Irony: Attitudes towards addicts???

[Savas]

We were discussing this in another thread and I just found something very ironic;

I'm flipping channels and came across something called the "Steve Wilkos Show".

He's dealing with a family with an alcoholic mother, who is saying she wants help.

The short of it is, she needs a liver transplant and is still drinking. Over and over, the host keeps asking "You're going to die?? Why don't you just stop?"

To every answer she gives, he keeps badgering this woman and asking here "But you've been told you'll die if you don't stop, WHY DON'T YOU JUST STOP???"

This kind of attitude is exactly what we were talking about. This sort of media attention promotes the refusal to understand the problems of addiction. The show is like the ultimate venting of the spleen of people's desire to be hostile, uncomprehending, and unsympathetic of addiction.
"Just stop! You'll die! You don't stop, you deserve to die!"

The show just ended with a catcall of booing for the addicted mother, and cheers as the host shook hands with the daughter and father (father who apparently has been providing alcohol for the wife). There was no resolution, no offer of help, just an hour (?) of badgering and condemnation.

[IBKleen]

Nogie...I can't stop laughing. That is a good one. I have to write that down. LOL

I think you and I had the same in-laws. I was gone for a whole year recovering and they acted like I never left. they dismissed it and pretended it did not happen. Boy, I can't tell you how helpful that was!! NOT!!

I agree. It is tough to get someone to comprehend the "disease".

Mary, I have been itching to give ya a beating..now I have a reason...LOL LOL

[nogie1717]

I had a lot of wasted years as well.  My in-laws, whom I care for greatly, fall into the category of this Steve Wilkos.  They hammered me with questions like "why can't you love our daughter like you love the drugs?"  When are you going to straighten your life out?"  One day, while feeling pissed, I looked them straight in the eye and said "June 22nd."  At least the knew when I was going to get it together.

Some people refuse to accept that addiction is a disease.  A Moral Failure makes sense to them.  That way they can stand on a pedestal and look down at the "soft underbelly of society" and be happy that it is not them.

We have a common saying at our club for the "normies."  Next time you have diarhea, just hold it.  

[allaboutmary]

I was an idiot most of my life and didn't know it. It wasn't until I became an addict that I stopped being judemental and became more compasionate and understanding. I am not proud of my past ways of thinking. (so please don't beat me up) lol   I justed wanted to be honest.   I guess my question now is ......how do we make idiots like me understand,  without becoming and addict themselves ?   Oh the looks I got in the doctors office. It must have been in my chart that I was seeking drugs.  I could see it in their condesending faces.

IBKleen.....I'm glad I finally get it.   Hugs   Mary

[IBKleen]

Shoot! I coulda had a V8!!  Why didn't I think of just stopping?????? I must have been absent the day they taught that. All those years wasted...LOL

Some people will never get it.

[addictedme]

My fathers mother ( my granmother) was an alcoholic. When my father moved our family from ohio to california ( I was 2 yrs old) my dad gave my granma an ultimatum,,quit drinking NOW and she could move with us or dont quit and she cant. I never saw my grandmother again. My father was a great man but iggnorant to addiction as many people are.