Quote:
Originally Posted by Papa_Complex
I'm an alcoholic......In the last 30 years I've had maybe 3 beers and no hard liquor. I realized where I was going, when I was 20, and put a stop to it when I saw too much of my father in myself. Every few years I would test myself and say, "Nope, I haven't changed."
So I don't curse the addicts for being addicts. I curse them for not having the balls to walk away.
|
Man hats off to you!
I've seen many people in the last few days trying to equate addiction to a disease, and one even INSISTING it IS a disease and declaring that everyone should "raise awareness" of that "disease".
While I totally agree that awareness is the key, having lost my father to alcoholism I have to totally DISagree on it being a "disease". I don't think anyone with cancer was given a choice to "try it" and then became addicted to it's clutches. I don't recall a single instance where someone encouraged another person to "just try" heart disease.
Addiction has a very distinct beginning, which starts with a CHOICE. You CHOOSE to smoke your first joint. You CHOOSE to
your first line, try your first beer. And just like YOU said, giving IN to that addiction is a CHOICE.
No one CHOOSES to try cancer. And true diseases like cancer are not something that's COMPLETELY preventable (whereas addiction can be prevented by exactly what you said: never starting)
Where we fail those who have fallen into addiction is by attempting to divert the accountability elsewhere. And ironically, that's what's wrong with society as a whole; dodging accountability for your own actions.
When we see addiction tear someone we love more than anything in life apart, it's EASY to attempt to assign blame elsewhere because we want to believe that person couldn't do this themselves...but in the end they DID. Addiction is an effect of a cause. Some causes are deep seeded emotional problem, some are bad wiring, and some come from great physical and emotional abuse. Others are just plain WEAKNESS (p0rn, iPhone, FB, that Mt Dew at 2:30) But there IS a cause, and addiction is the effect.
We're not going to make addiction go away by relocating the blame. We can make it go away by being aware of what the CAUSES are and trying to fix them. Or at least making everyone aware the potential dangers OF addiction to whatever it is that they "haven't found yet"