Chemical Health

By Roger Svendsen and Tom Griffin

Hardly a day goes by when the newspapers and television don't include stories about the "War on Drugs," crack houses, teenage drinking, drunken driving, fetal alcohol syndrome, athletes using steroids, drinking games among college students, miracle medications that can save lives, lives torn apart by alcohol use, and the list goes on. Over-the-counter medications, prescription pharmaceuticals, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and LSD are part of life in our society.

Substance use, chemical misuse, drug abuse, social drinking, addiction, responsible use, teetotaling, alcoholism and chemical dependency are terms that are frequently used to describe various ways people use chemicals. Add to this the fact that the words substance, chemical and drug are often used interchangeably and we find that many people are left confused. More importantly, this confusion often leaves people with few guidelines as to when the use of a chemical is healthy or unhealthy, appropriate or inappropriate, safe or dangerous.

The content of Walking the Talk offers a new and positive chemical health model for resolving this confusion. The program calls for development of a set of guidelines that can provide the framework for examining alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. Once developed these guidelines can be used to assist people to make safe, healthy, legal and appropriate choices about the use and nonuse of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. The guidelines can also be used as the basis for early intervention when use is illegal, unhealthy or risky.

It is important to note that the program affirms healthy and appropriate use as well as nonuse. Many drugs have the potential to improve our health and enrich our lives. They protect us from disease, guard against infection, speed recovery from injury and comfort the terminally ill. Alcohol is a part of the celebration of religious, social and other special events. Examples of chemically healthy behavior include:

• Appropriate use of prescribed medications;
• Occasional, moderate and legal use of alcohol;
• Abstinence from alcohol use for personal, religious or health reasons; and
• Helping others make healthy choices about chemical use and nonuse.

Yet the use of alcohol and many of these drugs also has the potential to cause serious health, legal, economic and spiritual problems. Examples of chemical use problems include:

• Impaired or intoxicated driving;
• Family, group or team tension due to use;
• Underage drinking and other legal problems;
• Chemical dependency;
• Harm to a developing fetus.

It is important to note that people can experience a variety of problems that result from the inappropriate use of alcohol and other drugs, only one of which is dependency or addiction.

Alcohol is an example of a chemical around which there is a great deal of confusion and few generally accepted guidelines for its use. We know that a significant number of people choose to abstain from any alcohol use. There are others who experience alcohol-related problems. Some are alcoholic, others occasionally use alcohol in risky and dangerous ways. Yet there is a large percentage of people that are neither abstainers nor problem/dependent drinkers. These people choose to use alcohol legally, occasionally, moderately and safely. By failing to affirm the safe and appropriate use of alcoholic beverages within the context of chemical health, we have historically created two groups in our society-users and nonusers-and have driven a wedge between them.

One result of this wedge has been the labeling of individuals and their behavior. Nonusers have been referred to as "dry," "winners," "saints," "healthy" and "moral;" users as "wet," "sinners," "losers," "sick" or "immoral." While these labels can sometimes be used to appropriately describe behavior associated with problematic or dependent use of alcohol or to describe some behavior associated with nonuse, these labels are not helpful in describing the behavior of the moderate, occasional and appropriate user. Their alcohol use behavior does not necessarily make them bad or immoral, and they certainly are not all sick or losers. The mere fact that non-users choose not to use alcohol does not necessarily make them saints, moral, healthy or winners. These labels serve as obstacles to open and helpful discussion about the appropriate use and nonuse of alcohol in our society; they interfere with developing clear guidelines for teaching appropriate behavior and providing an objective basis for intervening when someone's behavior is risky, unhealthy or inappropriate.

The concept of "chemical health" allows us to remove the wedge between users and nonusers regrouping nonusers with moderate, occasional, appropriate users. This wedge is replaced with a set of guidelines. People who follow these guidelines may choose to abstain from alcohol or choose to use it legally, occasionally, moderately and safely. All of these people are demonstrating chemically healthy behaviors. The guidelines can also serve as the basis for intervening with people who are using alcohol in a problematic, unhealthy, dangerous or dependent manner.

This is the introduction from the MPRC publication titled, Walking the Talk: A Program for Parents About Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use and Nonuse, c 1996. MPRC can provide facilitators or can train others to facilitate the program. Please call, 1-800-782- 1878 or 763-427-5310.