Yes.
Another tragic celebrity horror story stopped the news cycle in its tracks yesterday. The pop singer and former Disney Channel star Demi Lovato collapsed from a drug overdose, and almost died. Luckily, she was revived by doctors and is on her merry way to rehab like so many other child star casualties before her.
This has prompted a debate on social media in regards to the nature of addiction. And this is something I've debated about internally for quite a while to justify my own drug use. Until I grew the fuck up and stopped giving a shit.
First thing we need to determine is, what does addiction mean? Now, if you're an addict, you're obviously going to have a slightly different definition. It's a personal choice. I know a lot of drug users, I know a lot of non drug-users. They're literally an equal ratio of good vs. shitty people. I have found no correlation of douchebaggery with drug use, or vice versa. Though relatively speaking, everybody's addicted to something, whether it's porn, Netflix, Oreos, League of Legends, Twister, Soundcloud rapping (right here), uh, you name it. Everybody's got their attachments.
But there are people with bad drug habits. And these are the people that make fun drug users, like myself, look bad. These are the people that the sober crowd point to as immoral, and the government takes advantage of to prolong the war on drugs. Some people actually enjoy doing drugs. That's just what they want to do with their life and that's it. I've always called bullshit on these clean bloodstream little pricks who have prune juice enemas and go to the gym and push that shit on other people. Not everybody is going to be happy the same way, physiologically.
But let's talk about the way we address addiction in our society. On one hand, you've had the disastrous War on Drugs for the past thirty-forty years. Nixon officiated it in 1971, when he declared drugs to be public enemy #1. The DEA was founded in '73, and I think they're one of the biggest downfalls of Western civilization. They have not prevented one fucking overdose. They have only given more power to the drug cartels. They should be abolished.
Funny how the same liberals who discuss banning ICE, the immigration agency that deals with illegal immigrants, have missed a ripe chance to boycott an agency that ruins far more lives. Something that both left and right-leaning libertarians can actually agree on banning, the DEA. Abolish the DEA. I wonder why nobody's been calling for that. We've always known about it. Most Americans didn't even know what the fuck ICE was until two weeks ago. We don't know shit.
But that's just the government, and we know they're wrong in the way they criminalize drug dealers and drug users, when in fact they've done nothing wrong. On the other side, when it comes to addiction, there's been this push in the media to sort of coddle anybody with a serious drug problem and tell them "Oh, it's OK, it's not your fault." Then who's fault is it, the maid? Trump? But they're trying to say it's society. It's society's fault you're like this. Guess what, dumbass? Society's got enough problems as it is without you heaping your personal life on top of it.
If you develop a drug habit, whether you like it or not, it is your fault. Good drug, bad drug, doesn't matter. It's your fucking responsibility. But some are arguing the opposite.
Sure, you could call addiction an illness, brought on by what? Your own actions. But it's not like cancer and AIDS. Those are the result of your actions, but they are not synonymous with them.
Take away the three middle letters from "addiction", and what do you get? "Action". This is a giant blind spot that many addicts are being taught not to see.
In fact, I think it would be more accurate to say that the addiction itself is not the illness. It's the withdrawals that come upon you when you're not taking the drugs. Those are very real and I never said they weren't. I've seen the rock and roll biopics about Ray Charles and Johnny Cash enough to know that the struggle with heroin especially, is a bitch like no other. But are you seriously going to pretend that it's not a character flaw? I mean, that's literally what it is. How you judge that is up to you, but objectively, addiction is a character trait. Especially when you choose to believe you're addicted in the first place.
But get a load of this. The article reads "If you know someone who is dealing with addiction and potential relapse, here’s how you can actually make a difference:
"Reaffirm to the person living with the disease that it is not their fault.
"A person isn’t defined by their addiction. “The individual with a substance use disorder needs support and affirmation that the maladaptive behaviors that are part of the substance use disorder syndrome represent the disease and not the underlying person."
So I suppose Demi Lovato just slipped and fell on a heroin needle? Fuck you. You're literally ignoring the cause of the problem. You cannot get well, until you take responsibility.
It's the same thing with alcoholism. They tell you it's a disease. But many former alcoholics will still tell you they're diseased after five years sober. Well, if you're always gonna be diseased, what's the fucking point? Go back to drinking again!
I find it hilarious that people would rather be called diseased than acknowledge that they have a choice in the matter of doing drugs. "Guys, I would give up heroin, but I have no choice."
There are many factors to addiction, of course. It's partly your genetics, which you can't change. Environment. But the one thing that should surpass all of that, is your choice. If you remove the element of control of the part of the individual, what the fuck are you doing? What reason do they have to get well now?
In every case of an addict becoming sober, they will tell you, it is that person alone who must make the choice to change their behavior. You are denying responsibility. Not only that, you are coddling abusers and telling them that since it's not their fault, they have no power of their own. This is the culture of victimhood taken to its darkest depths.
And it is a choice. It is a made-up term, and people deal with it in many different ways. But it is my hope that we can teach people to overcome it by empowering them, not victimizing them.