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Kana -> RE: ADDICTS (12/12/2013 3:09:59 PM)
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quote:
People can stop drinking. My brother can't stop being mentally ill.
(I don't believe in the disease model for alcoholism.)
I have issues with the disease model too, starting with the simple fact that if one never drinks or uses drugs,one cannot become an alcoholic/addict.
That said, it's my belief that alcoholism/addiction is deeply rooted in the psyche of the person and that once triggered,it never truly goes away.
People make the mistake of viewing the person and the illness as separate entities.That's false. They are one and the same.The person is the illness and vice versa. Addiction has to do with how the brain processes inputs, especially at an emotional level.To some extent, that never fades completely-the addict will always suffer from a quasi twisted perspective in that their first filter for anything is how it affects self.
The apocryphal story of this is Bill W,when he was dying,he was lapsing in and out of consciousness/coma.35yearsw/o a drink. Founded AA. A hero to millions.Laying on a hospital bed with really no conscious functions going on and his reptile brain remembered what solved his problems. Three times he came conscious enough to ask for a drink from the attending nurse.
Addiction is brutal stuff.
35 years and his subconscious still knew where to go for the fix.
Fucking amazing.
ETA
quote:
My brother has a host of mental illnesses, including schizoaffective disorder. I have much more sympathy for him than the alcoholics in my life.
You might be shocked by the number of dual diagnosed cases in the halls of recovery-the two most prominent being ADD/ADHD and/or Bi-Polar.
Which, when you think about it, makes buckets of sense.
Take the ADHD kid for instance. He's hyper. Full of energy. Always curious. Always into shit. Usually a risk taker to boot
He grows up with everyone asking in some form of the other,"What's wrong with you?"
Inside, before he's 5, he knows somethings different about him, not in a good way. To compensate,to try to fit in, to try to please, he learns to be what others want to be, to put on masks as demanded,to try and shift his natural disposition into something he's not made to be.
And something he's doomed to fail at trying to be.
Here's the roots of manipulation, deception, shame, inadequacy, self disappointment and distrust of others.
Another part of ADHD is social awkwardness, their brains process shit differently, spit it out strange too-sufferers tend to blurt out awkward things, talk compulsively about themselves, monopolize conversations about things they are excited about/into. Early on, they learn from social feedback that they don't communicate properly so they learn to isolate, to distrust self, to not show themselves emotionally or in other ways to others.
And shockingly, they feel alienated and alone in a world that doesn't accept them. They learn to be suspicious,cynical, jaded,keep their guard up at all times.
No connections there between the roots of addiction or anything, eh?
One can't see how a primary mental illness could lay the roots for addiction?
Bi Polar follows pretty close to the same basic internal pathology. So does schizophrenia.
Me? I try to have sympathy from everyone, man, because the human condition, it kinda sucks. We are all fighting battles nobody else fully understands or comprehends.We all have crosses to carry. And those things, they get damn heavy sometimes.
So I think we all can use, in the words of the Rolling Stones, a little tea and sympathy.
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