Drug abuse is not a disease it is bad life decisions

As recovering achoholic and addict myself with almost 2 years of sobriety I agree to an extent. I just didn’t want to feel my emotions or my physical pain. I just sought to numb myself instead of dealing with what I was going through. I do admit I started drinking and using at 15. I knew what I was doing was wrong I didn’t care it’s what worked for me at the time and was all I really knew for a decade. But a nice long stay in rehab(self admitted I was done it was either change or die) some time to think and experience life without the filter of substances as an adult was life changing, so was opening up my mind to the spiritual.

Was it all my fault? I believe so yes. I could have taken numerous different paths with different outcomes all better. I don’t regret it however. That #ty dark path lead me here and now. All the blessings I do have I would not have had I not failed at first.

That said not everyone is recoverable or even wants to recover, few people actually do recover long term from hard drug use, and the reasons for drug use vary far and wide, from psychonaughts exploring psychedelic reality, self pain medication, sheer boardom, prescription the list is long.

But the drug use is often a symptom of an underlying issue

a reply to: panoz77

a reply to: gortex

Except that, during the hearing the expert who is responsible for that move reviewed footage that showed Chauvins knee was not 'in' Floyd's neck at all. His weight was distributed across the shoulders with the shin on the neck as is their training.

In fact so good was that witness that the defence are recalling him as a defence witness! Which is just devastating for the prosecution.

Buiuuuuuuuut, dont let these facts get in the way of the narrative.

a reply to: Joneselius

Buiuuuuuuuut, dont let these facts get in the way of the narrative.

It doesn't change the fact the suspect was handcuffed , excessive force is excessive force.

a reply to: gortex

Excessive force is not murder, although murder can result from excessive force.

a reply to: ketsuko

Didn't say it was murder , but it could have been a contributing factor in the suspects death.

a reply to: panoz77

claiming that drug abuse is simply a disease that you "catch". That we should have sympathy for drug abusers, they are just sick. It has nothing to do with poor life decisions, or self gratification, or greed, or selfishness, or personal irresponsibility.

Drug addiction may usually stem from poor life choices, but drug addiction itself is like a disease. When you're addicted to something, your brain chemistry changes and your body becomes physically dependent on that substance to function properly.

Honestly, yeah people should have sympathy for drug addicts. Do you not have sympathy for other people who are injured or sick or something through poor life choices?

If someone's dying of cancer after smoking for years, or dying of diabetes or falls and cripples themselves doing some kind of extreme sport, do you not feel sympathy for those people?

And it is pretty terrible there's so many people out there so dependent on some substance they destroy their lives over it. It might stem from their own poor decisions, but it doesn't mean they don't deserve sympathy. That also doesn't mean they deserve to get off the hook for criminal actions though.

I've met a lot of drug addicts, alcoholics and ex-addicts over the years. A lot of people my dad grew up with ended up as heroin addicts in the 80's and 90's. The ones that made it and kicked it and didn't die or become street people. They still get cravings for it to this day. It never goes away.

Or one guy I talked to who's story's always kinda stuck with me. He was a youngish dude, not much older than me pushing a shopping cart with all his worldly possessions, came up asked if he could buy a smoke. He was pretty polite about it, so I gave him one and we smoked and chatted.

He asked me if I did drugs or anything. I told him no and he told me that was a good thing and told me about his life. He used to own a home and a business, had a wife. He got into a car accident and hurt his back, the doctor prescribed him oxycontin for 6 months. There was no weaning or anything, at the end of the 6 months he was just cut off. His back was still #ed and he started going through withdrawals. So he made the admittedly poor choice of buying oxys from Buddy. This went alright for a bit, until one day Buddy didn't have any pills, but he had some heroin. Dude by this point, being pretty addicted and still in constant pain went for it.

And I'm guessing you can imagine how it went from there. He lost his business, lost his wife, sold his home to pay for his habit, apparently his parents won't even talk to him.

He never tried to ask for money or sympathy anything. He finished his story and we parted ways. But it stuck with me.

How does a person dig themselves out of a place like that?

Even if that guy stopped doing drugs immediately, then what? He's still homeless, likely not going to find it easy to get a job, has no support, nobody to help him, nowhere to go.

How does a person in that situation actually make their life better?

a reply to: gortex

An unconscious person being handcuffed may not be excessive force. For that determination, you would need to review the use of force policy within that department.

I can tell you from working in mental health than someone who is either mentally ill, on drugs, or both, can go from snoring in a prone position to beating your ass senseless in about 3 seconds. If that happened with someone the police considered "under control" while they are there, not only would the outcry be stupendous, they'd be sued for dereliction of duty.

If you are referring to Chauvin...i don't think you or I are either qualified to have much opinion on the facts of that case.

