Not About Mel Gibson- But Related
I said the other day that I really don’t care about the Mel Gibson saga that has been unfolding the past week or so. In reality that is only partially true. What I care about (as a chemical dependence counselor) is the issue of alcoholism and its consequences. In particular on this one, I am most interested in talking about one myth that is out there, even among professionals in the mental health field. The myth usually goes something like:

When someone is drunk you get to see the real person underneath it all. What they say is what they really believe.

Applied to Mel Gibson, then, it would be to say:

Gibson’s anti-Semitic remarks to the police officer were his true feelings. He is a bigot and this just shows it.

I don’t agree. Alcohol is NOT a truth serum. More lies are told under-the-influence than at probably any other time. More self-serving, self-promoting, self-centered, grandiose untrue or partially true things are said while drunk than probably any other time (except perhaps election campaigns.) Alcohol is a mood-altering chemical that in the brain of alcoholics does some really strange and frightening things. Mel Gibson is not immune to this. Celebrity status, Christian beliefs, wishful thinking to the contrary, Mel Gibson is, when he has alcohol in him, just another common drunk.

No, that is not a derogatory remark. It is what happens to a person who can’t drink like other people. Whatever the root causes of addiction and alcoholism, when it has taken hold, the real self, the true and honest and compassionate self is consumed by the addict self. All the addict self wants is to continue to use and will go to any length to make sure it happens. Even being mean and nasty and bigoted and lots of other things that they are not when they are sober.

One of the email newsletters I receive is Doug Thorburn’s Monthly Addiction Report. In his August issue he addresses the issue of Mel Gibson’s arrest far better than I can. In the closing to the section on The Myth of the Month he said:

“The real personality of the alcoholic eventually emerges well after his last drink, usually five or ten years later. The personality manifesting during a period of active alcoholism is a toxic one and is as opposite of ‘real’ as we’ll ever see.” We’ll know Mr. Gibson’s true feelings only in the fullness of time. In the meantime, even while subjected to all the consequences society can impose, he should, like other alcoholics, be given the benefit of the doubt: alcoholism, a biochemical disorder that results in brain damage in some as a result of drinking alcohol, caused his misbehavior.

As is pointed out in that brief quote, there are, and should be consequences for his illegal actions and he needs to make amends for what he said. He is not immune simply because he was under the influence. But let's not make it more than it is. Alcoholism. Not hatred or bigotry.

Thorburn ends an article on Gibson with the following, which I think sums up the possibilities in recovery better than anything else.

Now Mr. Gibson, it’s up to you to do the rest. While some are not rooting for you, they should be, because underneath almost every addict there is a good, decent, kind, generous and un-bigoted human being. My bet is your ultimate amends will go down in history as one of the most generous ever to those whom the addict in you so maliciously maligned.

To which all I can say is “Amen.”