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EVERYONE LETS GET SOME VIEWS:
This issue is driving me nuts: CHEM-DEPENDENCE--VS--ADDICTION.
I used/booze off and on most of my life because it was the party...but when the opiates got me, I went up the latter to more and a mix to match...So I did not think of addiction until I no longer could control myself and could not give them up do to fear of w/ds. As most I feel we came to a Chem Dependence.The drugs got me up and going........but what in the world is the difference between the two...I read and listen to people but ?????
I used/booze off and on most of my life because it was the party...but when the opiates got me, I went up the latter to more and a mix to match...So I did not think of addiction until I no longer could control myself and could not give them up do to fear of w/ds. As most I feel we came to a Chem Dependence.The drugs got me up and going........but what in the world is the difference between the two...I read and listen to people but ?????
Best Answer
Every day at the NA Who is an Addict?? We came to use and use to live...
And clean I did say if they would listen...Yes I would of not..I liked to party and dance and sing....I moved out of the house at 17 and moved to tahoe with a fake ID...I had to finish 12 grade. Still on my own but had to work to pay bills. When I went to my first class my friend and I got no sleep and the teacher put us in the room to develope pics and he knew the coffee pot was in there..Oh the things we ALL did..RIGHT!!!! lol to U ALL...
And clean I did say if they would listen...Yes I would of not..I liked to party and dance and sing....I moved out of the house at 17 and moved to tahoe with a fake ID...I had to finish 12 grade. Still on my own but had to work to pay bills. When I went to my first class my friend and I got no sleep and the teacher put us in the room to develope pics and he knew the coffee pot was in there..Oh the things we ALL did..RIGHT!!!! lol to U ALL...
Your very right in your post. I had a hard time finding a subs doctor to treat me. The subs doctor that did treat me believes that addiction and dependency are the same thing because your body knows no different. I believe there is a different. One being with a physical dependence most people take them as directed to relieve pain. Where as a addict is taking as much as needed to get high. I went to a NA meeting and hearing the stories about addiction I was actually very scared for them that they never OD'd. I couldn't believe the amounts done people took. It made me very sad for them but very thankful they were ok. I just hope those that shared their stories stay clean. It was very heartbreaking to me because I never realized how dangerous being a addict could be. I know some of you on here may not believe in prayer but I sure do. I pray everyone on this board stays safe and gets clean and stays clean. I do know the part of losing your happiness from the meds I get :(
Love "your dream" YesLife......
I have this flip over daily deal with a serious thought at the top....and a funny one at the bottom of each page...your teenager comment reminded me of this quote...
"Hire a teenager while they still know everything"
Man, I hated my yrs of being 14-17 yrs old.....
I have this flip over daily deal with a serious thought at the top....and a funny one at the bottom of each page...your teenager comment reminded me of this quote...
"Hire a teenager while they still know everything"
Man, I hated my yrs of being 14-17 yrs old.....
If you have ever raised teenagers, you know they are going to do it there way, no matter how we tried to tell them it hasn't worked for you or anyone else you knew. Well, that's the same with addiction. Nobody thinks it is going to happen to THEM. And when it does, we are horrified to find ourselves here. It's not like the warning signs are obvious. They are very subtle. When someone once said to me "you think it could be the pills you are taking" when I was out of them and sick, I was shocked at that thought. After thinking it over, I realized somewhere along the line I had lost control. I wasn't one of 'those' people. Even before I knew what I really was I was stereotyping addicts and alcoholics. *I have a dream that one day people will understand the disease of alcoholism and addiction*
Hey, YesLife....that is SO sad about the dual use of a "building" and just shows you how the opportunity and pull to return to ANY drug will present itself at the most unsuspecting places. I had a counselor tell me NOT to go to a particular meeting because he said "they sell drugs in the parking lot before and after meetings". But ya know, I am not only powerless over my addiction, I am powerless over OTHER addicts and peeps preying on the addicts, too. Sure, I suppose there may be certain meetings where NONE of that exists, but we just have to hang with the winners, work OUR own program and avoid tempation and traps.
