alcoholic and addict and a sick fuck

The identification ritual absorbing even this — the meeting's opening formula ("I'm X, alcoholic") stretched to fit a man who adds "and a sick fuck" and gets a laughing "You definitely are" from the room. The program's first move is naming what you are out loud to people who already know, and the tic-riddled, self-lacerating version Mikey brings to the podium is received not with shock but with recognition; the machinery is built exactly to metabolize this.