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I saw a story recently in Esquire where Brad Pitt talks about trying out sobriety, attending 12-step meetings for awhile and putting together seven years without a drink. But he said he recently started drinking again, but is doing it in a more responsible, professional way.
This obviously became a big internet topic as people chimed in about the idea of going back to drinking in moderation. I don’t really have an opinion on that—I would imagine there are people out there who make the decision to drink again and figure out a way to do it within reason, or at least manage the harm from their drinking. Is that how it works for me? Absolutely not. That is a dangerous thought to let grow inside my head, and I would say most alcoholics that I know probably feel the same way.
So I don’t have much of an opinion about Brad Pitt drinking again, other than I always hope that someone who relapses finds a way to live a safe, happy life, whether that means coming back to 12-step recovery or not.
What I do have a strong opinion about is some of the coverage of Pitt’s relapse, especially this story from The Hollywood Reporter. The article starts out by referencing various quotes from Reddit, then has a few experts chime in. I think both of those sources are b******t. You cannot base any kind of journalism on finding five comments on Reddit. You can name any subject matter whatsoever and find a few nameless people out there agreeing with it. If you wanted to write something about how the moon landing was fake and the sun isn’t real, you can find some goober named ConspiracyBoy6969 writing about that in some corner of the internet. That doesn’t mean that you help shine a light on that opinion.
Secondly, I thought some of the so-called experts in the story were way off target. Here’s a quote from a guy named Joe Schrank, who is identified as a clinical social worker and policy advocate who has worked with addicts for 20 years.
“When he said he’s drinking moderately after seven years of abstinence, there’s a bunch of different things going on there,” Schrank says. “Typically speaking, alcoholics are just a horrible source of information about themselves. Matthew Perry walked around reeking like booze telling people he was sober. But maybe [Pitt] is [drinking moderately]. The World Health Organization says that this is possible—that with moderate drinking, even after long periods of abstinence, there are lots of people who find success of clinical significance and life improvement. The AA morality police take this stuff as red meat for their need to finger wag and shame. Not everybody needs to spend the rest of their life totally abstinent with a cup of shitty coffee in a Styrofoam cup regurgitating platitudes. Some do—I’m one of those people.”
OK, where do I even start? Did we need this level of aggressive commentary? Why the shots fired at Matthew Perry out of nowhere? And don’t get me going on his representation of AA… actually, yes, let me get going on that.
I hate when 12-step recovery is presented this way, as if we have a CEO and press spokesperson who will come out and condemn what Brad Pitt said. Like, what is the AA morality police? Did this guy meet someone over the years who was overly aggressive about abstinence being the answer? Probably. Those people exist. But that’s not what I see. Seeing someone relapse and using it as red meat to wag a finger at someone… come on. What a disservice to 12-step recovery. I don’t know Joe Schrank. I’m sure he has helped people quite a bit in his 20 years of working in the recovery field. And I do appreciate his open-mindedness about recovery—there are many different ways to get to whatever goal you have regarding your substance use.
But I also will say that if I had a friend who needed help, I would not be sending him or her to Joe Schrank. I don’t think the putdowns and bluster is a good way to connect with people and get them help toward sobriety. There is another expert in the story who hits a similar point, but I’m not going to dissect his comments the same way. It was mostly the same general opinion.
I did find the end of the story amusing, where Schrank acknowledges that the World Health Organization has shown more recent studies that demonstrate no alcohol is far better for you than even a little bit. It’s funny that got buried in the last paragraph of a story where the general point is, hey, relax all you non-drinkers, maybe it’s fine that Brad Pitt is drinking again.
Just my two cents, and most stores don’t even have pennies any more, so take those two cents for what they are worth!
This newsletter is a place of joy and laughter about the deadly serious business of sobriety. So, as I will often do, let me close with a joke:
HEARD AT MEETINGS: “Drinking saved my marriage. We were always too drunk to finish the divorce paperwork.”
(Credit: AA Grapevine, May 2003, Anonymous from New York, New York)
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