"God grant me the serenity to accept the PEOPLE I cannot change,
the courage to change the PERSON I can,
and the wisdom to know it's ME"
I have a loved one that is a former methamphetamine user....so he's newly out of jail and telling me.....well, I "have" to go to this AA meeting....and I'm NOT an alcoholic....he is poo pooing it before even giving it an opportunity to help him or listen to others. I told him, "it ISN'T about the SUBSTANCE"
It's about addiction.....if you choose to listen and attempt to relate....OPEN your MIIND to POSSIBILITIES and OPPORTUNITIES....it will benefit you and maybe you won't feel like you are paying penance or something"
I think I could relate to others even in a GA (gambler's anonymous) meeting! I am NOT a gambler, but that's my point.....they have an addiction that they are learning to live with as well. The principles remain the same, regardless of what addiction we are using to mask our live's pain (food, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex...)
Well, I REALLY got off topic on that run of the mouth, huh? Hahaha!
Sorry for that......do we have a gene? Would we have NOT walked the road we did because we were informed ahead of time? I can only speak for me.....but heck no it wouldn't have mattered. I had to do it MY way first.
I wasn't wise enough to learn from the mistakes of others.....or from family history, or from a book, or from horror stores. Because at 20 something yrs old.....I had the world by the tail.....and "I" was gonna be different! Ha!
Well, addiction is addiction is addiction is addiction. For me, if I had a dr tell me I had a gene and watch out.....or if I had read every bloomin book in the library......it wouldn't have changed doing what I did.
Now......as a recovering addict.....I don't expect others to listen to me either....cause when I was "young and restless" I didn't....why should they?
When something becomes important to us, we'll find a way......
if not, we'll find an excuse"
My apologies for getting so off track again....ramblin head, don't make any sense still, but hey......just for today.... it IS what it IS......
Love to all of you......hang on......somedays that's all we can do~
"God grant me the serenity to accept the PEOPLE I cannot change,
the courage to change the PERSON I can,
and the wisdom to know it's ME"
I have a loved one that is a former methamphetamine user....so he's newly out of jail and telling me.....well, I "have" to go to this AA meeting....and I'm NOT an alcoholic....he is poo pooing it before even giving it an opportunity to help him or listen to others. I told him, "it ISN'T about the SUBSTANCE"
It's about addiction.....if you choose to listen and attempt to relate....OPEN your MIIND to POSSIBILITIES and OPPORTUNITIES....it will benefit you and maybe you won't feel like you are paying penance or something"
I think I could relate to others even in a GA (gambler's anonymous) meeting! I am NOT a gambler, but that's my point.....they have an addiction that they are learning to live with as well. The principles remain the same, regardless of what addiction we are using to mask our live's pain (food, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex...)
Well, I REALLY got off topic on that run of the mouth, huh? Hahaha!
Sorry for that......do we have a gene? Would we have NOT walked the road we did because we were informed ahead of time? I can only speak for me.....but heck no it wouldn't have mattered. I had to do it MY way first.
I wasn't wise enough to learn from the mistakes of others.....or from family history, or from a book, or from horror stores. Because at 20 something yrs old.....I had the world by the tail.....and "I" was gonna be different! Ha!
Well, addiction is addiction is addiction is addiction. For me, if I had a dr tell me I had a gene and watch out.....or if I had read every bloomin book in the library......it wouldn't have changed doing what I did.
Now......as a recovering addict.....I don't expect others to listen to me either....cause when I was "young and restless" I didn't....why should they?
When something becomes important to us, we'll find a way......
if not, we'll find an excuse"
My apologies for getting so off track again....ramblin head, don't make any sense still, but hey......just for today.... it IS what it IS......
Love to all of you......hang on......somedays that's all we can do~
I read an article yesterday about an the owner of a building that held AA meetings selling Oxycodone before, in between and after meetings. Nothing surprises me anymore! In any case, some people don't realize that there isn't a difference between alcoholism and addiction, it's just the substance that resignates (sp?) with the user most. In our bodies though a drug is a drug is a drug. So a determining gene wouldn't determine WHICH substance a person would be likely to abuse. If there was such a thing. And I supposed if there was, perhaps they may be able to identify that down the road. But first things first.
The GENE thing is no big thing for me NOW ..Physicains and the public are trying to understand better the interactions between genetics and addiction. The number of a certain type of dopamine receptors , known as D2, might someday be used to predict wheather someone will become addicted. Brain images suggest that people with the fewer D2 receptors are more likely to become addicted than those with many-and how many they have is genetically determined. Of course environmental factors also play a role, so propensity isn't destiny. First a person has to experiment with the substance, then repeatedly use them. At that point, genetic vulnerability helps determine who winds up addicted...Genes also account for 60 percent of tendency to be come addicted and 54 percent of one's abitity to quit.......NOW Maybe if this would save a Kid or Two to beware what can happen then YES.... I would be all for it!!! Although we can tell them but we cannot control there destiny... Knowledge might help people to unterstand what can happen..No one wants to be an addict... I know it would be for the ones who would Listen...and Yes alot of addiction is from deprssion ect mentall illness, but why should they not be aware and the DR too.
