A Disease??

[njshar]

If drug addiction is a disease, say like diabetes or cancer, why does the afflicted person feel so much shame and rejection??  I have been on again, off again addict.  My family has been there when I have needed them.  Now that I am "on again", why are my loved ones excluding me from holiday get togethers??  Or family parties??  It hurts so badly.  I feel as though they are sick and tired of my relapses, and truly dissapointed in me when I have relapsed in the past.  This time they are excluding me from the holiday family get togethers.  It hurts so badly.  

Back to my quesiton, If addiction truly is a disease, why is there so much shame?????

[sway2]

i feel your pain. when i go to a family member for help of the monetary kind, they might give it if they can pay with their visa card directly to the repair shop for instance. i used them for years before they knew what was going on. i am genetically predisposed to addiction as both of my parents were alcoholics, but functionally so. i had alot of TRAGEDY and abuse by the time i started using at age 11. once  i used, i knew that i always wanted to. the family members were ignorant of alot of the **** that happened when i was little. some, once they found out felt guilty as heck for not realizing it at the time. what is that chemical we addicts have in our brain? T.H.I.Q.. once this gets triggered addiction becomes an active disease. i think one must live it, or work closely with it for a good length of time to understand. guilt and shame... well i am still working on that everyday. the past is very hard for me to let go of, whether it was stuff done to me or stuff i did to others. try not to expect too many people to understand your disease. just know for yourself, and try to draw some strength in that knowing. bledded be.  sway

[lovemypillhead]

But by that theroy, an addict should be able to get away with anything really....because it isnt their fault that they were put together this way....

[lovemypillhead]

Because drugs are a completely different thing then cancer.

Nobody makes someone drink and drink and drink until they become an alcoholic.

Nobody makes someone snort coke, do pills or shoot up.  that's a choice.

A person may be genetically made up of addiction but nobody forced them to take that first drug. Or do it again. And again. And again.

I mean really....look at two people.  One is fighting for their life due to cancer. The other one is fighting an addiction to just say no to pills.  Do u think there is a comparison between the two "diseases" at that point? I don't think that is fair....to lump an addiction in with a cancer patient.  The cancer patient didnt ask for it.  U say well neither did the addict. But, actually they did.  They did NOT have to try drugs for the first time. Or, here's an idea.....they could have taken responsibility for themselves....checked their family history to see if addiction runs in the family before they decided to do what ever drug.   (I am just throwing this out there to see who feels what)

My aunt died of cancer.  A slow, agonizing death. Pure hell for her and her family. I watched my mom suffer everyday in emotional pain. And cry. And be so sad. And depressed. I watched my aunt wake  up everyday  and be so happy she got one more day with her kids and grandkids.  

I watch my bf go thru pill withdrawl and im sorry...but, my heart doesnt break for him like it did my aunt.

[Tuck24]

Definition of Disease:          

A disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.

Does this describe anyone besides me here.....I accept that I'm a recovering addict. We don't choose the disease it chooses us, No matter what it is.

[worried878]

I am not into to technical terms anyway..and do not really care what addiction is called but i do know it is a problem..i do beleive there is somthing in some of our brains that is not quite right or that is out of balance..i truly do...i took hydros for a couple of different surgeries over the years and hated them..hated the way they made me feel..actually asked them to give me anything but those....then one day i took one after a few years of not taking any and it was different..totally different..they hit my pleasure button...i loved the energy they gave me and felt like i was the energizer bunny...then they turned on me and that feeling was no longer there..and if i took them right now that feeling would not be there as i have had them for a procedure and pain episode since i quit...something has changed in my brain again and they do not make me high/only yucky feeling...disease, psychological disorder/perhaps as bipolar and major depression are an example of when chemicals are off whack in the brain...just know the pills do not hit veryones pleasure center...and if u ask people u will find that out..they did not get any reinforcement from taking the pills and can take them as needed as they r not lacking the chemical we are..I also feel that if the pills would not have been available i would not have fell into the pattern...so i thnk for me it was 1. availability 2. the right (wrong) time in my life 3. a chemical or NT depletion that I have in my brain

[mjax024]

no bashing...i'm definatlry the text-book addict. i also don't agree that addiction is a disease...like i said before disease alludes to cure. if we live with this for ever, we're never cured...just another day clean. i totally understand the choice to use...and everyones reason differs. i didn't choose cancer...i didn't choose morphine (my oncologist did)...i did choose to ask him to taper me off, he refused trying to downplay the wds...(what a crock)...i chose to keep using for years, thats my bad. as for the gene...it doesn't say you'll be an addict...it predisposes you to have an addictive nature. noone chooses to be addicted...even if they choose to take the meds.