By Thea Jarvis

Alcohol is the substance most commonly abused by adults and young people, speaker Pat Patterson told participants in a morning workshop at the 35th annual Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women’s convention October 12.

The three-day convention, held at the Sheraton Inn in East Point, drew some 120 people and featured Saturday workshops which addressed issues of family health crises, leadership, chemical dependency and abuse of the elderly.

Mr. Patterson, formerly a Methodist youth minister and drug and alcohol counselor at Charter Brook Hospital in Atlanta, told workshop participants that while cocaine and amphetamine usage is down, marijuana abuse continues and alcohol remains the drug of choice for many.

The disease of alcoholism involves “a deficiency in enzyme production which causes an allergic reaction to alcohol,” Patterson explained. Missing liver enzymes mean it takes longer for alcohol to be broken down from the acetone stage in the body. The presence of acetone creates a craving for alcohol that grows as more and more alcohol is ingested over time.

For the alcoholic, having a drink isn’t a leisurely, relaxing affair, Patterson said, but “can be an intense bodily craving,” a physical effect that “has nothing to do with ethics or morality.”

Patterson, 38, a recovering alcoholic who is grateful for his three and a half years of sobriety, has a degree in community counseling from Georgia State University and is a middle school counselor in the Cherokee County school system. A husband and father of two children, he is acutely aware of the agony the alcoholic goes through each time he chooses to drink.

“This time I can do it and it won’t hurt me,” the problem drinker must convince himself. “This time I can control my drinking.”

The opposite, of course, is true, Patterson said. Instead of exercising control over his drinking, the alcohol becomes increasingly dependent upon the substance just to feel “normal.” Patterson’s own memory of his last “drink” involved consumption of over a case and a half of beer.

Although an alcoholic can offer all kinds of reasons for imbibing – a hot day, a good party, the blues, good news, family and job pressures – he “really doesn’t have a clue as to why he drinks so much,” Patterson explained. Telling a binge drinker or daily abuser to “quit and stay quit,” to give up alcohol for at least a year doesn’t help, since the problem drinker has lost control over his addiction.

The power of God in one’s life is “the only way I know of” to reach sobriety, he said. “Once you’re in the cycle (of abuse and addiction) it requires divine intervention” to be released.

Patterson cited the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as powerful tools in the recovery process. Using the steps means admitting personal powerlessness over alcohol and relying upon God’s help for release.

The steps offer helping the ongoing process of recovery as well, he said, including self-inventory and amends to those the recovering person has hurt.

The steps are “a specific technology that’s available for recovery,” said Patterson, and “it works.”

Charlee Lambert, executive director of the Council on Elder Abuse and Neglect in Decatur, said alcohol and drug use is a chief cause of mistreatment in the elderly clients she sees.

Ms. Lambert, who gave an afternoon workshop on ways older people can avoid becoming victims, said middle-aged substance abusers and mentally ill who are caretakers or relatives of the elderly often victimize those in their care. She estimates that like child abuse, abuse of the elderly is in the four to 10 percent range.

“We have a whole group of mothers out there who have to live where they can’t be found by their children because they’ve tried to kill them,” she said.

Ms. Lambert, 69, often counsels those younger than herself. An active, independent woman who cares for her own mother, she advised people to plan carefully for their older years, to confront the aging process with a dose of reality, not denial.

“A productively aging person is not apt to be abused,” she said. “We need to give an aura of non-vulnerability” to prevent victimization.

“It may not be our luck to drop dead on the golf course or in the okra patch,” she said with a smile. “We’re all going to be victims if we’re not careful.”

The AACCW Saturday workshops were well-attended and well-received, the quality of the speakers adding an educational dimension to the social, spiritual and organizational parts of the weekend.

On Saturday evening, AACCW members and guests enjoyed a banquet in the Sheraton’s Georgia Ballroom. Keynote speaker Gregory Colson, director of choral music at Georgia Tech University, discussed and demonstrated a variety of musical styles and obliged the audience by playing their requests.

At a Sunday brunch following morning Mass with Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, Sister Charlene Walsh, RSM, suggested that, like the woman at the well who had encountered Jesus and invited others to “Come and see,” sharing the Good News means “we must reflect with (others) on our experience and how the Gospel makes sense of our experience.”

The convention theme, “Sharing the Light of Faith,” implies sharing the darkness and doubt as well as the light, she said, since these experiences are invitations to deeper faith.

“Living the light of faith is praying for wisdom, living the light of faith is letting the word of God penetrate your soul and body. Living the light of faith is humbly accepting the loving help of God because Jesus promises it,” in his homily, “and because there is really nothing else to do.”