God Bless us we are only addicts..
vickie
God Bless us we are only addicts..
vickie
COMMUNITY LEADER
As far as i am concerned if they ever find an "addiction gene" it will be just one more excuse to use in active addiction.
I like what nursegirl said about people driving themselves absolutely nuts trying to find this mysterious root cause somewhere in their past.
That happens way more than people would think and when someone relapses their recovery group says it is "because you have not worked hard enough to find the reason"
That kept me a hopeless mess for many years.I had to de-program from this thinking in order to even get clean in the first place.I have since been able to string together some long periods of clean time.Yes I have had a couple of relapses since then. The root cause of those-plain and simple,poor coping skills mixed with the fact that I knew I could escape by being high.I am working on that now. I also have depression but I treat it with diet and exercise. It helps TONS
That happens way more than people would think and when someone relapses their recovery group says it is "because you have not worked hard enough to find the reason"
That kept me a hopeless mess for many years.I had to de-program from this thinking in order to even get clean in the first place.I have since been able to string together some long periods of clean time.Yes I have had a couple of relapses since then. The root cause of those-plain and simple,poor coping skills mixed with the fact that I knew I could escape by being high.I am working on that now. I also have depression but I treat it with diet and exercise. It helps TONS
When living my life drug and alcohol free over the years, I find I don't have hobbies, I have obsessions.
The problem with that is, even if they DID or could find an "addiction: gene, it doesn't necessarily always have significance, other than to make someone be more aware that they are at higher risk if they aren't ALREADY struggling with addiction.
There are just SO many factors that play into addiction....for some, there definitely IS a big genetic component, for others, it's more situational, environmental, and due to poor coping skills, especially when there is one or more mental illnesses involved (anxiety disorders, depression, biploar, etc).
Addiction is classified as a mental illness (diagnostically), and like with all other mental illnesses, there are NO solid answers, only theories. The scientists still haven't figured out a definitive "cause" for depression, or any other mental illness. There's the theory that there is a chemical imbalance, there is the nature vs. nurture argument.
So, just in my personal opinion, I think there's probably a lot of other, better things researchers could spend their money on, rather than searching for a gene that may or may not attribute to someone becoming an addict. Interesting info though for sure.
I would love to know if this is real...I have read alot about it being there?????? Honestly, while it is certainly interesting, I think, in the big picture...it doesn't make a whole lot of difference at this point. You've already discovered so much about yourself, and while genetics may have played a role in you ending up addicted, it doesn't CHANGE that, you know? And, really, there's nothing much you could do about it if you DID find that out. It would be a guess more than anything...because even if you were found to have an addiction gene, there's really NO way to definitively know whether or not that was the CAUSE of your addiction, and if it is...there's no going back now. Unless they could develop a medication that inactivates that gene...lol...not sure how useful knowing a person has an addiction gene would be. I would rather see them spend that money on education. GOOD education...not the crappy fear mongering education we have now.
This is just how I feel...I say a lot of the same things to the folks on the anxiety forum. This isn't directed at you at all...just an example...but people new to anxiety spend SOOOO much time searching and ruminating over the "why"s...and most times, there just really is NOT a clear answer. It's a guessing game. UNLESS someone has some kind of trauma in their past that needs addressed, I feel the "why" is mostly irrelevant...the important thing is what you do about it to address it. Now, addicion is a little different, as it IS important to address what a person thinks took them there to begin with, to try to fix those underlying problems...but people still can get stuck on overanalyzing that, and driving themselves bonkers. :0)
Ok...I'm officially rambling..lol!! I haven't had my morning coffee yet. Anyway, it's a great discussion...this is a great thread. I think there needs to be more awareness that are differences between addiction and dependency....like most everything else, it boils down to education.
There are just SO many factors that play into addiction....for some, there definitely IS a big genetic component, for others, it's more situational, environmental, and due to poor coping skills, especially when there is one or more mental illnesses involved (anxiety disorders, depression, biploar, etc).
