The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Today is 60 days for me (bittersweet it is, as this is my second bout of 60 days this calendar year) and I finished reading Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It struck me as eerily similar to the path of an addict/alcoholic, and I wouldn't doubt that Stevenson grappled with addiction during his life after reading the story. Just wanted to share a passage:
"Yes, I preferred the elderly and discontented doctor, surrounded by friends and cherishing honest hopes; and bade a resolute farewell to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses and secret pleasures, that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde. I made this choice perhaps with some unconscious reservation, for I neither gave up the house in Soho, nor destroyed the clothes of Edward Hyde, which still lay ready in my cabinet. For two months, however, I was true to my determination; for two months I led a life of such severity as I had never before attained to, and enjoyed the compensations of an approving conscience. But time began at last to obliterate the freshness of my alarm"
This passage touches on the subconcious voice that works within alcoholics like myself, and I couldn't help but think back to my how I relapsed after 3 months the first time around. For me, it's at the 60/90 days or so when the pain of the last drinking episode begins to dissipate. It's a good day for me to remember where I came from and how bad things were when I made the decision to get sober!
"Yes, I preferred the elderly and discontented doctor, surrounded by friends and cherishing honest hopes; and bade a resolute farewell to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses and secret pleasures, that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde. I made this choice perhaps with some unconscious reservation, for I neither gave up the house in Soho, nor destroyed the clothes of Edward Hyde, which still lay ready in my cabinet. For two months, however, I was true to my determination; for two months I led a life of such severity as I had never before attained to, and enjoyed the compensations of an approving conscience. But time began at last to obliterate the freshness of my alarm"
This passage touches on the subconcious voice that works within alcoholics like myself, and I couldn't help but think back to my how I relapsed after 3 months the first time around. For me, it's at the 60/90 days or so when the pain of the last drinking episode begins to dissipate. It's a good day for me to remember where I came from and how bad things were when I made the decision to get sober!
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
RLS was experimenting with morphine when he wrote Jekyll & Hyde, which was a readily available OTC "tincture" during his lifetime known as Laudanum. But the story itself was written following a week-long binge of cocaine, also readily available at the time. Laudanum was used primarily for pain, but also as what the modern era knows as cough medicine. It was only available to the monied and the educated.
The story is a somewhat biographical account of his experiences.
The story is a somewhat biographical account of his experiences.
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
From my post on 09/06/2013...I love Jekyll and Hyde references.
Robert Louis Stevenson was experimenting with cocaine at the time he wrote the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. There was also an over-the-counter liquid popular among the artistic and the well heeled known as Laudunum during the Nineteenth and the early part of the Twentieth Century. The solution had a very high concentration of morphine mixed with alcohol.
Dr. Jekyll made up his own solution to transform him into Mr. Hyde out of pride, ambition and ego. He thought he deserved to be better off financially, and that he should be revered by both colleagues and commoners. Since he was ambivalent about his own dark ambitions, he needed something to quiet his conscience and to allow him to pursue his pride with impunity from within.
As per my previous comment, there was very little of Dr. Jekyll remaining at the end of the story, Mr. Hyde having taken over virtually complete control of his life.
The parallels between this story and the progression of alcoholism are startling.
. . .
And from August 16th (Now I'm just showing off. )
You may know that Robert Louis Stevenson was experimenting with cocaine when he wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. During his lifetime, the use of Laudunum was also popular, particularly among artists, writers and politicians. It was an over-the-counter elixir of (mostly) high morphine concentration and alcohol. It was used regularly for decades among the wealthy and accomplished, and was only regulated beginning in the early 20th Century
At first, Jekyll takes the liquid potion in order to enhance his pride and ambition, not the purist of motivations for such a good and ethical human being. So his state of mind when he drank the potion plays a part in the potion's effect. What later motivated the good doctor to transform himself was that Mr. Hyde's behaviors were very seductive -- indulging repressed (by conscience and social mandate) and so-called baser instincts such as sex and aggression in terrifying ways. But Dr. Jekyll was only able to unleash Mr. Hyde when he consumed a mind-altering drug.
Jekyll and Hyde are not two separate entities, but two aspects of human nature that are inextricably bound. At the end of the story, there is no more Jekyll, only Hyde. Stevenson seems to suggest that the darker, repressed side of human nature, once released and without restraints, cannot return to its former state.
While drinking, part of me tells me that I'm not responsible for what I do or say since I've shifted my personal responsibility to the sketchy morality of my drunken state. When I relapsed after twenty five years, I was, in fact, responsible for everything I did since I then knew in advance that picking up the drink would bring me to a very dark place.
Robert Louis Stevenson was experimenting with cocaine at the time he wrote the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. There was also an over-the-counter liquid popular among the artistic and the well heeled known as Laudunum during the Nineteenth and the early part of the Twentieth Century. The solution had a very high concentration of morphine mixed with alcohol.
