May 18, 2003
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This article about James Frey, author of “A Million Little Pieces” is something worth reading.
He also dismisses the accepted wisdom that addiction/alcoholism is an illness like any other, and that the addict/alcoholic may be genetically preconditioned to dependency. Frey takes issue with it all. In one of the most riveting and controversial sections of the book, he sits listening to a counsellor address a family therapy session and simmers as those around him are fed the received wisdoms that he cannot, will not, swallow.
‘I would like to stand up and scream this is bullshit, this is all fucking bullshit, but I don’t. I don’t believe that addiction is a disease. Cancer is a disease… Alzheimer’s is a disease… Addiction is not a disease. Not even close… A disease cannot be dealt with using a Group or a set of Steps. It cannot be dealt with by Talking about it… by reading books with blue covers or saying prayers about serenity… Addiction is a decision. An individual wants something… and makes a decision to get it. Once they have it, they make a decision to take it. If they take it too often, the process of decision- making gets out of control and if it gets too far out of control, it becomes an Addiction. At that point, the decision is a difficult one to make, but it is still a decision. Do I or don’t I… Am I going to be a pathetic dumbshit addict and continue to waste my life or am I going to say no and try to stay sober and be a decent person. It is a decision. Each and every time… Addict or human? Genetics do not make that call. They are just an excuse. They allow people to say it wasn’t my fault…’ As if on a personal mission to disprove every thing that Al Anon holds sacred, Frey then proceeds to dry out the hard way, refusing any form of solace, spiritual or therapeutic, that he cannot accept intellectually.
Instead, he opts for a personal belief system based on the Buddhist philosophy of ‘patience, simplicity and compassion’ as set out in The Tao, a book he finds in rehab and clings to like a life-support machine. Amid all the personal conflicts that rage throughout the narrative, this ideological conflict is central to an understanding of how Frey’s mind works – stubbornly, defiantly, unyieldingly. Put simply, the same anger, defiance and dogged single-mindedness that once almost killed him also pulls him through.Actually, I wonder if someone re-did the 12 step program with an eastern philosophy point of view if it would show different recovery rates. In any case, it looks like the book may be worth a read.
I should note that I’m pretty sure the principles laid out in The Tao tend to be more Taoist than Buddhist.
