Dubai: Gathering quietly in a secluded room above a Oud Metha café are people from every corner of the globe and from all walks of life — but they all have one thing in common. They are alcoholics.
Alcoholism is an illness that everyone has experienced in some way or another.
“If someone says they do not know an alcoholic, they are lying,” Charlie says. He has been a sober alcoholic for the past eight years and attends Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting regularly.
AA is a fellowship for alcoholics to cope with day-to-day life and find sobriety with the help of others afflicted with the illness. It’s the common ground that brings them together — it allows for understanding and openness while completing AA’s 12 step programme.
More than 30 years ago, Dubai was the first city to hold AA meetings in the UAE.
Stepping into an AA meeting is like jumping on an emotional rollercoaster — there are the highs of the acceptance, warmth, and even laughter at times but then there are the lows of the struggles and the shear number of people affected by the bottle.
But above all, there is no judgement and no prejudice — only warm smiles, inviting nods, and a respectful silence.
Charlie explained that Dubai has more meetings than elsewhere in the UAE because the fellowship is made up mostly of expats from Europe, Australia, North America, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Because of the make-up of Abu Dhabi, there are fewer expats from these nationalities,
If only getting sober was as easy as showing up to a few meetings. It’s not. Alcoholics attend AA for decades and alcoholism is a disease that lasts a lifetime. For them, there is no cure — just a constant struggle to stay dry day by day.
“Unless you have that profound change in your personality, you won’t stop drinking,” Charlie explains.
It is a fight against ego, a struggle to remain humble, an addiction that needs to be confronted daily. And, according to Charlie, you can be sure that a sober alcoholic is someone who has developed — with the help of AA — a very strong and controlled mind.
There are preventive measures that can be taken. Dr Gregor Kowal, a senior consultant in psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Clinic for Health and Medical Care in Dubai, urges anyone with a psychological affliction — even a temporary bout of depression — to refrain from drinking.
“If you like alcohol, don’t drink it,” Kowal said. “You can cross the boarder to addiction very easily. If I have a patient that is depressed and he is having two glasses of wine in a day, I will tell him: ‘Please, stop. You are too vulnerable’.”
He explained that when it comes to alcohol addiction, most people — the majority who don’t suffer from personality disorders — are susceptible to the illness. And, worryingly, “95 per cent of the time, they are people like you and me,” Kowal said.
And once you have had an alcohol addiction, you won’t be able to drink again. Kowal says that even a small chocolate flavoured alcohol can open the door for relapse.
For someone with a serious addiction who is drinking a bottle of spirits everyday, this will mean intensive physical and psycho therapy that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Symptoms like disorientation, tremors, hallucinations, and claustrophobia can be part of a three to four week detox from booze.
“The second step is psychotherapy,” Kowal says. “Learning about the cravings, the addiction, and how to control it. In most of the cases, after three to four months of treatment, the patient will be released and he will continue to visit. They should visit AA groups. The psychological effects of alcohol are a lifelong phenomena.”
—The writer is an intern at Gulf News