Dr. Jekyll made up his own solution to transform him into Mr. Hyde out of pride, ambition and ego. He thought he deserved to be better off financially, and that he should be revered by both colleagues and commoners. Since he was ambivalent about his own dark ambitions, he needed something to quiet his conscience and to allow him to pursue his pride with impunity from within.
As per my previous comment, there was very little of Dr. Jekyll remaining at the end of the story, Mr. Hyde having taken over virtually complete control of his life.
The parallels between this story and the progression of alcoholism are startling.
. . .
And from August 16th (Now I'm just showing off. )
You may know that Robert Louis Stevenson was experimenting with cocaine when he wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. During his lifetime, the use of Laudunum was also popular, particularly among artists, writers and politicians. It was an over-the-counter elixir of (mostly) high morphine concentration and alcohol. It was used regularly for decades among the wealthy and accomplished, and was only regulated beginning in the early 20th Century
At first, Jekyll takes the liquid potion in order to enhance his pride and ambition, not the purist of motivations for such a good and ethical human being. So his state of mind when he drank the potion plays a part in the potion's effect. What later motivated the good doctor to transform himself was that Mr. Hyde's behaviors were very seductive -- indulging repressed (by conscience and social mandate) and so-called baser instincts such as sex and aggression in terrifying ways. But Dr. Jekyll was only able to unleash Mr. Hyde when he consumed a mind-altering drug.
Jekyll and Hyde are not two separate entities, but two aspects of human nature that are inextricably bound. At the end of the story, there is no more Jekyll, only Hyde. Stevenson seems to suggest that the darker, repressed side of human nature, once released and without restraints, cannot return to its former state.
While drinking, part of me tells me that I'm not responsible for what I do or say since I've shifted my personal responsibility to the sketchy morality of my drunken state. When I relapsed after twenty five years, I was, in fact, responsible for everything I did since I then knew in advance that picking up the drink would bring me to a very dark place.
And towards the end, Dr. Jekyll starts to lose control of the frequency at which Hyde was appearing. And even further parallel to the story of an alcoholic, he began to need more and more of the elixir to 'normalize' himself or to allow himself to function at normal rates. That's my story to a tee: waking up and realizing I had not intended to drink that long, needing more booze just to be able to function for the day.
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
Psychological dependence is manifested by our believing we need the drug in order to function normally. Physical dependence is manifested through tolerance and withdrawal. That's the short version.
Back to the OP...You're doing great. Jekyll & Hyde is a good reminder of what we can become.
Back to the OP...You're doing great. Jekyll & Hyde is a good reminder of what we can become.
The 90 to 120 day time frame was the hurtle for me, both in and out of AA. I could never make 4 months, and it happened over and over. One day sitting in a meeting (when the date was read from the daily reflection) I realized I had made 4 months. I could not get over it. I could not even listen to what was being said after that point in the meeting. I puzzled for nearly the whole meeting to understand what was different this time around. What I realized was that I had not wanted to be in that meeting at all. I had gone telling myself I might be able to say something that would help someone else. That was the heart of the difference. I was not caught up in myself and what was good for me, alone.
I don’t think it’s any accident that there are so many parallels between the different paths to recovery. RR often labels the AV “the beast”. AA has it’s spiritual side. Programs like Celebrate Recovery have their obvious religious underpinnings.
Even science is weighing in. I also remember coldfusion pointing out a study. To quote, “Neuroscientists have begun to recognize that some of the most important brain systems impaired in addiction are those in the prefrontal cortex that regulate social cognition, self-monitoring, moral behaviour and other processes that the AA-type approach seems to target. 'A lot of the treatment programmes out there are targeting these systems without necessarily knowing that they are doing it,' says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland..."
Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde illustrate a basic dimension of right and wrong that is hard to escape in both addiction and recovery, no matter how you choose to see it, or do it.
I don’t think it’s any accident that there are so many parallels between the different paths to recovery. RR often labels the AV “the beast”. AA has it’s spiritual side. Programs like Celebrate Recovery have their obvious religious underpinnings.
Even science is weighing in. I also remember coldfusion pointing out a study. To quote, “Neuroscientists have begun to recognize that some of the most important brain systems impaired in addiction are those in the prefrontal cortex that regulate social cognition, self-monitoring, moral behaviour and other processes that the AA-type approach seems to target. 'A lot of the treatment programmes out there are targeting these systems without necessarily knowing that they are doing it,' says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland..."
Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde illustrate a basic dimension of right and wrong that is hard to escape in both addiction and recovery, no matter how you choose to see it, or do it.
I had been so busy that day and we had made a 12 step call that thoughts of myself were not even being considered.
In the past I had only made it to 5 1/2 months so I think like you, I was shocked that it was not in my head the entire day much less at the minute it came to announce it.
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