Mental or emotional drunkenness, dry drunk

Here is a phrase that belongs only to Alcoholics Anonymous and Alfa-Del Family Groups. Nowhere else is the expression "mental drunkenness" or "dry drunk" to be found but in AA and AFG. Psychologists and psychiatrists use the word "psychosis" or "delusion" which mean a "loss of contact with reality". (Delusion: latin de lira, off the track, out of tune.)

Let's suppose someone is in a state of drunkenness in an Alcoholics Anonymous Convention and is quite sure not to be an alcoholic. He is drunk out of his mind in a AA Convention and he is not an alcoholic! Never so! He just wants to see what he could do to help a friend of his who has a little drinking problem!! Has he not lost contact with reality? Is not his speech delusional? Is he not in a state of substance-induced psychosis?
  *** Imagine Enabler who is separated and divorced for many years and her ex-husband died meantime. But she never resumed her mariage failure and never finishes settling accounts with men. Whatever venture Enabler (alias Compete, alias Iconopete) had with one man is no man's fault, nor any woman's. But Enabler holds a grudge against men, all men. And she hates women just about as much as she does men. Who does she hate the most? Has she not lost contact with reality? Is she not deluded? Is not her speech delusional? Is she not in a state of mental or emotional drunkenness? Psychotic? Emotionally drunk? It is quite possible that Enabler is a lesbian and is simply unable to take responsability for her sexual identity. (Men are but 10% of AFG membership in Canada in 2006!)
  *** When dady Gedeon's wife died, he had a bout of mental drunkenness. Looking for his garnment in the closet, he was sure he saw Demerise! His close friends would tell him: "Cheer up, dady Gedeon, Demerise is dead and will no longer return." Dady Gedeon had hallucinations but denied this fact for a while. It took him a few weeks to accept his wife's death.
  *** If that mental or emotional drunkenness lasts a couple of days, a couple of weeks or months, it is called a psychotic episode. But if it lasts for years, it is then called chronic psychosis or schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia, like alcoholism, holds its origin partly in genetics - heredity - and partly in environment - psychosocial build-up. Where ends heredity, where starts environment? That is the real question. When many members of a dysfunctional family have a mental illness (schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder or borderline personnality disorder), genetics is then quite obvious. When psychosis does not seem to be gene-related, it may be induced by stressing circumstances (seperation, divorce, death of a family member or close friend, job or social status loss or lowering, body disease, etc.) and it is usualy for a short period of time. It is then called a psychotic episode.

Mental drunkenness, like schizophrenia, is often caracterized by a delusional or negative speech (A Merry-Go-Round Named Denial) which is little if at all rooted in reality. (See: "Delusional disorder") Many samples of mental drunkenness-related delusional speeches can be found on Internet. Suffice it to say that in real troubled cricumstances or traumatising events - war, famine, etc. - anybody can turn mad and start delusioning, have a psychotic episode or endure psychosis. One person out of 5 will have a mental episode in a lifetime - depression, etc. - that is to say 20% of the general population. Mental illness is widespread as compared to a scarce disease (one out of 10,000 or one out of a million). Schizophrenia happens to one person out of 100, that is to say 1% of the world population no matter social classes, races (if these ever exist), languages, religions, cultures, countries, boundaries, etc. Everyone has one chance out of 100 to have a psychotic episode or a bout of mental drunkenness or denial at one time or another in a lifetime. Should we be worried? Beware: being well informed is the best prevention.

Ten schizophrenic persons out of 100 will put an end to their suffering. Ten per cent of 1% of the general population, that is one person out of 1000 will take his/her life because of shcizophrenia, whatever is said, whatever is done. For that is the real and true question: an unspeakable suffering.

Sources and resources :
Dry Drunk Syndrome
Mental Health Canada,
Schizophrenia Society of Canada,
Canadian Mental Health Association,
Psychotic disorders, les AA, etc.
See also: General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Gulemo, February 7, 2009 -- pel-anon.org/afg/drydrunk.html

Note : If AFG is to convince health and social service professionnals that Alfa-Del Family Group is useful and relevant for dysfunctional families, friends and foes of alcoholics and drug addicts, AFG should use the same terminology as these professionnals.

March 5, 2009 -- Mentally drunk, schizophrenic bishops? Leaders of the Catholic Church in Brazil are speaking out against doctors allowing a pregnant nine-year-old girl to have an abortion. The young girl became pregnant with twins after being subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, is upset that the abortion was done. The Catholic leader excommunicated the young girl's mother, the doctors and other people involved in the abortion. But no excommunication for the young rapist-pedophile who abused the young girl since she was six and who also allegedly abused the girl's physically handicapped 14-year-old sister. "The law of God is above any human law," said the bishop. [Read the whole story] • Even bishops, achbishops, cardinals -- and even the pope! -- can give in to mental drunkenness and become psychotic. They live by a theology manual, like Enabler by her service manual, and they have completely lost contact with reality. Such bishops can be found all over the world, in Quebec City, in Montreal, and elsewhere. Even in AFG, Enabler and her like -- Compete, Iconopete -- are bishops and they too can be found everywhere, two in Quebec City, two in Montreal, and others elsewhere. Who are these OBMHs "directely responsable" to? The Earth keeps moving on and years go by. Life is fading away, so are the Church and AFG. • P.S. Due to protest worldwide, the excommunication was lifted, As for the young abuser, age 23, he was arrested later on and is now facing a 15-year jail sentence. As for the public image of the Church and that of AFG, God bless it! [LifeNews.com]