The Life of an Addict
- Thread starter Chasey_Lane
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acommondisaster
Active Member
There are both al-anon and narc-anon meetings.
acommondisaster
Active Member
Not sure where you got your PHD in smartass, but you need to get in touch with the professionals who will tell you that what actually triggers addiction and changes the brain chemistry for some people and not others is not known and can't be identified before xyz is prescribed. I'm sure you can cure the world of addiction with your answer and we can move on to bigger things like the melting ice caps.
acommondisaster
Active Member
I love you, and hope you and your loved one finds peace soon.
This. I know what you're going through - counseling/support for yourself does help. Don't give up if the first place isn't a good fit. Do you know there's a local group (southern maryland) that meets about once a month as well - it's a grassroots group started by some parents of addicts. If you want, I'll PM you with the info - I believe they're having a meeting in Benedict this month.
MarieB
New Member
Agree with this about not giving up if a certain group isn't a good fit. It's been twenty+ years ago and not here, but I went to several groups until I found one that i was comfortable with. With the Internet there are many more resources now too. Agree that individual counseling in addition is also great for some people. It's not a one sized fits all.
Hugs to you
Bann
Doris Day meets Lady Gaga
It's called ignorance and it's an epidemic.
I don't think people understand that there are users and then their are addicts. Just as there are people who dirnk to excess and there are alcoholics.
The user / drinker can control their use, they can function normally. Addicts and alcoholics on the other hand not only destroy their life, they take down the entire familiy, emotionally, physically and financially. They may appear to the casual observer to be functioning, but co-workers, family and close friends know there is a problem.
We are on the verge of getting legal marjjuana, it's not popular in the AA / NA community. They see it as a gateway drug because it's the drug they believe their addict started with. There are some studies now linking adiction and alcoholism with mental illness. The untreated/ undiagnosed mental illness was there before the adiction.
What the high and mighty don't want to accept is that while the "first" is a choice, everything there after is not. These same people would probably invite an alcoholic to a bar and offer them a drink thinking they could have just one.
This is an important distinction and people throw the term "addict" around willy nilly about anything they disapprove of. Smoking, for example. Just because you smoke cigarettes occasionally doesn't mean you are addicted to nicotine. In fact, by the very fact that you only partake every now and then it would mean you are NOT an addict.
Same with drugs. If you snort coke maybe a couple times a year, are you addicted? Of course not. If you have to be high all the time in order to "function", NOW you are in addict territory.
As far as marijuana being a "gateway drug", I'm not sure I agree with that. Just because you started with one substance doesn't mean it moved you toward others. Your average teenager almost certainly starts with pot - that's usually all they can afford, it's easy to get, and it's a relatively harmless high. Many, if not most, teen pot smokers won't go on to harder drugs, and of those who do try harder drugs many if not most will not become addicted. (That's depending on the drug, of course, because some are more addictive than others.) If someone becomes an addict, you could just as easily blame beer as the gateway since most of them probably drank a beer prior to mainlining heroin.
But I'm okay with being wrong about that because I might be misunderstanding what is meant by "gateway drug". As far as alcoholism/addiction being a form of mental illness, addictive/obsessive/compulsive personality disorder is already on the official list. Just transfer that from washing your hands to getting high.
If you call I said this would be a sore point with the families of addicts. I know addicts that have been sober that agree, it was the gateway drug for them. But the operative word was ADDICT, not just user. Maybe 9 out of 10 pot smokers never become addicted, it's the ONE that moves on to other methods / chemicals for getting high. And a lot of people with an addict in the family have reacted unfavorably to the legalization because THEY beleive it was the first step.
Also said that they are now linking other mental illnesses to drug/alcohol abuse. Findings are unfortunately comeing after the fact. In other words the drug/alcohol has masked a mental illness. I beleive depression and bipolar disorders are high on that list.
ginwoman
Well-Known Member
ginwoman
Well-Known Member
libertytyranny
Dream Stealer
I truly believe this "self-medicating" theory people love to parrot is for the birds. It has created whole swathes of young people with excellent excuses to be addicts and derelicts their whole life. Depression and Bipolar symptoms are the direct result of drug usage and abuse, not the causative factor. I believe that in probably about 90% of the cases I have dealt with and been involved in. Of course people who are repetitively abusing their brain chemicals and bodily processes are going to exhibit pathology. They wouldn't be normal if they DIDN'T. Its part of the medical model of addiction which I feel is directly contributing to the life long disabilities of our young people.
There is no excuse. Barring the rare event someone tied them down and forced drugs upon them until the point of physiological addiction, people choose to do drugs. Further, people choose to stop. Every day. What I see as the biggest barrier to people being able to clean themselves up is that in our society there is little chance for redemption. Sure, we see addicts getting lots of "chances" with court ordered rehab and such rather than the punishments they probably deserve but once there have been charges it is very difficult to find gainful employment. So if you were an addict for a few years, get yourself in some trouble....even with rehab and such your record stamps you as an addict, your face is in the baynet, your record two seconds from anyone's fingertips in the case search..how do you manage to find a job at something other than chipotle? Further if youve been an addict for your "formative" years how do you manage to even find your personality or what you would be good at? rebuilding a life after addiction is not for the weak. Ending a physiological addiction is simple yet we put a lot of effort and money into it. What needs the support is building a normal, useful life after. But as long as we excuse addicts and tell them they are "sick" and have no control over their actions they will be unable to assist in this and will likely remain as they are.
Radiant1
Soul Probe
Personally I think it is a gateway drug but only because one has to go underground to get it where other drugs are available as well. Legalize it and it's no more a gateway drug than alcohol is.
Depression may lead to drugs, but the drugs most certainly exacerbates the depression; it's a vicious downward spiral.
acommondisaster
Active Member
You put this more succinctly than I ever could, especially when it comes to users and addicts. There's a world of difference between not wanting to stop and not being able to stop
mamatutu
mama to two
You are right and wrong. First of all, no one knows they will become addicted to opiates or whatever until they try it; most become addicted because of medical procedures. Addicts can only help themselves to want to quit; no one else can do that for them. As far as will power or not abusing, you don't know that until you are in the grips of addiction. I believe no one intentionally puts themselves in that bad place. And, yes, the devil is the drug/addiction. It is all important and consumes your life. Again, a person has to choose to separate from the devil. All people were born innocent. It is not their fault they become addicted. It is in the genes, heredity, and chromosomes. It is not a chosen lifestyle. Just the same as a gay life style. It is inherited. No one can convince me otherwise. I, also, think that people that judge something that they don't understand, and refuse to, are fighting their own demons, as to why they think they are better than the next person.
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Radiant1
Soul Probe
If you want to believe the above, then that's on you but for God's sake never tell an addict that because that just gives them the excuse their looking for to continue using. To do so is to enable them. I've been there, I understand, and I'm judging.