Saturday, September 29, 2012

A Dry Drunk

Addiction treatment can last anywhere from 30, to 60, to 90 days.  It usually doesn't work and often the addict is back 2 or 3 times before they really stop what ever the addiction is.

I've learned recently about "Dry Drunks."  A dry drunk is those who no longer partake of the preferred  substance, but the behaviors of a drunk, a druggie, etc still is alive and well.  Sometimes those behaviors are so engrained in them, they can't get to reality. What they do is reject your reality and substitute their own on to you.  It can be VERY abusive.  Below are some of the personality behaviors of those dry drunks.

  • Blame (It's always someone else) 
  • Denial  about anything.
  • Narcissistic 
  • Horrible self-esteem 
  • Manipulators 
  • Co-dependant 
  • No coping skills
  • Not rational 
  • Paranoid
  • Have often been abused 
  • Turn negative behaviors on someone else.  (It's always someone else) 
  • They are often OCD
  • Often they are Bi-Polar 
  • 75% of them have Borderline Personality disorder and often it's just due to all the other dysfunctions above. 
  • Often they have more than one addiction 
  • Living with them is like walking on egg shells

A person like this looks in the mirror and sees not himself, but others. There is no personal responsibility, because to do that would mean they are less than the dust of the earth.  They have been wrong, have treated people wrongly, have done things totally wrong, have lied to themselves and others and they cannot admit that they have been and are basically crazy.  They cannot face who and what they really are to protect their ever so enormously fragile ego. 

This is the kind of person I lived with for 17 months and then continued to let him talk to me on the phone for 8 more months.