jsmatos said:
I've been reading Mike's posts for a couple of years now, and I assure you that he'd have an invitation to one of my parties if he lived in the area. I enjoy talking to intelligent, sober people.
Why Mrs. Matos, I had no idea.
Alcohol can affect an alcoholic way differently than it does a regular social drinker.
Non alcoholics drink to calm down, relax, etc. and the booze acts like that on them.
In many alcoholics, booze acts like a stimulant. Just like taking speed.
I used to come home from work, and walk to the neighborhood bar just dragging. But after a couple of drinks, I was wide awake and could go for hours.
I had to attend an alcohol abuse clinic after I had quit drinking for 6 months, to qualify for state job retraining, and it lasted for 6 months at a few hours every other day or so.
I originally went in with a chip on my shoulder as I had already quit, but after talking to others, I began to enjoy it, just the realization that you weren't alone was great. No AA BS, just regular talk, and them trying to show us a better way to cope than with booze.
On one interview with a doctor that was doing research on the subject, he asked me about the effect of alcohol on me, and further clarified it by asking if it made me sleepy, or wired me up. Talking to him that day was when he told me about that unusual affect on alcoholics compared to regular drinkers.
And yes, most alcoholics have coping problems, but it isn't anything they're going to get over by themselves, and most parents don't notice it either, and the child won't admit to further problems that make him/her look even worse than they already feel about themselves, so booze becomes the answer.
Genetic depression that runs in families can have one Hell of a lot to do with drinking too, and can be a major factor in starting down the booze highway, as can PTSD(me), which no cure exists for.
On an interesting side note, a female doctor working with the Kurds finally found the proof she lacked in her years of research on the subject, that getting gassed(by certain deadly gasses) causes permanent chromosonal damage, and brain damage that results in depression, permanently, among other brain disorders!!
It doesn't diminish as it's passed down the generations(to every descendant), but stays just as bad as the original donor had it.
Now to my point. Think of all the hundreds of thousands of people of all nations that were gassed with those particular chemicals back in 1915-18(the same as used on the Kurds), (mustard was one, I think), and then the resulting depression passed to their children, and their children, and so on and so on,:barf::barf:
It's like a pebble tossed into the pond of humanity. It's ripples are still expanding.
There is a tremendous amount of depression in the world, and it seems to have come about recently, or at least people talk about it more. I believe much of it comes from ancestral gas exposure in WWI.
My own wife suffers from bad depression, and is a recovering alcoholic with 19 years sobriety. I was looking through her Fathers papers after he died a few years ago, and came upon his fathers(my wife's paternal grandfather)Marine Corps records from WWI.
He had been gassed three times.
From what we understand, he had been a happy go lucky person before that, after he was somber and reclusive.
He and his wife had several children, all of whom suffered from this extreme depression, and all turned to alcohol for treatment for many years(including her father).
Her grandfather fell from a roof one day, and died when the screwdriver in his hand went threw his heart. It was written up as a suicide. Who knows, but the finding surprised no one that knew him.
It does not mean that all depression was caused by the above, but that scientist's findings can sure explain a lot of problems in todays society, and a reason many drink to excess.
They had a program about her on the History channel, I believe it was, but I can't find it now. I even failed to get her name.
You can bet the government of any of the warring nations are not going to say squat about her findings, considering that they are at least partially responsible for much of these mental health problems today.
Sorry for the long post, but it's a subject that really interests me.
I'm sober 99.9% of the year. It seems that once a year Halloween party that we have does it for me every time. :barf: 
