- Joined
- May 1, 2013
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- 119,657
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- Location
- Outside Seattle
- Gender
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- Political Leaning
- Independent
First of all, the genetic link to addiction is pretty clear. So the "good choices" lots of people make with regard to drinking, for example, is they chose good parents without the genetic predisposition to addiction, same as others without heart disease chose good parents who lived until they're 100.
Second, our little charity that takes in the homeless treats about 100 vets at any given time, and about 70-90% depending on the population have dual diagnoses of mental illness and addiction, and the addiction is properly viewed as a symptom of the untreated mental illness. PTSD is common recently, but it's not confined to that. So our first job in treating them is getting their underlying mental health illness under control - if we don't do that, the addiction will NOT be controlled, period.
There's also a group of young women who I run into sometimes in the community, and some of them are 18, 20, 22, and they've been using drugs for years, but their big "poor choice" was having family that beat and sexually abused them starting as early as age 10, regularly, and the drugs were a way to get some sanity out of a completely f'd up life not of their making.
So, sure, there are lots of addicts who effectively "chose" to be addicts, but the stereotype is at least very often if not usually wrong in any fair analysis. I don't think any of us could walk in some of their shoes and conclude their big problem is their moral weakness. We wouldn't say that about soldiers who fought 3 tours and came back suffering with severe mental illness, but they're in that "addict" category because it's how they self-treat their mental illness. And soldiers aren't the only ones who suffer from PTSD - it's also common in some of the bad inner city neighborhoods wrecked by violent crime. Abuse victims, etc.
And as to 'choosing' to get better, OK, no doubt it takes a commitment on the part of the individual, but the question is the best way to go about it. If it's your husband, calling him a pathetic, morally weak loser who just needs to be a man and quit might work, but the odds are going to be better by treating it as a disease, with treatment, to handle the depression that often follows coming off drugs, get the physical problems including the brain chemistry treated, by professionals, not nagging family members. It's a bit like saying to your diabetic cousin you can CHOOSE to get over your diabetes. No need for doctors - just do it! If it's considered a mental illness, aka a disease, the reasons why someone might not just do it are clear enough. No one responsible would tell someone suffering from severe depression to just FEEL BETTER YOU LOSER!!
Cancer and other diseases....cannot be cured with willpower.
Alcoholism, other addictions...can be cured with willpower.
Nobody says it's easy. It has nothing to do with 'easy.' However, there is *no other cure but personal willpower* and any cancer patient would jump at the chance, pray for the chance, to be able to cure their disease with willpower.