How do you feel about people with addictions?

*drugs not rugs of course. I haven't met anyone with a rug addiction

Food addiction > alcohol > drugs

I don't understand addiction, unfortunately. Hey, for whatever reason, I sometimes like to smoke cigs. Sometimes I'll buy a pack, smoke 6-7 per day, and do this for a few weeks. Then I realize it's dumb, and I stop. I don't get an urge to have another, and I can go months without even thinking about them. Then I might pick up a pack 3 months later and do the same thing.

It occurs to me that I can do this because whatever effect nicotine has on me, it is not addictive. For others, this would be the start of a lifetime addiction. My brain is wired differently.

How do I feel about people with addictions???…..the same way I feel about people with cancer, mental illness, ALS and other such diseases.

Yes, they made poor choices and have a self inflicted condition. I do think, however, that they should be treated with compassion. After all, I've made plenty of poor choices of my own...just not that particular poor choice. I say this as someone who saw my father die from the effects of alcoholism. Did he bring it on himself? Sure. Did my heart still break for him as he suffered? Absolutely.

Be careful judging someone because they sin differently than you.

rug >>>> food addition > alcohol > drugs

I certainly have sympathy for them.

Some people just have a predisposition to being addicts if they are exposed to their addiction.

And some can take stuff and it doesn't affect them the same way.

I feel fortunate that I don't have any addictions.

Did you start this thread to say that you are better than these people?

You're better than Jimi Hendrix, Robin Williams, Robert Downy Jr., etc.?

You need to read about addiction to pain pills and how crippling it is. Most of these people dont start out as druggies looking to get high. They are people that get hurt in a car accident, or at work and slowly become dependent on pain pills.

It is a terrible situation. With no easy answer.

Theres no such thing as mental illness. It's just another lie from Big Pharma and "mental health" experts.

Best Mailman wrote:

Did you start this thread to say that you are better than these people?

You're better than Jimi Hendrix, Robin Williams, Robert Downy Jr., etc.?

I said nothing of the sort. Everybody makes mistakes. I've done lots of things that have hurt other people and that I feel guilty about, but that's my own fault and I don't expect sympathy for it.

ataglance wrote:

You need to read about addiction to pain pills and how crippling it is. Most of these people dont start out as druggies looking to get high. They are people that get hurt in a car accident, or at work and slowly become dependent on pain pills.

It is a terrible situation. With no easy answer.

That's almost exactly what happened to my sister.

As a teenager, I know she partied some - drank and smoked pot, I think.

Then she got in a car accident and hurt her back. She was prescribed pain pills.

Then she got hooked on oxycontin. She learned how to go from doctor to doctor to get prescriptions. Then she made connections to get other drugs - heroine maybe.

And she was good at hiding this.

She got pregnant, had a premature baby with drugs in her possession and went to jail and forced rehab.

Her life's a mess and don't expect her ever to have a normal life.

Part of that is she succumbed to weakness and isn't responsible. But her addiction was chemical and is very hard to mentally overcome.

I have brothers who have done drugs and drink a lot and it hasn't affected their life. They might not have the same addictive gene.

Me. I never drank in college and only drink occasionally now.

I've tried pot but never enough to get high. I have never touched anything else.

Maybe if I snorted something I would get addicted. Or maybe I could handle it.

People are different.

Drug addicts are the scum of the earth. I don't buy the argument that they are helpless victims of a disease beyond their control. Tobacco addicts, though irresponsible, I would place in a different category.

Tim Timothy wrote: E.g. drugs, alcohol, food addictions

I don't have much sympathy for addicts. Try as I might, I just can't get my mind around the notion that being an addict is the result of a disease. I certainly understand that one can become physically addicted to a substance like alcohol or nicotine, but I don't see how that equates to having a disease. Frankly, I just think addicts are weak.

A couple of years ago I dated a gal who is an alcoholic. My understanding from her parents was that she had become dependent upon booze while enduring a 10-year marriage to a physically abusive husband, but she led me to believe she'd sobered up. Turns out she was just hiding it really well. She later called off the relationship, basically because it was too exhausting for her to keep pretending she was sober. I found out later that she also took up smoking and essentially (but informally) gave custody of her son to her parents. The point of the anecdote is that she just gave up on everything because she was too weak to overcome her addiction.

Personally, I'm not much better. I've often wondered if I'm a food addict because I've gained a ton of weight by eating my way through depressing and/or stressful situations. But I have no more sympathy for myself than I would anyone else. I got here by my own choices and because I've been too weak to tackle the issue.

Bottom line: Addicts are just weak pansies.

Boots wit da furr wrote:

Drug addicts are the scum of the earth. I don't buy the argument that they are helpless victims of a disease beyond their control. Tobacco addicts, though irresponsible, I would place in a different category.

It can start through legit means like pain pills that lead to other drugs, or someone makes a decision while drinking that leads them down a bad path. (Ex. Lots of people wouldn't do coke if offered to them stone sober, but when they've had a few drinks they're more likely to partake.)

So it's easy to dismiss on a message board, but wait until it's a close friend or family member or worse, your child.

It's not just a break down in character. Chemical dependency is a crippling condition. Just hope you and your circle of friends and family can avoid it.

I'm probably an addict. There something that I really like to do and think about everyday at some point. It's something I haven't done since the late '80's, not once yet I'd thought about it today before reading this thread. I plan to never do it again, but know I'll probably want to. I know you don't care and that's fine, doesn't affect me one bit. Myself, I feel empathy for these folks and wish our society was set up in a way to help more than prosecute.

It depends really. On what the person is addicted to and what life circumstances led to that addiction.

If someone decided to stick a friend's needle in their arm and shoot up herion. Fvck em. They deserve every bad thing that's coming to them. I just hope they don't destroy others' lives in the process of destroying their own.

If someone has become addicted to the oxy they were prescribed after a surgery. Well, I feel bad for them, and I think they should be able to get help as part of the ongoing follow-up medical treatment of the surgery.

I have compassion but also believe in personal responsibility. I do believe there is some type of genetic component to it or biological predisposition.

For example, when I drink alcohol, I drink up to the point where I feel good and happy, but I know that if I keep drinking I am going to get sick or put myself in a bad situation (e.g. drinking and driving). My wife on the other hand sometimes doesn't know when to stop and will drink past the point where it is healthy. Her dad is alcoholic and I am sure it runs in her family.

I like to smoke pot. I do it daily. Usually a bowl before my long traffic ride home/before my trip to workout... & another before bed. It's a great lifestyle.

Addicted? Ehhhh, probably. I'm in grad school, have a full time job, and workout everyday... Like I said, life is good.

So, if I wanna smoke and relax and spend 10$-20$ a week on it, I'm going to do it.