Laughter an important part of recovery from addiction

Years ago, I decided to stop drinking. At the time I thought I was setting a good example for my immediate fellow drunken colleagues. They, however, saw my departure as cause for another drink. Alone—without “Bud” or “Glen Fiddich,” with my “B52” grounded, suffering “Riesling” mortis—I looked about for another group of doctors with whom to party. Thankfully, I found International Doctors in Alcoholics Anonymous (www.idaa.org). Each year, we gather together to share tales of recovery, and to laugh.Everyone, of course, is nameless, yet the most famous and powerful are naturally in our ranks. One such doctor shared that he emptied the various pills he received from detail men into a 20-gallon aquarium. His research project, after a requisite amount of scotch, was to take a random handful and figure out what he’d taken by the effects; thanks to the genius of liquor, he was convinced he could sort out the estrogens from the lipid lowering agents with some level of reproducible accuracy. “Work hard, play hard and then join IDAA” is a major league motto.Dr. Bob Smith (a.k.a. “Dr. Bob”), a founding member of AA, broke trail for the profession in general. And today, tens of thousands of doctors can look back to his inspiration and appreciate the Midwest humour that characterizes his personal story. For instance, when his son, Smitty, asked him how he got his complex dragon and compass tattoo, his response was, “Boy, that was a dandy!”Dr. Paul Ohliger, a California physician and author of the well-known AA story “Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict” in the book Alcoholics Anonymous, described being put in a “nut ward” of his own hospital and told to do crafts, which he explained were beneath his genius; nevertheless, at the time he had to admit making moccasins was indeed beyond his physical and mental capabilities.Dentists, psychologists and veterinarians are also part of the group and, anecdotally, I’ve noticed the vets tend toward the wilder side. For instance, one veterinary anesthesiologist described how difficult it was to make amends to his surgical colleague for the time he failed to adequately anesthetize an elephant during a minor procedure. Sure, he paid for the damages to the OR, but felt he could never erase the look of terror on his friend’s face when the short-changed elephant expressed its feelings about the masked man holding the scalpel.Uplifting humourOn a more solemn note, yes, there are serious tragedies recounted at these meetings. And while some of the humour described here is indeed dark, the uplifting laughter in the rooms of IDAA is itself proof of a higher power. So many of the doctors there, with the assistance of their most compassionate colleagues, have made the miraculous trek back to life and service from the abyss of institutions and death. One former naval doctor, now a leading addiction medicine specialist, shared that while he might forget some pre-med subject matter, he’d never forget the postdoctoral training he gained in rehab.Since alcohol and drug abuse for doctors is so often such a serious business, in recovery doctors are encouraged to “lighten up.”Dignity in recoveryAs Dr. Graeme Cunningham, director of the addictions division of the Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ont., and who recounted his struggle famously in Reader’s Digest, likes to say: “There’s shame in addiction, but dignity in recovery. . . . You can run with the cheetahs or run with the turkeys.”In short, IDAA is street-smart. “Keep it simple” is the standard maxim. Political correctness is something recovery can’t afford.To bring home the importance of focusing on the present, as in “one day at a time,” an IDAA doctor tells a newcomer over coffee: “You’ve got one foot for the future and one foot in the past, and you’re pissing all over your day.”To bring home a point of “stinking thinking,” a female surgeon responds to a young male internists fixation on his next “great idea”: “Just because a bird shits on your head doesn’t mean you let it make a nest in your hair.”As a program of action, doctors share that you “can’t think your way into right action” but you can “act your way into right thinking.”Fully presentOnly sober could I appreciate the fun of fully present living that I’d been missing. At IDAA, there’s golf and goofy awards, child care and mini marathons, continuing medical education, fabulous food and sometimes there’s a recovered comedian for an evening’s entertainment.Recovery is a time of laughter. It’s a time of freedom from the bondage of addiction, and IDAA is a wonderful party. Perhaps if humour were part of the mandatory medical curriculum we’d all not have to take ourselves so seriously.Today, I’d much rather be drunk with hearty laughter and not have to deal with the hangover that came with heady drink.William Hay is a psychiatrist in Vancouver.

Laughter an important part of recovery from addiction

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics