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neverheardofem
Joined: 29 Feb 2012
Posts: 100
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 Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:25 am Post subject: Alcoholism and visa |
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I'm an alcoholic and recently had a relapse which made it necessary to come home (hopefully) temporarily as they just don't seem to have the facilities and medication to deal with it in China. Anyway, I'm well on my way back to recovery again. I think/hope my employer will take me back but will the visa authorities reject me (my visa is up for renewal soon) on the basis of my condition? My liver is not permanently damaged but was not in a good state according to the last blood test results (though should be improved now)
Does anyone know anything about this? I'm really worried! |
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Shanghai Noon
Joined: 18 Aug 2013
Posts: 589
Location: Shanghai, China
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| Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:45 am Post subject: |
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| Only if you need a medical exam, and even then it's a definite maybe. Was your FEC canceled? If it was not canceled then you won't even need a medical exam. The medical exam does test ALT levels, but the doctor would have no way of knowing if it is from drinking or something else. Apparently if you quit drinking for three months your ALT levels go back to normal. Have you quit drinking? If so, how long ago? |
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neverheardofem
Joined: 29 Feb 2012
Posts: 100
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| Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:56 am Post subject: |
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| My FEC is not cancelled but I only quit 9 days ago so my blood tests will be improved but definitely not back to normal. I'm just wondering if my visa renewal will be rejected on the basis of abnormal ALT and ALS levels if they do demand tests (as they know I had to leave temporarily because of my relapse) |
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Shanghai Noon
Joined: 18 Aug 2013
Posts: 589
Location: Shanghai, China
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| Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:04 am Post subject: |
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| Who's "they"? The Chinese government will not demand tests for an FEC renewal. Your employer probably doesn't even know what ALT is. |
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Babala
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 1303
Location: Henan
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| Is China really the best place for you? I'm not trying to be nasty but I think that China can be a difficult place if you already struggle with a drinking problem. |
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neverheardofem
Joined: 29 Feb 2012
Posts: 100
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:48 am Post subject: |
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| Believe me, any place is a struggle when you have a drinking problem! It doesn't have anything to do with location. |
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murray1978
Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 84
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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First, I hope you beat this disease. However, I think you are endangering yourself by living in a country that has a drinking culture. I had a friend of mine that was an alcoholic and he went to China after torpedoing his career due to booze in Korea. He ended up drinking himself into a coma.
I hope that you would reconsider and return home for help. You are putting your school and students in a bad spot. Don't you think it would be unfair to work for a school under your condition? What happens when you relapse and you aren't at work? When you have to leave for rehab?
I am not judging you but you have to realize that your addiction affects everyone. |
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The_Kong
Joined: 15 Apr 2014
Posts: 349
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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| murray1978 wrote: |
First, I hope you beat this disease. However, I think you are endangering yourself by living in a country that has a drinking culture. I had a friend of mine that was an alcoholic and he went to China after torpedoing his career due to booze in Korea. He ended up drinking himself into a coma.
I hope that you would reconsider and return home for help. You are putting your school and students in a bad spot. Don't you think it would be unfair to work for a school under your condition? What happens when you relapse and you aren't at work? When you have to leave for rehab?
I am not judging you but you have to realize that your addiction affects everyone. |
Yeah, China is definitely not the place for a recently recovering alcoholic. |
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buravirgil
Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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Given an acceptance an addiction can be managed as a disease (as it greatly is), citing any culture's lax attitude toward alcohol is erroneous. A case in point are the number of expats that come to the Middle East believing they'll be spared a temptation without having accepted and exercised a protocol to manage their addiction to discover procuring alcohol isn't difficult and summarily backslide.
In my view, a couple of posters aren't demonstrating a knowledge of AA and programs like it (those without "higher power" language). My challenge to the OP would be in regard to a sponsor, and with what rapidity they've claimed sobriety. |
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Shanghai Noon
Joined: 18 Aug 2013
Posts: 589
Location: Shanghai, China
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| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:48 am Post subject: |
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Guys, there's no need to lecture. The OP already relapsed once in China. He knows exactly what he's getting himself into. For all we know, his home country might even be worse. I was in Croatia last Summer and I have never seen a bar so full at 9:00AM.
neverheardofem, when does your visa expire? You will need to come back to China to renew it if it was issued in China. |
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JB140767
Joined: 09 Aug 2015
Posts: 135
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| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 1:05 am Post subject: |
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| Babala wrote: |
| Is China really the best place for you? I'm not trying to be nasty but I think that China can be a difficult place if you already struggle with a drinking problem. |
Not at all, quite the opposite - it's soo damn cheap! Alcoholism is a state of mind, by Pansy assed American terms most of the people I know are raving alcoholics, by Irish terms we are lightweight occasional tipplers |
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Babala
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 1303
Location: Henan
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| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:37 am Post subject: |
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| Is your school willing to take you back? I think the medical will really be a non-issue but the school's attitude towards you is the real game changer. |
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mysterytrain
Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 366
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| Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 9:45 am Post subject: |
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| Babala wrote: |
| Is China really the best place for you? I'm not trying to be nasty but I think that China can be a difficult place if you already struggle with a drinking problem. |
I have to second this comment, though I wish the OP the best whatever he (or she) chooses to do or try to do. China seems to be quite the drinker''s playground for FT's, in my limited experience, and I'm not sure it is the best place to be, especially for someone who's just been forced to leave the country because of a drinking problem.
Sure, it's true that many FT's come to China from home countries where the drinking culture is as prevalent or even more so, but the conditions for foreigners here, who often have a considerable amount of "disposable" income even on relatively low salaries (since most of them are not spending money for rent, etc), often seem to "encourage" such behaviors to become more extreme, and I think this may be so especially for younger adults (no, I don't know the OP's age, just a general comment). Factor in "culture shock" or relative social isolation, lack of a real network of family and / or (long-term) friends, the local drinking culture and the fact that many if not most FT's are merrily indulging to beat the band.
I am probably a pretty rare case myself, since after almost three decades of heavy / self-abusive alcohol consumption in my home country, I actually started drinking less after I came to China at the age of forty five. In fact, I became basically a "social drinker" in China, since I rarely tippled more than a beer or two alone but only drank either on nights out or card game nights with other FT's, or at the numerous mandatory banquets and dinners connected to the school ("here's to you, Mister Shu: as you're a regular fellow and generally quite mellow ... etc ... gan bei!") while I had largely been a solitary drinker at home.
(My smoking habit - that's tobacco, kids - on the other foot, increased considerably after I came here. I became a chain-smoker, in fact. I remember once going through a whole pack on a beer night with friends in less than three hours, and starting another ... and that was just by myself, not sharing them out. So I say, god-damn, god-damn the pusher). 
The question of whether your employer wants to take you back or not is certainly important here, and like others have said, should probably be a bigger concern than the medical check. I would imagine it largely depends on their level of desperation for an FT, or lack thereof. Were you generally considered a decent-to-good or reliable teacher prior to your sudden (?) implosion? If so, and if they don't have many other prospects knocking on the door, they may be quite willing to take you back, but if they have any better prospects ... well, what would you do in their place?
One of my former colleagues was well-known by the school, including the leaders and students, as the biggest boozehound of the lot of us, but he was also considered as one of the best teachers, and he never came to class under the influence, so his out-of-class antics were tolerated and largely ignored. I'm sure that sort of scenario is repeated over and over daily in China, but the story doesn't have a very happy end (at least not so far): a couple of years ago he had a bad fall - no doubt directly related to an alcohol-fueled adventure of some sort - basically broke his back, had to be medivac'd back to the UK and has been there ever since, in PT, staying in a council flat and still hoping to get well enough to come back to China where he is essentially engaged to a local girl. It is a matter of speculation and a moot point, at least for now, whether he will ever get a Z visa again, and I'm not betting one way or another. And again, similar stories have surely played out countless times with other foreign experts.
Think about this: if you come back, will it be easy for you to stay away from other FT's - or Chinese friends - as far as drinking or potential drinking situations are concerned? Do you think your surroundings in China would be a less tempting environment than staying in your home country / town? Do you think you can get adequate support in China if you are really serious about staying sober? I assume you are thinking about these questions, and probably haven't got all the answers just yet, so keep thinking and take care of your immediate needs first: get well. |
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dean_a_jones
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 1151
Location: Wuhan, China
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| Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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While I agree that China is a bit of a nightmare for drinking, and it is very common to find teachers who have allowed their drinking to get out of control here due to social/cultural enablers, I also agree with the person who pointed out that the OP has been here once already, and relapsed here, and therefore knows pretty much what they are getting into and are making their choices based on this. While the social scene (expat especially) does tend to be heavily based around drinking, it doesn't have to. Also the local drinking culture tends to be situated around eating (unless you are into KTV, which seems to suck in more business people without choice rather than teachers), and I have rarely encountered people here who don't accept it if you say you are not a drinker at a meal (occasionally pushy people but never usually that hard to deflect). Also many schools probably find it refreshing when they hire a teacher who doesn't drink heavily and have all the knock-on effects that tends to result in when it comes to their job. I know back home in the UK, where the drinking culture is one of the main social activities and it doesn't tend to revolve around food at the same time, it can be a bit boring to participate if you don't drink and a bit challenging socially if you chose not to participate.
In terms of the visa situation--OP, when you left, did you do so with your school's permission? Did they then cancel your residency permit (i.e. you handed in your passport and had it changed to a tourist visa then exited)? You say you think they will have you back, so I assume even if they did cancel it, they did so on good terms much like you would someone who had to return home for a family emergency. So this should hopefully not be a problem applying for a new one. You will need to go through the same medical tests, likely at home and on arrival, as you did the first time. I have not heard of anyone who has been declined due to health issues of this type thus far (same with people who have severe obesity and related health issues) so I would think it shouldn't be a problem either. I guess you never know until you go through it all, though. The way you worded it in your post, it sounds like they might not have even cancelled your residency permit, in which case I guess you can just enter as usual (like coming back from a longer holiday break), and renew as usual, not needing any kind of medical test. If it didn't get cancelled then why you were gone would only be information known by you and your school, so would have no impact on an RP renewal.
Anyway OP hopefully it all works out for you and, most importantly, you stay clean this time around. |
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murray1978
Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 84
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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Personally, I think it is a bad idea to be teaching while you are trying to get your disease under control. You relapsed once and my worry would be this happening again.
Why don't you stay home and take care of yourself instead of putting yourself in danger or potentially ruining your school's reputation? |
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