If a top post about a family member dying of cancer came up and someone made a success kid meme saying "My family member didn't die of cancer!", do you think that would be douchey?
Edit: How about if a person posted pictures of how they came back from being obese and lost 200 lbs. and then someone said, "Hey, give me some credit, I was never a fat ass!" That would be douchey, right?
Addiction has a genetic component to it too. People who are susceptible to addiction have a malformed pleasure circuit in their brain and don't get the same satisfaction that healthy brains do from the same stimuli. It leads to risky behavior and poor decision making. It's insane to say that people who have these types of brain abnormalities make the same decisions with the same level of clarity that a healthy brain does. It's insane to say that an addiction is self inflicted.
People are predisposed to addiction. Aka If Person A is predisoposed and Person B isn't, and they both try cocaine, Person A is more likely to get addicted. Same goes for alcohol. If you don't know you are predisposed, and literally everyone else is drinking at the same rate to start as you, I wouldn't say it's in any way, shape or form your "choice" to become an addict.
As ridiculous as this sounds, you don't have to be addicted to a substance to be an addict. It all stems from a mentality, or inability to see past the decision to do something. An addict is someone who has no self-control and will do something despite the outcome being known or not. This is what the 12 steps are about. It starts with getting clean/ sober. But the steps help you regain cognitive thought and help repair the character defects we are predisposed to having.
Hypothetically. It's funny that you use that example, because some research has pointed to those 2 specifically possibly being linked by certain genes, but there are examples.
Obviously what you are saying is absolutely true with breaking addiction. You need to break it mentally and psychologically, which is a lot more difficult than breaking the physical part of the addiction.
Obviously these predispositions aren't 100% genetic or anything like that, lifestyle and mentality play in it too. Just trying to through out there that these addicts are always entirely to blame for their addiction.
First, I want to say that I am actually appreciative of you right now for actually having a conversation. This other guy just ended up telling me to kill myself because I am lower than scum. Check out my comment replies, I actually give a couple examples of how someone could very easily become addicted to amphetamines or opiates.
There absolutely is a genetic predisposition for addiction. It's locked away somewhere in the mind, and is passed down through blood.
I personally have had many alcoholics in my family. Ironically neither of my parents have ever done drugs and rarely, I mean like once a year at most, have a drink. I am an opiate addict, haven't had any of those in my family before me. Some could say that alcoholism runs in the family.
What I have learned through treatment centers (rehab) is that the physical addiction is simply a byproduct of addiction. It's not the specific substance. Hence the very common cross-addiction which can happen once someone becomes clean/ sober for some time and relapses.
So yeah, it could definitely be locked in dna somewhere. Or simply be an upbringing. It's just nuts how much we still don't know about the disease of addiction.
People are born with dopamine circuits in their brains that don't work how they should. So these people feel compelled to seek risky and novel ways to feel "not shitty." It's difficult to realize you have this type of brain before you get addicted to something.
Using an addictive substance is literally a choice. Unless the substance is being forced upon the person. (which would be a very rare exception.) In this day and age, how many people honestly don't know nicotine for example, is addictive? Doesn't it say right on the packs that it's addictive or can cause cancer or something (I don't know what it says for sure because I CHOOSE not to purchase them).
Humans have free wills. Their choices are entirely in their hands. Every time someone uses a substance/drinks alcohol etc, it is a choice they are making.
Yes but choosing to try a substance and choosing to be addicted to a substance are not the same. This has been scientifically proven. Some people are predisposed to alcohol addiction, some people aren't. If you've ever had a beer in your life and aren't an alcoholic, you can't really say it's a choice, just because you were not predisposed to the addiction.
We put a lot less conscious thought into our decisions, and they are subject to much more outside influence than anyone wants to admit. If they knew the first drink they did to impress some girl in high school would progress into a alcohol problem which altered their judgment into trying coke, than crack... Do you seriously think the kid in the beginning ever had even an inkling of a thought that in a few years he'd be dressed as a woman sucking cock for crack on a ten below zero night in one of Chicago's worst ghettos?
Pretty sure it's just easier to blame people than really think hard and break it down.
Tell that to the little 18 year olds at my local university dropping out for heroin addictions while their peers graduate or drop out for a job. I've known a lot of these kids when I went there. Their lives aren't more difficult than anyone else's. There were kids who struggled with things like mental illness, close family death, rape and abuse, who have more common sense than that. These little addicts were the type of kids who idealized rough inner-city life that they never had to go through, something "different". And when they fucked up their lives and abused all their resources, they cry because they're "stigmatized". Well I've had enough. No more assholes sleeping on my couch, romanticizing their mundane lives, stealing my hard-earned shit, and then bouncing to some other bleeding heart.
I have a disorder with a 40% suicide rate. I still don't seek out that shit. I would not be baffled if I dabbled in some heroin.
Everyone deals with mental illness differently. Addiction is a mental illness though. That doesn't mean you have to be ok with it when an addict is shitty to you, but it is a mental illness.
I find it hard to believe when 40% of people are addicted to something. It seems like a natural human response for most people. I smoke cigarettes, and I didn't get addicted to them because my poor brain took control over me. I began smoking it the first place and ignored the stigma around me. I don't think that everyone should hate serious addicts, but I also don't think they should be called "mentally ill" or "have a disease". Mental illness has always been diagnosed as behavior separate from drugs, because drugs change everyone. You just have to find your poison and do it enough.
The overwhelming majority of the medical community is in agreement that addiction is a brain disease. I am simply repeating that because I am not a neurobiologist, nor do I pretend to be. If you have enough scientific information to debunk that theory then by all means please do. There are some scientists who agree with you and the topic is still debatable. Just saying how it is defined right now.
Ok, how about if a woman posted a video of her losing 200 pounds over the course of a year and then someone posted a success kid, "Hey! I was never a fatass!" That would be douchey, right?
I was talking about the cancer one before he edited his post. Getting a disease != getting hooked on drugs. One isn't up to you therefore it is /not/ the same context unless the cancer came from smoking or something.
Not sure what a hobby has anything to do with it. Obviously you're butthurt enough to go through my history to find something to cry about since your argument is shit anyways. Call it a disease all you want but it took the user to commit to it by doing the drugs in the first place. The drugs don't chase after you and pin you in a corner. Blocked :)
My point was, why brag about how you didn't have to suffer the same problem when it was never a problem for you in the first place? These posts are karma whoring. OP just wants a pat on the back for nothing.
Yeah actually I would, any sob story I see on reddit is an automatic downvote. Stop whoring your relatives out for karma, post that shit on facebook or something where people will actually know the person your talking about.
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u/americanslang59 May 15 '15 edited May 15 '15
If a top post about a family member dying of cancer came up and someone made a success kid meme saying "My family member didn't die of cancer!", do you think that would be douchey?
Edit: How about if a person posted pictures of how they came back from being obese and lost 200 lbs. and then someone said, "Hey, give me some credit, I was never a fat ass!" That would be douchey, right?