March 15, 2002
At last! The March 8 letter from Dr. Lawson Bernstein (“No Laughing Matter”) finally brings a serious note to the ongoing saga of Judge H. Patrick McFalls Jr. Dr. Bernstein realistically and credibly states that alcoholism is a disease (not a crime) and has symptoms, a treatment of choice and an outcome.
From 1980 through 1990, I was a counselor at St. John’s Hospital’s Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center. In that time, I interacted with as many as 3,000 or more alcoholics and drug addicts. Without exception, they pretty much met the criteria for treatment and, when they followed instructions, lived happily ever after.
When I had to prepare an “after-care plan” prior to each patient’s discharge, I looked around and discovered that, invariably, Alcoholics Anonymous and its companion, Narcotics Anonymous for the drug addicted, held out the only viable hope for continuing recovery. Yes, regrettably, we would have to recycle some of them from time to time. They usually complained that AA or NA “didn’t work,” which is a bit like a diabetic complaining that he tried insulin but it “didn’t work.” Our usual rejoinder was that “when everything else fails, follow instructions.”
As of this writing, I understand that Judge McFalls is now in treatment. If he follows instructions, I can almost assure him that he will eventually have the freedom of a happy life instead of the bondage of an alcoholic obsession.
JACK O’NEIL
Sewickley