Addiction has been on my mind a lot lately- from random conversations when I was traveling to people in the family and even people online so I thought I would just get a whole bunch of my thoughts about it out. I could very well ramble on at more length on this , but I just thought it might be nice to mix things up a bit here from my typical rambles – I do do that every now and again 🙂
I think that addiction is something that even in this day and time is not easily defined when it comes to some things, if not all things. I mean how do you know when you start crossing lines? I know that I personally enjoy drinking alcohol , but by some standards i’d be considered as having a problem, and then then I have actually taken the assessment and honestly answered the questions (in a setting where it was required- I don’t want to get into too many details – just stick with me here!) and I came back as having no addiction – just a matter of technicalities that had to be dealt with do to a situation that I don’t really talk about
(Happened 6 years ago, nothing came of it, all is good and i’m moving on) I was lucky on what happened to me. Thankfully what happened wasn’t THAT BAD it was just enough to make me re-think some things in my life. (Yes, it is the Drama from the summer from 2012 I’m referring too- but like I say i’m not going into details!)
I think that the stigma of addiction is so deep rooted and antiquated with the way that many people see it , unless they have dealt with it first hand- a lot of people still believe that it isn’t a disease and that it is done by choice. I don’t know exactly which side of that spectrum that I fall on with my beliefs. I can see it both ways. I think it honestly it depends on the person, the situation and the attitude of that person- but also the attitude of the people that might be close to the person that is in that certain situation.
I think that family history can come into play as far as genetics – whether it be just because it runs in your family as far as becoming dependent on something in general or even if it has to do with something particular. I think personality and environmental factors can come into play- and a whole lot of other things. I know that in my family alcohol runs deep- it isn’t something that is really talked about but it still lingers if you know what I mean. It is just swept under a rug and not talked about.
There are also addictions on so many different levels- some people are to the very extreme, and some folks are just barely on an edge. Of course there are many things that you can be addicted to from pills/drugs/alcohol and that is just a tip of the iceberg.
Lately, the topic of addiction has been on my mind not only because of things in my past but because of a friend that I had online. I am not going to tell WHO or the most intimate details because it isn’t my story to tell, and I don’t want to really get into it on that sort of level. This person had became addicted to not just prescription drugs but also is doing a lot of illegal drugs. This person had the opportunity to get help from another blogging friend and was even looking into counseling but she ruined her trust and relationship before she could get the help.
Frankly, it was a bad situation for the person that was trying to help her, but I think at the end of the day she did all she could to help and she couldn’t risk her own well being emotionally or physically anymore. This came down to this person DIDN’T want help and has been willing to lose her home, her children and everything just to get a fix. I think if she would have taken the option, and used some sort of service like The Recovery Village in Cincinnati Ohio things would truly be better for her.
I did have a friend in real life that had an alcohol addiction and she went through something very similar and she came out on the other side and is doing very well now. It was crazy because it has been so many years now that I hadn’t thought of it in a long time- but there it was on my facebook timeline memories from today where she had thanked both myself and David for supporting her.
I even have the prescription medicine abuse problem right in the family- It isn’t something I want to talk about because it has been such a underlying issue for so long, and it is so very complicated and yeah..
I just think that anyone who thinks they maybe have a problem could find the person that they need to help them no matter what, but a lot of that comes in on that wanting help line- and some people for whatever reason are just too far gone that you can’t get them to understand and that is a very helpless feeling. I know that in regards to my online friend there have been several of us try various ways to reign her in but .. even though she is homeless and lost it all .. she just wants that next dose 🙁 I hope that eventually she’ll see that we were all so harsh because we were trying- especially the girl that let her stay with her family even after
