The truth is, and any respectable sot will tell you, that the relationship with alcohol is far less like a battle than it is a dance and not just any dance, but a slow, dirty dance — like in a speak-easy where the walls crash in on you from night to night, but by the next you’re back at it…boogieing down closer and closer to the surface of the floor each time. And that’s just it, nothing short of divine intervention will stop you except to hit bottom and even then it depends on whether or not you land face-first. You see, “drinking, once a habit, (becomes) an obsession, a true insanity that (condemns people) to drink against (their) will…in the late stages of drinking, the will to resist has fled” (A.A.’s Co-Founder). For some, falling off the wagon just isn’t enough. They need to be dragged behind it, backed over a few times and dragged some more before they even think to quit. But, that’s a choice and everyone is entitled to make their own.
Bottom, they say, is not the same for everyone — it’s higher or lower depending on the person’s tolerance for stupidity and other such things as pain, embarrassment, and/or loss. Among other things, alcoholism is a conniving co-pilot who will steer you directly into the heart of a lightning storm or head-first into a telephone pole and then convince you that he had nothing to do with it. Additionally, he’ll feed your body with poison so that you spend the day barfing into a bucket instead of going to work and then have you believe it’s because you don’t like your job…you know, the very thing that puts bread on the table or keeps a roof over your head. More often than not, people disassociate the ill effects of their alcoholism from the act of drinking alcohol.
This gets me to the original intent for writing which is to talk about the protections for alcoholics under the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to employment. Simply put, the ADA does not protect your right to be a fall-down, jack-ass drunk rather it serves to facilitate treatment/rehabilitation and to clear a path to gainful employment without the obstacles of discrimination and other such prejudices. More specifically, the ADA restricts employment discrimination against people for being (1) a person who is substantially limited in a major life function, (2) regarded as a person who is substantially limited in a major life function, and/or (3) associated with a person who is substantially limited in a major life function. How that normally translates for the alcoholic is that an employer cannot terminate you from or deny you employment for being regarded as an alcoholic, but it does not mean that you can come to work drunk or miss an excessive amount of work due to being drunk and expect to keep your job because you’re an alcoholic. People, alcoholics or otherwise, have a responsibility to be qualified for their work and to carry out the essential functions of the job which oddly enough entails being present and working.
To state the obvious, sobriety is the only true alternative to being drunk. And, anyone who’s ever had one too many will attest that she (for me, Sobriety is female) exudes an undeniable sense of euphoria and makes for a much more pleasant dance partner than the clumsy, old man that is being Drunk.
Of course, talking about it is one thing, but practicing what we preach is whole other thing. The fact is, for many of us, drinking has become a way of life and the battle, as it were, is less about trying to quit than it is trying to stay functional…may we never become just another one of the countless Americans with Dysfunctional Alcoholism. “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference” (A.A.’s Serenity Prayer).
For more information on the Americans with Disabilities Act or about the rights of individuals with disabilities, please contact the NMPASI office at (670) 235-7273/4 [voice], 235-7275 [fax], 235-7278 [tty] or via the internet at www.nmpasi.com.
JIM RAYPHAND
Executive Director
NMPASI
