Posted by yellowbrickroad on January 1, 2005, at 22:50:52
In reply to Punishment is medicine.Aristotle.Nicomachean Ethic, posted by Faradism.net on January 1, 2005, at 19:51:15
We'd all be some rich-*ss drunks and addicts by now.
It's not like the people on these boards have never seen a self-proclaimed Messiah of Recovery.
What we've never seen is one of these methods that lasts longer than the money-back guarantee.
What we've never seen is a doctor worth his salt who would endorse such an approach...but when two parties that make their living off of our illnesses are throwing stones at each other, it's easy for the sick to believe anything nasty about either or both of them, isn't it?
The doctors are in it for the money, after all, aren't they? At some point, we have all felt this.
But then what are the charlatans with the miracle cures in it for? And how many years of cut-throat schooling did they put themselves through for the benefit of their craft? How many years of student loans are they paying off? How much malpractice insurance do they pay for the right to continue "helping" people?
You know, all of us who have been slaves to our addictions have had the desire to punish ourselves for them. This is why 12 step groups can--unfortunately--devolve into cults of confession...endless moral inventories that add up to non-stop self punishment. Every bad feeling, every misstep must be exposed as the end result of some sin of our own.
Well, not every addict buys into that approach. I don't. I would never tell another drunk or addict to relentlessly find fault with themselves in order to recover, and I wouldn't put up with anyone else telling me to do the same.
And I wouldn't smile and tell you that I don't think you should feel guilty, that it's not your fault, but go ahead and shock, slap, or cut your way back to sobriety. As a former self-injurer, I can tell you that it's an addiction in its own right. As a drunk, I can tell you that we punish ourselves enough already.
This is SICK.
I would take this approach as a joke if I didn't know how many people are just waiting for someone to tell them that what they really need is the right form of punishment for their illness. All of us feel guilty for not being well, at times. All of us have felt that we should be willing to try anything, that we are irresponsible if we don't.
Oh, and by the way, "Negative Reinforcement" does not mean what you think it does. Look it up. It means that a stimulus is REMOVED in order to encourage a certain behavior. How can you argue for something if you don't even understand the terms YOU use to explain it?
Food for thought.
YBR
poster:yellowbrickroad
thread:436519
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20041128/msgs/436603.html