Doug Thorburn, addiction expert, addiction contrarian and author of the recently released ?Alcoholism: Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society?s Most Destructive Disease,? slams Octomom Nadya Suleman in his March/April ?Thorburn Addiction Report.? Thorburn, a contrarian in terms of the prevailing opinions on addiction, lays out a precise and hard-hitting piece about the twisted nature of this confused woman's thinking.
Below is the Top Story from the March April TAR, better known as the Thorburn Addiction Report, which includes a host of interesting sections like Enabler of the Month, Under Watch, Book Reviews and others.
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Octomom?s confabulated thinking suggests addiction
Confabulation is described in Wikipedia as ?the formation of false memories, perceptions, or beliefs about the self or the environment as a result of neurological or psychological dysfunction.? The source of most such dysfunction is psychotropic drug addiction, involving the repeated use of drugs capable of causing distortions of perception, memory and beliefs. Journalists usually look for addiction last. It should be first, particularly when ?confabulation? is combined with bizarre behavior.
Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in late January, has been in the headlines ever since. Most shake their heads and wonder, ?What?s she thinking?? Many figure she?s simply irresponsible. Those who understand addiction might instead ask, ?What is she on?? Addiction to psychotropic drugs, probably pain pills, best explains (but does not excuse) Suleman?s thinking, which manifests in irresponsible behaviors, including bringing eight innocent children into the world while utterly incapable of caring for them.
The 33-year-old single mother of 14 children, all under the age of seven, has no job. Even before having the octuplets, Suleman was receiving $490 monthly in food stamps and three of her children were receiving Social Security income totaling almost $2,400 per month due to various disabilities. She insists she can raise her huge family without welfare, apparently oblivious to the idea that the food stamps and Medicaid upon which she relies is welfare in principle if not in name. While she owes $50,000 in student loans, she intends to use more such loans to ?make ends meet? until she finishes her masters degree in?get this?psychology. She thinks she?ll be able to support the children after she graduates. All of these qualify as false perceptions and beliefs about herself and her environment.
The delivery of her eight babies, a result of in-vitro fertilization requiring a team of 46 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, ran an estimated $1.3 million. The babies, residing in Kaiser Permanente hospital?s neonatal intensive care unit, are running up an additional tab of an estimated $10,000 per day, expected to be paid by California?s taxpayers via Medicaid.
Suleman told NBC?s Ann Curry that she?s not seeking a public handout and said, ?I?m not receiving help from the government.? Yet, since 1999, such handouts are all she has lived on. ?I?m not living off any taxpayer money,? she said. What are food stamps? What is Medicaid? What are Social Security disability payments? What is government schooling? Regardless of whether one believes in the system, the idea that these are not government handouts flies in the face of reality and, therefore, qualifies as confabulated thinking.
Suleman suffered a back injury while working as a psychiatric technician at a state mental hospital in 1999. She received almost $170,000 in workers? compensation between 2000 and 2008. Rather than using the funds to support her family, she paid for several in-vitro procedures, each of which is estimated to cost upwards of $10,000 to $30,000, and botched lip augmentation, which when done right can run a few thousand dollars. And that?s only what we know about?tummy tucks and breast augmentations would be less evident. Her parents, Ed and Angela Suleman, lent her money and paid the bills out of concern for their six grandchildren. As a result, she declared bankruptcy last year, already lost one home and is about to lose another. Angela says that Nadya promised she?d help with the mortgage payments, but never has.
Suleman?s response to comments that she is being irresponsible for bringing so many children into the world without adequate income is a classic in the annals of distorted perceptions. ?No. I am not being selfish?If I were (sic) just sitting down watching TV and not being as determined as I am to succeed and provide a better future for my children, I believe that would be considered to a certain degree selfish.?
Suleman?s ex-husband, Marcos Gutierrez, said that Nadya ?is a person with a great heart?She?s a nice person, with great love for her kids.? The real Nadya Suleman may well love her children. However, life is obviously all about her. She is the center of her universe and ours. The best explanation for the seeming contradiction is that Suleman?s perceptions are distorted due to psychotropic drug addiction?probably to pain medications such as Oxycontin or Vicodin for her back injury (how else could she have withstood multiple pregnancies, including one with octuplets?).
The idea that behaviors often provide the first and best clues to alcohol or other-drug addiction was proposed in my book, Drunks, Drugs & Debits. The premise that assuming addiction gives the benefit of the doubt, because if it?s not addiction the person under scrutiny is fundamentally rotten, was made clear in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics. As explained in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, while environment, circumstance and Psychological Type all have a play in determining the form that addiction takes, when inexplicable behaviors are evident addiction is usually the root cause. In this spirit, we should assume that Nadya Suleman?s confabulated thinking and beliefs, which have resulted in an extraordinary burden on society with potentially tragic results, are the result of psychotropic drug addiction.
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