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Show ! : . I : - - .- - . - I Ax Dear John Letters This column is presented as a community service of Charter Summit Hospital and is written by John Waterbury, Director of Chemical Dependency Services. John has a B. A. in sociology, a Masters of Rehabilitation Counseling and has been counseling the chemically dependent for over 15 years. Letters or responses may be sent to him at: Charter Summit Hospital 175 West 7200 South, Midvale, Utah 84047 561-8181 lessen the gulf, to provide the necessary assistance to those whose lives are out of control. It was not meant to categorize them as "undesirables." Whenever we categorize people, everyone loses. Specifically, Specifical-ly, categorizing people results in making assumptions, and those assumptions are often inaccurate. When our assumptions are wrong, our perception is wrong. And when our perception is wrong, we tend to get sick (negative, critical, and rigid). The result is a continuation of self-defeating behavior in which we build barriers that cause additional pain and confusion. When it comes to categorizing people, the following poem by Shel Silverstein says it all very clearly: I asked the zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or are you quiet with noisy times? Are you happy with some sad days? Or are you sad with some happy days? Are you neat with some sloppy ways ? Or are you sloppy with some neat ways? And on and on and on and on and on and on he went. I'll never ask a zebra about stripes again. By John Waterbury Dear John, I appreciate all you do to alert the community to the problems of having so many alcoholics and drug addicts around us. It's a ; shame that we live in a world where we have to tolerate those kinds of people . I wish we could identify them more easily so we ! could keep our families away from them. They are a menace and j we should do everything in our power to alleviate such problems and people. Go Get 'em Dear Go Get 'em, As the warden said in the movie "Cool Hand Luke," what we have here is a failure to communicate. And as the old saying goes, I know you understand what you think I say, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. Let me clarify. It is important to be able to identify the signs and symptoms of chemical dependency in order that we might be able to deal with the problems more effectively. Too often, because of our lack of accurate information, we inadvertently make the problems even worse by ignoring them, rationalizing them, and enabling the unhealthy behavior. But the goal of providing the specific information mentioned above was not to create a greater gulf between those who are chemically dependent and those who are not. It was intended to |