Drug abuse is not a disease it is bad life decisions

a reply to: panoz77

Somebody once said something along the lines "the mad take drugs and even if you don't start out mad the drugs will make you mad" and it sort of makes sense. Remember kids stick to the quality dark rum and beers

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Peeple

one of the most unfortunate facts of life is you spend your entire life trying to work through your demons, learning to treat the world around you more kindly...you become a better person. Just in time to die.

Many don't even figure it out in that time.

I can't remember where I heard the concept, but the crux of it that I took away was humans need suffering of some sort to become better. And if you look at history, the biggest periods of growth followed some of the darkest times. Maybe the contrast made it appear more dramatic, but in theory the pain drove innovation.

Hard to say in what quantities everyone needs though. I do know some seemingly simple people who appear to lead more enriching lives than anyone else I know. Than there are others who appear to have everything yet are completely empty.

I think we're all different, and we have to ask ourselves what we need, where our bars are, and exceed our own expectations, or omit unneeded ones.

a reply to: CriticalStinker
Great post CS! I'm sorry I have to go, I'll reply proper a bit later tonight

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I take opioids regularly for my back and health issues myself. My doctor understands what I am going through and has stated that it is for life, I’m 58

Each month I run low or out before my next refill but I don’t get sick.
Sad and in pain....hell yes!
But withdrawal or flipping out No!

I’ve always heard that if you are in pain and really need them that they only go to your pain.
They don’t screw with your mind as bad.

Yet, I have a friend that can Not maintain even around them.
She began stealing from me and acting out.
She Is Mind Hooked. The disease.

a reply to: panoz77
Did you decide where you grew up?

a reply to: panoz77

Are mental illnesses considered diseases? It's a rhetorical question...

A lack of serotonin is directly linked with a few diseases of the brain, eating disorders are associated with this for instance. A few of these diseases drug abuse is common but often a secondary symptom. PTSD comes to mind.

MDMA/ecstasy is seemingly not physically addictive, I've known people with severe ability to produce enough serotonin due to the use of this drug and physical addiction was non existent. They did however have serotonin issues that the medical field would most definitely define as a disease in the strictest sense.

So no, it's not as simple as you'll be cured if you stop ingesting drugs. It's like saying only junkies kill themselves, rather ignorant imho considering mental illness, addiction and suicide affect such a broad spectrum of society.

It's not a cop out, it's science.

a reply to: FreeFalling

I have seen people take Tramadol for pain, and develop a physical addiction that becomes life threatening.

a reply to: underwerks

Yup. As rash as this sounds, I started smoking cigarettes to show my dad how easy it would be to quit. Sure I was able to stop, but man those impulses to smoke are forever in my head now. Pandora's box 101. So yeah a bad decision to dance with the devil will render you forever thoughtful of a temptation that otherwise never would have existed.

a reply to: Xtrozero

You're absolutely spot on.

This is why rehabilitation often goes hand in hand with a structured regime after the detox. I'd personally say it's not 100% location though, we don't necessarily operate like that. The wrong company or activity affects it a lot. I know I smoke far too much when there's drink and good chatty company... Kitchen talk is great ha!

But yes, I've saw this first hand with marching powder and well to do people whenever it came to a lads night out. A very situational addiction... WD40 on the back of the toilet used to get rid of them

originally posted by: panoz77

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: panoz77
Calling drug addiction a disease is a cop out. It is a coping mechanism for addicts. I'm just sick, I can't help it, I have disease. This "disease" can be cured by simply not ingesting drugs. Amazing!

I understand, that you don't understand, some people are clearly genetically prewired for addiction..this is irrefutable. I would agree though..it starts with a choice.

Some people are predisposed to eating too much. That is not a disease (eating too much), BUT the result of eating too much can cause diseases, like heart disease and diabetes. See how that works?

So I guess anorexia is a life choice?

"I got a friend who's an alcoholic...he says it's a disease you know? I said hey, at least you got the disease where you get to be drunk all the time!" - Norm Macdonald

Also listen to Doug Stanhope. A self admitted alcoholic. It's a choice to drink every day plain and simple. Doug says it's for his job (comedian) and he's funnier when drunk. One of his bits "I got reformed alcoholic friends that even they have to admit it's true...it's like betraying their religion" lol

a reply to: panoz77

First of all you're attacking a dead black guy which is not old, it's expected from a certain community.

Then your attack on drug users, wow, who are you?

How do you have no idea that addiction is a disease, or care to look that up? Being addicted to anything is a brain disorder; that is a a disease. Your thread doesn't even challenge the medical world but you use George Floyd as your reasoning, which is normal for around here sadly.

Whoever agrees with this OP's headline has never been an addict.

Simple.

a reply to: Tempter

Not only. I never had withdrawl but from cigarettes. (So yes I smoke and as long as I don't blow in your face, mind your own damned business).
And that has nothing to do with genes, but a lot with imprint.
The cool people at school. Not the populars but the interesting characters. My parents smoked.
Like the whole drug issue is only an issue because we handle it wrong. I occasionally do drugs. Not regularly, as event a few months and a few years in between.
I really don't need it.
Recreational, I use it to look at things differently.
Mind-#s are free, give yourself one.

Meaning we have to really adjust how we think humans are to how they really are.
We need escapes.

originally posted by: RAY1990

So I guess anorexia is a life choice?

It is a disorder caused by one's personal choices or desires.

Smeagol didn't initially crave the ring, it made him crave it, and after he used it more it changed him into Gollum. And Gollum really doesn't make great choices.

dont be a gollum boys and girls...

a reply to: panoz77

I am pleased that every young person that has fallen victim to life experiences, that end in ugly situations, based on poor choices, doesn't mean that they are left to hang out to dry, without hope of a fair outcome, when bad things happen to them.

I work with people that have made bad choices, almost every week. That doesn't give anyone, including the police, the right to treat them less than human.

You would never say that a diabetic that made the poor choice of not taking their insulin, and then indulging in the consumption of sweets or items that may be detrimental to their health, and potentially deadly, should have their pleas for help ignored, and allowed to die, when you knew that there was a high possibility that the person was in danger.

As a public servant if I ignored the pleas of a dying patient because I thought of them as a drug addict, I would lose my license, and end up in jail. Even when I am physically attacked, if I refuse to render aide to an addict or a mentally ill patient, my career is over.

No excuses would even be considered by the courts.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

My poetry instructor in college said something very like that. He observed that most of the greatest artists and poets were very tortured souls. Suffering makes for great art because you know the depths of pain. I'm sure Kurt Cobain might agree.

So let's look at what's going on it today's society where the move is on to attempt to insulate everyone from any type of pain and adversity that we can.

How do you get great people with well formed characters if we never experience any strife of any type at all?

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Then again, at some point where is such a person to be held responsible for their own choices?

Let's revisit the diabetic. If such a person knows they are diabetic and refuses to manage their condition, why is it everyone else's responsibility to manage that person at all times?

At some point there has to be a happy medium between what others can be reasonably expected to do for an otherwise thinking adult and what they are to be expected to do for themselves.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

I can't remember where I heard the concept, but the crux of it that I took away was humans need suffering of some sort to become better.

As someone who has had some rather dark years in my life, I agree entirely and have been nodding my head in agreement reading your posts on this thread.

My Great-Grandmother told me once that you cannot sharpen a knife without a stone.

She was talking about life.

She was right.