For those of you who have now watched the entire season, do you think he is really an alcoholic? Since he took the fall for his wife for the accident, him being an alcoholic could very well just be a cover. What do you guys think?
shareI don't think he ever was. He is a pathological liar.
share"He is a pathological liar."
who like all people has good qualities , helping others in AA and bad qualities , lying selfish , blackmailer ...etc
The basic definition is loss of control and continued drinking despite negative consequences. I don't drink because I couldn't control where it would stop. There were no brakes on my shortcomings and character defects. If I don't drink, I don't act on those impulses, and over time I have fewer and fewer of those impulses, progress not perfection. A character like Chip is what we call a dry drunk, even when not drinking they still behave as if they are, lying, stealing, cheating, etc. I get the impression that Chip may have had a good period of quality sobriety where he earned a reputation within the group, but that over the last 18 months as he was approaching the end of the 10 year agreement that he has been slipping into old behavior (although if you are still doing it, it isn't old behavior). Dennis and George probably didn't see this gradual shift, and they could have introduced a character who has been away for the last few years who could have said "what in heck is going on with Chip?" Did they ever say how much time Dennis had? I guess enough because he did mention that Chip hadn't sponsored in awhile, and then added the quip of "a guy too." That is a very deep inside joke.
I think my percentage of Chimp DNA is higher than others. Cleaver Greene
We have no reason to believe that Chip ever had a drinking problem. He is a narcissistic liar who thrives on the attention and props he gets through AA and the subsistence support he gets for the lie he continues to uphold. One doesn't have to be an alcoholic to lie, cheat, and/or steal. Some people are just bastards.
shareyou have a drinking problem when you are b reading into your friends wine cellar and are drinking his 1k a bottle wine , yes he has, inter alia , a drinking problem
shareOr maybe he did that because he couldn't exactly be seen buying wine at the grocery store in a tight knit community.... And couldn't drink the cheaper wine because that was the wine for Dennis to take to his job. I don't think he has a drinking problem. To me someone sipping a little bit of wine out of a Nalgene bottle isn't a drinking problem. We never saw him drink to excess, drink to get drunk, get carried away, make poor decisions because of the drinking, etc.
shareAlcoholism (and all the other isms) isn't just about how much, but rather the effect it has on a person. In some, drinking precedes the bad behavior, while in others drinking is the response to bad behavior (alleviating guilt, etc). Alcohol is only mentioned in the first half of the first step. The rest is about making a commitment to leading a better life, cleaning house, and maintaining the lifestyle by helping others. The only reason for all the different flavors of 12 step programs is so that the newcomer can identify with a group of people who were at one time like that person is right now, which forms the basis of a faith that things can get better. After 6 months or so of clean time, pretty much every 12 step program is the same with regard to what has to be done.
http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-10_howitworks.pdf
We don't know the extent of Chip's drinking 10 years ago. He obviously failed a breathalyzer test at the time of the accident even if he wasn't behind the wheel at the time. But what we do see in the present are a whole constellation of character defects and shortcomings: stealing, lying, using people, etc. He is definitely in relapse mode, and in some people it is the personal behavior which leads to drinking, whereas in others it is the drinking which leads to them living out previous behaviors. Relapses happen in many forms. Not all of them are full out blotto drunken debacles. My take on Chip is that he is using alcohol to "take the edge off." Of course, in a progressive disease, the edge keeps getting further and further away. Just ask any chronic pain patient/future drug addict how that 3 pills a day became a 50 pill a day habit. I have never encountered anyone who got to AA by mistake. I have seen some who got there perhaps a bit too early in their drinking career and didn't stick around, and many who left too soon before they got the message. If Chip got there and stayed, it had to be for a reason.
If recovery is being done well, the "what it is like now" part is really pretty boring. Get up, go to work, take care of kids, pay bills, etc. That makes for pretty boring TV, and sadly TV gives the impression that recovery doesn't work because the only recovery stories we hear are the ones full of drama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGLzpt3caHw
The guy who gets drunk and kills someone with his car makes the paper, but the 99 who stayed sober that day don't end up on the front page.
I think my percentage of Chimp DNA is higher than others. Cleaver Greene
I'm going with the "he couldn't exactly be seen buying alcohol locally and can't drive to go farther to buy it" theory behind the stolen wine.
Not to take anyone's inventory for them, but... 😉 My challenge with many alcoholics is that they tend to think that everyone is an alcoholic. Don't drink? Alcoholic. Drink occasionally? Alcoholic. Drink every weekend? Alcoholic. Not everyone in the world is an alcoholic.
Yes, he had been drinking the night of the accident. He took the blame and was court ordered into program. He is narcissist who revels in the attention he gets for being so great at "recovery": "Gosh, he is so honest about his downfall and guilt." "Wow! Look at how strong he is in his program!" "I am so impressed by the way he continues to overcome his past." Okay, those aren't real quotes, but they might as well be as he is all but a folk hero in his chapter.
I personally don't think that he is an alcoholic, just an a**hole.
My challenge with many alcoholics is that they tend to think that everyone is an alcoholic.
Kudos on the sustained recovery. My bestie has 25 years and her approach sound similar to yours. She says you can only really focus on your own behaviour and provide support when asked (when someone is not ready, they are not ready).
My comment with regard to buying alcohol locally was aimed at his keeping the drinking on the down low. In order to maintain his status as a recovery master. Though "relapse" very well might be his only viable play in the second season if the his friend spreads the story of his not actually have been the driver.
Yes, he had been drinking the night of the accident.
Well, You are right that I made an assumption that there would have had to have been a breathalyzer or blood test showing blood alcohol in order for the state to have had a case for a drunk driving conviction. Otherwise there would have been no evidence of the drinking. And here I am making an assumption that there was a conviction in that he says that he has paid his debt to society.
shareHe isn't an addict. He got caught 'drink driving' resulting in an accident that killed someone. Unless I missed it. His AA meetings where court mandated. He used this as his excuse for lying and feeling superior to others. An addict would not drink a swig of red wine once a day.
shareI thought they mentioned multiple dwi's. Also he had to be drunk to take the fall for Tilly just not the driver.
shareThis is a brilliant and insightful post. My thought was that if he was an alcoholic, he DEFINITELY wouldn't be able to take a few drinks and put the wine back in the fridge. For a true alcoholic, this would NEVER happen. One drink would lead to many more, which would lead to getting drunk and usually doing something stupid. I noticed in one episode that he took a sip or two, put it back and then went out to run errands on his bike. Again, an alcoholic would NEVER do this.
I believe you've hit the nail on the head. He's used that excuse for years, but only in the effort to cover up the accident, which was supposed to set him up at his "stool store".
Bravo, by the way. Even though I had those thoughts, I never put two and two together. I simply questioned it.