@Lustig Andrei,
Lustig Andrei wrote:
As one who has frequently driven a car while in a state of unfortunate intoxication, but only got convicted of a DUI only, some 17 years ago, I think I may claim expert status in resolving an argument that has cropped up here. To wit, Krumple is right and Chai2 absolutely wrong. As a former alcoholic drunk, I think I can say without fear of condraction that I have never known anyone who intentionally got behind the wheel of a car fully aware that he/she should NOT be driving. People go out for "a few" drinks. By the time they're ready to leave, their judgement is way too badly impaired to allow them to make a rational judgement. They think they can drive just fine. Generally, they never intended to get this drunk to begin with when they left the house.
I am an alcoholic in recovery. I haven't had a drink in 16 years, three months, three days and several hours now. Trust me: I know whereof I speak.
Darlin' I've been sober for for over 24 years, and trust me, I know whereof I speak.
There were Many a times when I g0t in a car, aware I couldn't see straight, and would proceed to joy ride for an hour or so.
My husband, sober over 26 years just walked in the door, and I asked him if he ever got behind the wheel when he knew at that moment he couldn't drive and, well, let me let him say it in his own words....
"Hell yeah I drove when I knew I couldn't, many, many times."
So, I guess there's your contradiction.
That's another of those stories you picked up in AA Andy, where many want to believe they just had no awareness that what they were doing was stupid.
The last time I drank was on 7/20/87. I was fully aware I chose to get behind the wheel of a car and drove through a family neighborhood while God knows how many little kids played in front yards and the street. To make it worse, I had just stopped at a co-workers house, who was a devout Mormon (as was his wife), both of whom had never had a drink in their lives. I was shitfaced and looking at their toddler, and was slammed with the thought that I was looking at a person who was entirely pure, and how polluted I was.
Then I made the decision to get in my car and drive through a bunch of playing kids. I believe the only reason my co-worker didn't stop me was that he really didn't have any experience seeing someone drunk. If I had killed someone, there would have been no excuses, and believe me, don't think that thought doesn't chill me to the bone.
jcboy, my heart goes out to the family of the person killed. I hadn't said anything because I just kept picturing me doing the same thing, and fully knowing if I had hurt or killed someone there would have been absolutely no excuse I could have made.
All this bull about "what if", government restraints, alluding it could have been the dead persons fault has been making me sick to my stomach.
But the buck has to stop here when I hear people saying that the drunk never (or almost never) knows their actions and the consequences.
That's bull.
To me, it's the same thing as someone, male or female, getting ready to go out at night to look for someone to have sex with.
That's not why people ususally go out, but pretending that you just happened to meet someone, and ended up in bed with them, when you knew that's what you wanted by the end of the night, just helps you believe you're not a slut.
People go out all the time knowing they are looking for obliteration via drugs or booze, but admitting that would make them look like a drunk....
Andy, don't tell me you never left the house with the intent to get drunk, so drunk you couldn't drive, yet you knew you'd do it anyway.
I don't know what's going to happen to Thom, my heart really goes out to him as well. But especially the dead guy and his family.
You never know when you walk out the front door if you're going to be back.
