CHARACTER DEFECT?

I wish to comment on the Furstenfeldbruck theory on addiction as reported
in Monica Wolfson's article, "Council tours schools, German system faces
similar drug problems" on July 6.

I was going to keep this one to myself. However, many people think that if
it's German it's got to be good. They built the Mercedes Benz didn't they!

The part of the column I take issue with concerns the schools teaching that
the use of drugs or alcohol represents a character weakness. Unfortunately
there are many people who share this flawed concept, and they are not all
uneducated concerning the origins of addiction. Several years ago I had a
conversation with one of the heads of psychiatry at one of the state's
largest residency programs, and he commented that if people had so much
trouble with alcohol you would think they would think they'd stop using it.
I stood in amazement at such a comment from someone in charge of a
psychiatry residency program. This is, however, a common belief among the
general populous as well.

To teach children that they possess some type of character flaw if they are
addicted in the future is to throw fuel on a fire that is already burning
out of control.

Many people in the areas of research and treatment of addictions feel that
this condition or disease has its origins in genetics and environment.
Genetics in that when you look at many patients with this problem you find
multiple persons in their families with similar difficulties. Environment,
many patients are reared in environments that are conducive to drug and
alcohol use. Evidence the recent articles on meth labs and remember the
number of times that the labs were found in a room right next to the one
where a child slept.

There will be those who say that any program is better than no program at
all. I submit that any program that belittles someone who is already in a
desperate state only drives him further from help.

Educate about prevention and not about character defects.

Dr. Weldon Glidden
Chillicothe, Texas