Addiction is classified as a mental illness (diagnostically), and like with all other mental illnesses, there are NO solid answers, only theories. The scientists still haven't figured out a definitive "cause" for depression, or any other mental illness. There's the theory that there is a chemical imbalance, there is the nature vs. nurture argument.
So, just in my personal opinion, I think there's probably a lot of other, better things researchers could spend their money on, rather than searching for a gene that may or may not attribute to someone becoming an addict. Interesting info though for sure.
I would love to know if this is real...I have read alot about it being there?????? Honestly, while it is certainly interesting, I think, in the big picture...it doesn't make a whole lot of difference at this point. You've already discovered so much about yourself, and while genetics may have played a role in you ending up addicted, it doesn't CHANGE that, you know? And, really, there's nothing much you could do about it if you DID find that out. It would be a guess more than anything...because even if you were found to have an addiction gene, there's really NO way to definitively know whether or not that was the CAUSE of your addiction, and if it is...there's no going back now. Unless they could develop a medication that inactivates that gene...lol...not sure how useful knowing a person has an addiction gene would be. I would rather see them spend that money on education. GOOD education...not the crappy fear mongering education we have now.
This is just how I feel...I say a lot of the same things to the folks on the anxiety forum. This isn't directed at you at all...just an example...but people new to anxiety spend SOOOO much time searching and ruminating over the "why"s...and most times, there just really is NOT a clear answer. It's a guessing game. UNLESS someone has some kind of trauma in their past that needs addressed, I feel the "why" is mostly irrelevant...the important thing is what you do about it to address it. Now, addicion is a little different, as it IS important to address what a person thinks took them there to begin with, to try to fix those underlying problems...but people still can get stuck on overanalyzing that, and driving themselves bonkers. :0)
Ok...I'm officially rambling..lol!! I haven't had my morning coffee yet. Anyway, it's a great discussion...this is a great thread. I think there needs to be more awareness that are differences between addiction and dependency....like most everything else, it boils down to education.
I know I was talking about that to my doctor he just smiled. I said I have to go into this and study this area. I do know I was watching a program way back when and the girls parents died of drinking so she was afraid to take even one drink. They did a swap of her mouth and said she had the gene(D2) Go figure girl go look it up and let me know.You can do it better then my healing brain right now!!!! I am laughing all the way.. I would love to know if this is real...I have read alot about it being there??????I just want it broke down in the science way of the brain.........
Thanks God Bless u
vickie
Thanks God Bless u
vickie
COMMUNITY LEADER
Last time i had my cheeks swabbed it wasnt looking for an addiction gene!!
I would doubt it, and I have never heard anything of the sort. Have they even identified an "addiction gene"? That's not something that would be easy to do.
Hey gang...I was reading this paper work from a sub doc I got some how...Any way they are saying that they might make it so the docs have to do a mouth swap on people to make sure they do not have that addiction Gene before they give them a certain scrip...
I know when I got out of control I was not going to tell any doctor I was an addict. I did it all like YesLife4Me..said............and the rest of you above here....
vickie
What do u know about this one nursegirl????
I know when I got out of control I was not going to tell any doctor I was an addict. I did it all like YesLife4Me..said............and the rest of you above here....
vickie
What do u know about this one nursegirl????
Hopefully there will come a time when addiction is understood and not just labeled.
All i know is i believe i was born with that addiction gene! Thankfully it is a recovering gene now~ .
I agree completely sarah! And, if it wasn't for the stigma still associated with addiction, my sweet little old lady wouldn't have been nearly as upset as she was. She was very old school, and in her mind, addiction equated to someone of lesser character, etc...she couldn't understand how that was her.
Her family was also pretty uniformed. Everyone learned a lot from that...including her doctor!
All i know is i believe i was born with that addiction gene! Thankfully it is a recovering gene now~ .
I agree completely sarah! And, if it wasn't for the stigma still associated with addiction, my sweet little old lady wouldn't have been nearly as upset as she was. She was very old school, and in her mind, addiction equated to someone of lesser character, etc...she couldn't understand how that was her.
Her family was also pretty uniformed. Everyone learned a lot from that...including her doctor!
That's a really sad story. And it is a perfect example of how even the medical field confuses the two. So if they confuse the two, imagine how hard it is to decipher for people who don't understand addiction. That poor lady.
