Doc Warren

In High School my Construction Technology teacher shared a story about something that happened in the field; it illustrated the need to stay calm under pressure. He was working a steep pitched roof with a coworker. He was installing the shingles while the co worker made any custom cuts that were needed. A slip of the knife caused a very deep laceration which triggered shock and then panic in the co worker. Stuck on the roof with his bleeding friend with no one around (and before the days of cell phones) he had to think fast in order to save his friend’s life. Unable to get him off the roof by himself, he tore fabric from a shirt and wrapped the wound. Unable to leave him while he was thrashing about while in shock for fear that he could fall off the roof; he literally nailed his friend’s clothing to the roof so he could not fall off. He then climbed off the roof and found help. Due to the calm but quick response, the hand and life were saved.

Those of you who specialize or have had training in substance abuse likely know what the above capitalized letters reference, those without such training may not and it is a shame as they have so much to offer not only our clients who are battling with addiction but most everyone we treat not to mention ourselves. HALT stands for never letting yourself get too: Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. PPT’s remind us that we need to examine and monitor the People, Places and Things that we get or are involved with. Are they helpful or harmful to us?

Imagine my surprise when I learned this weekend that all the training I have had regarding birth control and pregnancy was wrong. It appears that a politician who sits on of all things a science committee knows that a woman’s body has a natural defense against pregnancy IF she is LEGITIMATELY raped. I am not sure how the body knows the difference between legitimate and illegitimate rape (is there such a thing?) but somehow it just does, end of story. If she gets pregnant then it must not have been legitimate rape. I guess that would prove her a liar and the person arrested for the crime would be owed an apology, released from jail and given liberal visitation rights, that is IF the liar is even fit to have contact with the child at all; perhaps he would get full custody? It kind of reminds me of the old way of identifying witches, if she survived the drowning she was a witch and should be put to death, if she drowned, she was innocent but unfortunately dead.

I am not one that ever wanted to be classified as a psychometrician though I did study school psychology and have done my share of testing. It’s funny though that in so many of the psychometric protocols they use the term “normative range” to define behavior that was normal, abhorrent, adjusted, maladjusted, average etc. I remember those days and just had a thought. In light of today’s social and political climate, the back stabbing, back biting, viciousness, endless lies and innuendo compounded by years of “reality” tv shows and the glorification of people who you would never want to live in your neighborhood (planet?) that perhaps we need to take another look at these instruments to make sure that they in fact reflect society standards. I imagined a few scenarios and wanted to share one of them.

By now you have either experienced (as I have) or have heard about the “debacle” that was the release of the acceptance and rejection letters for the ACA conference next year. If you haven’t here it is in a nutshell: there was a mistake where 700 or so acceptance letters were sent out for proposals that for whatever reason were not really accepted to present at the conference next year. As one of those who received the letter and the resultant elation followed by the “crush of defeat” in learning that they were not actually accepted, I can tell you that in layman’s terms, it sucked; it sucked big time but let’s put things in perspective here. Nothing was taken away except the excitement that we had from thinking we had been accepted. We had not been accepted in the first place, so there was no real demotion or anything personally against us. It was simply a mistake.