i disagree.....
why does a heroin junky decide to start using heroin, how does he go about doing it?
The motivations for all users are different. One common theme is that they are escaping something. Either emotional pain, depression, and in many cases physical pain.
It's impossible to create a generalized answer to this question because everyone starts and becomes an addict for different reasons.
why does a person with severe pain get perscribed pain killers?
Being prescribed pain killers is a far cry form becoming addicted to pain killers. The main reason for addiction is abuse. Not taking the drug as intended.
Now a more accurate and unbiased question would have been "Why does a person decide to abuse their prescribed medicine?" because there is typically a conscious decision to take the drugs in a way that they were not prescribed. Also, many prescription drug addicts don't have pain, but instead fake it in order to get the drugs simply for the
sake of abusing them.
Most people who are taking pills only for pain will not get an addiction. Addiction develops when a person starts taking the pills for reasons
other than their pain. What motivates these people to do this? The same
exact things as do motivate the heroin addict. There is little psychological difference between the two.
Had the question been phrased correctly, regarding abuse of pain killers instead of use of painkillers (two VASTLY different things), the answer to that would have been:
The motivations for all users are different. One common theme is that they are escaping something. Either emotional pain, depression, and in many cases physical pain.
It's impossible to create a generalized answer to this question because everyone starts and becomes an addict for different reasons.
the addiction is scientifically the same, but i do not think people who get perscribed medication and suffer the side affect of addiction are in the same boat as someone who chooses to do recreational drugs and get addicted.
It is rare that a person who takes these drugs as directed will develop an addiction. Knowing a thing or two about addiction, a person who uses the drugs ass intended will almost never develop a real addiction where they seek out the drugs illegally. This is because, although they may develop the physical addiction, they are unaware of what the causal factors of their withdrawal symptoms are. Once their doctor takes them off of the drug, they stay off of it instead of trying to self-medicate.
Self-medication over various disorders and maladies is a primary causal factor in addiction. Typically both prescription and street drug addicts will have similar psychological disorders such as depression.
There is also a large segment of the prescription drug addicts who "doctor hop" (what Rush was doing) while claiming that they are in "excruciating" pain while in fact all they seek out is the opiate high.
Rush had to have broken the law just as any heroin junkie would have to to maintain the habit. Simply being prescribed the medicine is not enough to achieve addiction. Abuse must occur along the lines. Without discussing with the individual the motivators for that abuse, we cannot determine anything in any direction.
One thing ALL addicts will attempt to do is shirk responsibility away from themselves. But the truth is, even with prescription drug addicts, the sole responisbility to not abuse the drug lies with them.
In reality, they are just as guilty of illegal and negative behavior as any junkie on the street.
now not you. but it seems the same people who say "addiction is a disease" are the same people who do not extend that same statment to Rush because of his politics. this is not only hypocritical, but very telling of thier character or more likley there lack there of.
True.
But conversely, there are double standards throughout the world of addiction. The same people who pity heroin addicts may despise nicotine addicts. Some people demonize one junkie while pitying another based solely on the drug they took.
For me,
all addictions are the same.
Weakness on the part of the addicted. I have sympathy for their weakness, but I cannot stand, absolutely cannot STAND any pansy-assed ****tard who tries to push blame for his/her addiction on everything else or who tries to play the "victim".
To me so long as people push blame outside of themselves they will never get better. They will always revert back to teh drug simply because they will not accept responsibility.
It doesn't matter to me what drug is being discussed. I have sympathy for any drug addict. They end up harmed more than anyone else. But no matter what the drug is, one
must make conscious decisions to maintain addiction. If they don't take responsibility for these decisions and instead seek to excuse their weakness, they are cowards, IMO*.
I look at all addiction, even to legal drugs like alcohol and nicotine, fundamentally the same. In the end, the motivators for each person are their own. What really matters is that for addiction to be formed and maintained, a conscious decision to abuse the drug must be made. That makes all equal in my eyes, from the nicotine fiend to the coke-head-to the heroin addict.
Regarding the simple fact of addiction alone, they are equals in my eyes. What happens in the pursuit of the fix is another story though.
* I'm not accusing Rush of this at all. I have no idea how he described his addiction. Did he play a victim card or did he man up and accept responsibility? This matters a helluva lot more to me than the drug that he got busted for.
If he manned -p and said, "Yes. I was in bad pain, but I made some ****ty choices too and that's how I got to this point. I ****ed up, and I won't let it happen again" I got much respect for the dude.
If he said "It's not my fault! I was in pain!!!", I have none.
IIRC, it was more like the former than the latter in Rush's case, and that warrants respect.