Drinking to escape emptiness

As I opened the paper this morning I was confronted once again with a big problem facing our society. The abuse of alcohol. It has been a common theme in the paper lately, but not just referring to problems in NZ. Russia, the UK, France and Italy have had articles written about their binge drinking issues and their "booze culture". There have been a number of articles in the paper about the local problems related to alcohol abuse.

• The "Undy-500" riots locally, and the drunk mob mentality among the students.
• A report about the high number of injuries treated in the emergency medical facilities that are related to alcohol misuse.
• Reports showing the high percentage of police call outs that are related to drink issues.
• Articles talking about binge drinking at all levels of society and its related health problems.
• Articles about the domestic problems caused by misuse of drink.

These are just some of the topics I remember, I am sure there are others. As a chaplain, a drop-in centre leader and from my involvements in the community I am deeply aware of the harmful impacts of alcohol. Just ride an ambulance in Dunedin on a Saturday or Friday night and you will experience it. Politicians argue about the problem. How to fix it? I may as well add my voice. I contend that the misuse of alcohol (and the greed, and the vandalism and the violence, and the divorce rate) is a symptom of deeper problems. 

I need to confess that I am not tee-total. I enjoy a cool beer, a sherry, a wine (especially Stones Ginger Wine) or a Guinness, though I have never been drunk in my life. Maybe you could say what people say about the Pope and sex, "He doesn't play so why should he comment?" But this is my blog so I'll comment. 

I see heavy drinkers not as bad, but rather as sad. I believe that people drinking to excess are often "sick people self-medicating". (I may never have been drunk - perhaps my chosen medicine is something else... I'm not telling!) I have been unwell today so have done a lot of resting and reading. I re-read a book by Victor Frankl about his Logotherapy. (Man's search for Meaning)

He reports a feeling "of which so many patients complain today, namely the feeling of the total and ultimate meaninglesssness of their lives. They lack awareness of a meaning worth living for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves; they are caught in that situation which I have called the 'existential vacuum'. The existential vacuum is a widespread phenomenon of the twentieth century."  He gives some of the reasons why this phenomenon has happened and as I think about it, these reasons have only deepened in the time since he wrote his book.  It is my contention that we often misuse drink (and other things... money, relationships, food etc. etc.) because we are trying to escape from our inner-emptiness, our "existential vacuum".

Frankl says that we have a "will to meaning", we are not just pleasure seekers. He questions others' assertions that equilibrium or "homeostasis" be seen as a sign of mental health. "What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather a striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him."(I apologise for his sexist language...he is writing well before our more PC awareness emerged) Humans deep down, need to find a meaning and/or meanings for and in their existence. We have a "will to meaning" that in our modern society we are not satisfying. In my view this leads to a sense of emptiness from which we try to escape through drink and other destructive past times. Somehow we need to be better equipped to discover meaning or meanings for our living as we journey through life. 

Frankl writes, "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence." 

So if I understand Frankl, it would seem that life calls me to always ask the question, "What does it mean for me, at this point in life, to be responsible?" I then choose my directions and there-in find meaning. My contention is that if we were skilled at detecting and giving ourselves to meanings in life, life would be more full and fulfilling and we would not have to drink (or whatever) to escape that inner-emptiness. Frankl gives an example of how his determination to write about his logotherapy kept him in going, with an inner freedom and direction in the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. 

Steve Covey (Seven Habits of Successful people) has a suggestion that I find helpful as a good starting point. He suggests that we pretend that we are at our funeral and think about what we would like people to be able to say about us when we are gone. What could they say about our values, the things we did and how we lived? Spell that out in our mind then translate that into how we are living our life each week. I think this is a practical start to find inner-meanings that fill the void we often experience and struggle with.

When I prepare to conduct a funeral I listen to story after story about the deceased, then allow that person's values and inner-directions to emerge. Then I will highlight these, using the stories to illustrate exactly who they were.  I often find myself at such times asking myself, "What values would I like to emerge from the stories of my life?" I should be finding ways to give expression to those values now. By spending time asking such questions we can end up with an undergirding direction for life which helps us respond in our living and gives us a compass point to aim for.

Anyway, that's what my mind has been playing with today, prompted by my reading of newspaper and various books. These are my half-thoughts emerging and revolving. I have often said that proper pastoral care is not just running around rubbing people's wrists, but also involves challenging people to become all that they could become. Anyway enough burbling... just my thinking out loud.