds like you could benefit from some type of counseling to resolve your anger. Or maybe you are normally a happy well-adjusted person, and just happened to see this thread where people were discussing alcoholism and it brought back deep-seated memories forcing you to lash out at "our types". Either way, you would be better off if you could resolve these resentments and find some peace.
The important thing is that you recognize that you would be a better happier person with the rather large chip removed. I hope you get help, and that you are not too egotistical to accept it when it arrives. When you are ready the teacher will appear, you might want to look for an Al-Anon meeting (for families of alcoholics) in the meantime.
There is something that makes it impossible for an alcoholic to control alcohol consumption (frequency or amount or both) and no pill can make it different. And it is good for us to think that way because to think that we have changed and can handle it now is the height of egotism. I know that if I allow myself to put this poison in my body again it might end up killing me. I will not take that chance, and all the effort I put into recovery is intended as body-plate armor against a relapse. I think I will succeed, but it helps to continually reinforce the necessity of abstinence.
We don't discuss that at the meetings I have been to, but many of these people have been coming for five, ten years. Maybe it was a court order to begin with, but they want to be there now for themselves.
Good to hear from you.
I have soooo got to get moving. Last year we got a late start off the Cape, and spent two hours in traffic covering five miles.
Logging off for now...
There is something different. And addicts must teach their children what they might have latent within them.
One tendency of many addicts is compulsive behavior with any hobby or task. They go overboard on anything. If they are interested in a subject they go deep real fast, with total immersion and lots of money spent to scratch the itch within them.
Focus and determination are great human characteristics, and few great achievments would be possible without this tunnel-vision approach to a task. There is a thin line between destructive compulsion and positive focus. As an addictive personality, we need to gain the benefits and watch out for the pitfalls.
Many of the most gifted entrepreneurs exhibit "alcoholic" behavior.
One last item-- Free Republic itself is very addictive, isn't it?
With freedom comes responsibility. It is similar to the "ignorance of the law is no excuse" caveat. You are responsible to know the law, just like you are responsible for understanding your own character defects. Ignorance and lack of preparation is no excuse.
AMEN. Alcoholism and drug addiction can be cured by changes in lifestyle. No other "disease" (cancer, heart disease, Lou Gherig's disease, arthritis, brain tumors, bursitis, etc.) can be cured by changing your lifestyle. So, if alcoholism and drug addiction is a disease why can it be cured by quitting; as millions have done; yours truly for one.
Some people have a greater libido than others but that does not give them the right to go out and rape someone or molest a child. There's this thing called, self-control.
I will pray harder for you.
Perhaps alcoholism IS a disease, but if so, it is a self-induced disease which makes it unusual.
I think it is important to distinguish between a drunk and an alcoholic. A drunk has a behavior problem and an alcoholic has an addiction. A drunk can quit drinking without having withdrawl symptoms.
I'm not sure that alcoholism can be "cured" but it can be controlled through abstinence. But I do not feel like I am cured, only that I am in control of my choice to remain totally sober. So in a sense I think you are right.
Congratulations on quitting and I wish you the best.
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