AloneAlot

I like JAZZMAN's definition best.....seems scientifically valid....no name calling, no judging "just the facts " Clapping for Jazzman! (pst Im working steps, journaling, taking care of my spiritual side and being helpful and creative....aa meeting to follow! Guess I could be considered a dry drunk until my brain gets better.......and just fine with me so long as Im not a drunken fool!

Terminally Unique

No, it wasn't. No need to read between the lines.

keithj

This idea is your strawman. I agree with you that's it's less than successful thinking for long term sobriety, but to imply that some program of recovery is preaching this, or that the idea of a 'dry drunk' somehow has a basis in this strawman idea, is flawed.

There are countless examples, out there in the real world, of alcoholics that have maintained white knuckle sobriety. Some of those people are miserable SOBs that I wouldn't want to trade lives with. Many of those people either drink again or blow their heads off. Every one of those people that I've seen engage in some sort of spiritual growth has gotten much happier. They've also stayed sober.

Terminally Unique

To be fair, I am not entirely unfamiliar with the "doom and gloom" feelings that can start to come over you at times if you aren't aware of them. AVRT does have an explanation for the so-called "dry drunk" feelings, and a mechanism for dissociating from them, but that's probably beyond the scope of this thread.

RobbyRobot

Yeah, both models share the similar "fill the void" view in practice as well as philosophic rhetoric. I appreciate the heat-seeking missile metaphor, lol.

My alcoholic darkness can not be filled. It is a gaping hole or emptiness or illness or whatever inside me. There is no filling or otherwise. It continues [my alcoholism] unchanged as it was no matter I drink or dont drink. It is unpowered just now though of course, otherwise I would be drunk.

My sober spiritual solution is I came to an understanding of a power greater than my alcoholic self ie my alcoholism. My HP is not God. I'm a Christian, but my Christianity has zero to do with my HP ie my sobriety. First I became sober. Then I became Christian, so my spiritual sobriety was already set in stone. Before that I was agnostic when I detoxed and before that I was raised as a garden variety so-called Christian as a youth -- Sunday school and the rest.

I tad bit confusing I have been told, but nonetheless it is my understanding and it works well in simplicity and effectiveness keeping me very sober for many years. My sobriety is empowered by the very same power which disempowers my alcoholism. Simple, eh?!!

Terminally Unique

I sometimes say that I get more AVRT practice on here in a half hour than I would in a month otherwise, but it's true in a way.

This is the view I take as well, that it can't be filled or removed, only locked up. This will naturally cause some disagreement with those who do feel that it can be filled or removed. Sometimes I joke that my dark hole is shaped like a whiskey bottle.

Terminally Unique

I'm not saying that the 'dry drunk' has a basis in this, but it does imply it. In any case, the 'dry drunk' has spread far beyond the 12-Step groups, although I can't be certain that it even originated there. The psych-recovery groups have their own variations on the 'dry drunk' as well.

I've done the "white knuckle" struggling against desire thing myself in the past, usually lasting about 30 days, give or take. I'm not presently doing that, or at least it certainly doesn't feel like it. I will grant that my chosen method is probably not suitable for everyone, not even everyone who doesn't want to go the 12-Step route.

This here is the crux of the 'dry drunk' argument. It says that if you simply quit drinking, that you will either be a miserable SOB, or that you will go stark raving mad and either drink again or blow your head off. Since this is not always the case, is that not a straw-man?

The suicides are most unfortunate, but I'm not entirely convinced they are due to dry drunkism. Often, people find themselves between two intolerable alternatives: the revolving door and life in recovery, always recovering, fighting a never-ending uphill battle, but never quite getting recovered.