Reflecting on the Dangers of Alcohol Addiction

I have worked with SPS since 1995 in various roles – healthcare manager, mental health specialist, prison chaplain and now one of the National Chaplaincy Advisors (Roman Catholic).  Over this time, I have seen alcohol paint blight and suffering in the lives of many, many people in prison, their families, and victims too. 

This has ranged from the ‘down and out’ men and women who have told me stories of roaming the streets, being ‘lifted’ and sent to prison again, and again, and again… to people with serious addiction problems with alcohol looming large as the starter drug, often beginning their addiction journey.

You could call alcohol a scourge on our society, maybe even THE scourge.  And yet it is legal and freely available (and also quite good if you enjoy a tipple!). 

But we are not talking about tipples here.  We are talking about people whose lives have been wrecked by serious alcohol addiction.  And not only their own lives but those around them too.

One of the sessions of the restorative justice Sycamore Tree course, run by Prison Fellowship, provides participants with a powerful representation of the negative effects of their offending on other people’s lives, not just their own.  Under the cover of surprise, an orange is thrown into a basin full of water causing an initial shock and then a complete mess as the water splashes in and out of the bucket.  Recovering from the initial shock, participants ‘get the point’ and often start recognising (sometimes for the first time) and opening up about the impact of their offending on others. 

Alcohol can be a bit like that. The addiction creeps up as you move beyond the apparent delights of joyful inebriation. Next thing, you are suffering withdrawal and craving a drink, which only worsens to doing anything for a drink, to drunken offending with devastating consequences.

Of course, it’s not as simple as that. We know from research that alcohol misuse can often be a symptom of something much deeper and more complex than simply wanting to enjoy a drink.  Alcohol can be a main way for people to blot out their suffering, often stemming back to their childhood.  Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s). 

Much is being done in this area for those who are suffering. Trauma-informed groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (for the offender) have weekly groups in pretty much every Scottish prison, and Al-Anon (for their families) have weekly groups in communities.  Many other approaches to addiction recovery also work well in our prisons. However, as is often the case, people can relapse after they are released from prison as the realities of their lives outside hit home – lack of decent housing, few opportunities to find work, old ‘friends’ providing ‘irresistible’ opportunities to drink and/or use again, boredom, vulnerabilities like poor mental health and self-esteem, money worries, family troubles, relationship breakdowns… the list goes on.

Yet people do recover and live satisfying and fulfilling lives without the need for substances like alcohol to prop them up. Those who recover often help others to recover too, which makes them truly remarkable, even ‘saintly’.

Then there are family members, standing up for loved ones and going the extra mile, easing their suffering, coping with occasional relapses, but loving them all the same. Then the dedicated workers and volunteers keeping an eye out in the streets, holding their hands, and going with them to the services they need, sitting with them in the long queues, distracting them, and encouraging them away from ‘the drink’.  Then the Churches and faith groups who support those who have been released from prison, and sometimes welcome them into their community.

And then there’s Prison Fellowship Scotland! With all the volunteers and supporters praying for them, encouraging them, and showing them it’s possible to recover and build their lives back up.  Not judging them (they’ve been judged enough!) but accepting them and welcoming them as they are.

Fellowship is a powerful word! This fellowship is important and appreciated.