Mike Burr - log

[so-] The Opioid Crisis: Everyone is Fucking Stupid

I'll sacrifice a little bit of personal dignity in exchange to make maybe a slightly more compelling story. I love Adderall. That's not to say that I necessarily would just pound it all day long given no other constraints. After all I can, if I want to, drive to the store and buy a bottle of vodka for practically nothing. It's even cheaper in Russia.

Alcoholism has existed since alcohol. Who is doing the research to discover if Prohibition caused a change in the rate of alcoholism? Is that an area of research? It would be interesting to know. I know of no one who thinks of prohibition as "a time when people used to drink less". More, people think it was a time of machine guns and Italian immigrants. Galdern immigrants.

Sometimes I think to myself, "I would like a break from all this Adderall business. In fact it might not be a bad idea to just not have it in the house for a while." How does one achieve that? My default is to go to call the doctor, as they need to "call it in" to CVS, and then drive to CVS

Should I be ashamed of my depraved self for doing all that? Remember, I'm just the rat; not Skinner, not The Box.

Successful or not I would imagine the most alcoholics when trying to recover take, as a first step the strategy of not having alcohol immediately available. Simple. It may be a kind of whiteknuckling It may be effective in only a small but nonzero number of cases.

But imagine if I had a subscription to vodka -- "Bro! Vodka's legal now you just gotta get a script."

Paradise, no? Yay, legal weed alcohol.

So I get my script. And along with that comes some inconvenience. It really amounts to regular encounters with our medical "system". And perhaps standing in line at a pharmacy four minutes or more. And of course sometimes the doctor May have faxed the prescription refill to the wrong number. Stuff happens; gotta work within the system. But I got my vodka. And so I leave CVS with my prescription in a paper bag.

Now, not being utterly incapable or entirely hopeless, I have my wits about me quite a lot of the day. And/But occasionally I do think, "Let's take a break mate. So what does that entail? Canceling my next appointment to the alcohol doctor?

If you don't want to lose your "supply" and risk never getting it back or having to drive to a different town because "those kinds of doctors are in short supply for some reason" then you'll try real hard not to upset the apple cart. Or the fermented potato cart.

You're on vacation with your pouty wife and your pouty kids. You want to drink. But bless you for trying, you interrupted your supply, because why have vodka piling up around the house just because you don't want to risk upsetting the vodka acquisition mechanism. The responsible thing to do? Keep it out of the house for a bit. And with great optimism you are thinking this also when you leave for vacation.

Now, the people that you've heard of that go entirely off the rails with their first sip of delicious delicious vodka are not representative necessarily of "Joe average likes to boost it up now and then". Some people, dare I say most people might make a little dip in their overall life wholesomeness and have a bit more to drink now and then, maybe sporadically and then quit again. I have done that. Sometimes, even regular people like their alcohol a bit too much. It's true.

Back to vacation. You decide no way no way am I going to be able to slog through this without at least a bit of a serenity bringing buzz going on at least some of the time. I am responsible. I look into the future. I care about my family. I can take a little medicine. And that's how it works out believe it or not, in actuality for a lot of people. You will not see this on The Learning Channel because it's rather boring. Meanwhile most conceptions of "an alcoholic" is just about like what you see on TV. You are either a very responsible drinker or laying in the gutter; no in-between... Distortions.

So what do I do? I have no supply. Do I go see a doctor in rural Cucamonga? Is it in-network? What about "state lines"?

No. I can see that shit happening before it happens; like a responsible driver. So, having learned on vacation, I keep the supply going and I have bottles and bottles and bottles and bottles of vodka laying around the house.

Adderall. Maybe same?

Oh yes and opioids. I don't wanna lose points for not mentioning opioids. Opioids.