I know quite a few people who were prescribed prescription opioids for legitimate pain, and ended up ruining their lives because they couldn't stop taking them. Two of them are now dead from it. It wasn't their choice.

Addiction is disease-like in that the addict needs to take their 'medicine' just to feel everyday normal. A doctor would prescribe whatever drug is needed when a patient is sick. An addict's doctor, the dealer, will have his 'medicine'.
So in that sense yes addiction is a disease.
At the start taking the drug is a bad life choice, but once one becomes addicted, the drug is necessary daily just to feel normal.
As for George, he didnt overdose because it would take a minimum 30/40 minutes for whatever he swallowed to take effect. Yes he obviously had a fatal dose in him. But thats not what killed him.
Also, he was handcuffed face down with 3 officers on him. There was no need for a knee to his neck

a reply to: LordAhriman

You know, i have taken opiods off and on throughout my entire life. My personality is quite addictive. I have to forcibly limit myself on lots of things. Which is nice....since i like booze so much, i will only allow myself booze on occasion. Which means i don't regret spending $70 on a bottle of Balcones True Blue.

I've never had issue with opiods. I take them now, and it was a fight to get them. i have a disease that makes living painful, and finally got a doctor that would prescribe opiods. He gives me a 60 count each month, with orders that allow for 2/day. I usually stretch them about 50 days as an gesture to show I am responsible. The fact that I can be made to suffer to protect others really bothers me. The opiod issue is a great example of how public policy can negatively impact people with medical need.

And if we are being honest: my condition will never improve. Being addicted to opiods, in a physical sense, is not the worst thing that could happen to me at this point in my life.

I had cowbell fever once.

I'll just leave this here for consideration.

(Disclaimer: By no means is this an excuse or an attempt to justify behavior, nor does it nullify personal responsibility.)

originally posted by: Lysergic
I had cowbell fever once.

Dangerous dragon to chase.

Always looking for a little bit more cowbell... Problem is, you can never get enough cowbell. The first taste is pure euphoria, but no amount after will produce the same effect.

Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom and come to in a cowfield covered in patties with livestock gazing right through your soul. I can still feel their beady fu**ing eyes.

originally posted by: underwerks

I somewhat agree with you. It starts out as a bad decision, but once you become addicted your body physically changes to where you need that substance to achieve homeostasis.

That’s a fact. That’s what withdrawal is. After a while you don’t even get high anymore, it just makes you feel normal. Brings you back to baseline. At that point, it is a disease. A self inflicted one, but still a disease.

What do we call the addiction part where one person is more acceptable to addiction than another. I wouldn't call it a disease, and it might not be 100% "a poor decision" causing it if some people are highly acceptable to addiction while other people doing the same thing are not. Where I see the poor decision lies is when a person understands their limitations, but continues to go down that same path ignoring them.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan

And if we are being honest: my condition will never improve. Being addicted to opiods, in a physical sense, is not the worst thing that could happen to me at this point in my life.

But it could mean your health is heading faster in a bad direction, but what do you do. A friend of mine died at the age of about 55 who had a bad back surgery and it caused so much pain he had to take morphine daily and was addicted to it. He lasted about 10 years taking it.

originally posted by: dug88

I've met a lot of drug addicts, alcoholics and ex-addicts over the years. A lot of people my dad grew up with ended up as heroin addicts in the 80's and 90's. The ones that made it and kicked it and didn't die or become street people. They still get cravings for it to this day. It never goes away.

A huge part of addiction is environmental based. Most do not know this that if you remove a person from the environment they use the drug their addiction goes away, and when you put them back in the environment it comes back. There was a famous case from Vietnam where like 1000s of people were addicted to heroin and we found those who were addicted before they went were still addicted when they came back and those who started it over there lost their addiction desires to use when they came home.

I'd call addiction a disease, but only in the sense that we do know some people have a physical dependency. I can't imagine being so addicted to something that it would cause you to sell your own children as some crackheads have been caught doing. It is pretty clear that some people for whatever reason get hooked while others can dabble casually or have no effects whatsoever. I get no pleasure from mood altering substances. I've never liked alcohol, so I don't drink. Smoking irritates my sinuses to the point I get runny nose just smelling the residual cigarette smell on someone. I was on Percs for some severe surgical pain and couldn't wait to get off them. I hated how they made me feel.

However, I do think the labeling of addiction is also an attempt to remove some of the shame or gloss over personal responsibility angle.

Maybe I am just a square, but I just never got why it was "fun" to get sh*tfaced /wasted growing up. I didn't get it then and don't get it now.

With all that said, I think some people use to cover up pain whether physical or mental in their lives.

originally posted by: Kromlech
Addiction is considered the disease..

"Disease" needs redefining for modern day culture.

I wonder if NOT being a millionaire or a billionaire is from bad life decisions?