Something similar happened to my b/f when he had a hip replacement surgery. Actually, they did it twice, the second one a month later because the first one failed. Leading up to it, they had him on pain meds daily (a pretty low dose of 5mg Vic) for 3 months. I don't think he took more than 2 or 3 a day. Anyhow, after the surgery(s) they had him on alot of oxy's and vic's. And when I say alot, I mean alot. Something like 2 or 3 oxy's every 3-4 hours and 2 vic's every 3-4 hours in between to keep him from having lows. The Surgeon's assistant was handing them out to him like candy. So one day he checks in (while his surgeon and assistant are on vacation to get a refill and the gals at the front desk reacted in horror about how many he was taking. They were saying it isn't possible for someone to take that much and still be alive, etc, etc. They got another surgeon to authorize a small refill of vic's a couple days later with instructions to see follw up with his surgeon, but in the meantime suffered terrible w/d all weekend til it was filled on Monday morning. When we went to see the surgeon's assistant, she tried to downplay it as if she didn't write the scrips that way and that was way too much to be taking. She also said that wasn't possible. Unfortunately he had tossed the bottles but we explained to her how it was possible. Apparently she didn't understand addiction either and that it IS possible for someone to quickly build that kind of tolerance. We later got the transcripts and there were no details about exactly how his meds were prescribed. Go figure. Now we joke around about her having been his drug dealer. LOL! BTW, he is off pain meds now.
Something similar happened to my b/f when he had a hip replacement surgery. Actually, they did it twice, the second one a month later because the first one failed. Leading up to it, they had him on pain meds daily (a pretty low dose of 5mg Vic) for 3 months. I don't think he took more than 2 or 3 a day. Anyhow, after the surgery(s) they had him on alot of oxy's and vic's. And when I say alot, I mean alot. Something like 2 or 3 oxy's every 3-4 hours and 2 vic's every 3-4 hours in between to keep him from having lows. The Surgeon's assistant was handing them out to him like candy. So one day he checks in (while his surgeon and assistant are on vacation to get a refill and the gals at the front desk reacted in horror about how many he was taking. They were saying it isn't possible for someone to take that much and still be alive, etc, etc. They got another surgeon to authorize a small refill of vic's a couple days later with instructions to see follw up with his surgeon, but in the meantime suffered terrible w/d all weekend til it was filled on Monday morning. When we went to see the surgeon's assistant, she tried to downplay it as if she didn't write the scrips that way and that was way too much to be taking. She also said that wasn't possible. Unfortunately he had tossed the bottles but we explained to her how it was possible. Apparently she didn't understand addiction either and that it IS possible for someone to quickly build that kind of tolerance. We later got the transcripts and there were no details about exactly how his meds were prescribed. Go figure. Now we joke around about her having been his drug dealer. LOL! BTW, he is off pain meds now.
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hopefully there will come a time when addiction is understood and not just labeled.
All i know is i believe i was born with that addiction gene! Thankfully it is a recovering gene now~
All i know is i believe i was born with that addiction gene! Thankfully it is a recovering gene now~
All very well said!
Like I said before, the LABELS aren't that important...not IMO anyway, but I think that it's important to acknowledge the difference, for both kinds of people. People who are dependent but not addicted probably could greatly benefit from knowing they aren't an "addict"...because it's confusing and scary...plus, they may end up being subjected to things that aren't appropriate, like being red flagged, being subjected to NA meetings they don't need, etc. It's very unfortunate that some people DO think they're an addict when they're not. I've experienced this in the health care field.
For those who ARE addicted, it's important for THOSE people to recognize the difference because if they allow to convince themselves that they're ONLY dependent, they probably will stay in denial and not get the help they need.
Just because it's common to use some of these terms interchangeably does NOT mean they are the same thing. Sad thing is, even doctors lump the two together...and that only fuels the misconceptions out there.
I had an 80-something year old patient once who was admitted to the hospital for Percocet w/d (she had some significant heart and BP problems). This woman was NOT an addict, but everyone was telling her she was. She never abused her med, she took them every day for many years for pain issues...like so many, she had NO idea about tolerance, dependency, nothing. She was DEVASTATED and scared...her family was mad at her and disappointed, and were looking into drug rehabs for her. Her chart was flagged and everything. She went through ALL of that emotional turmoil for nothing...over a label. She didn't deserve that....all it did was confuse her and make her so upset. We finally got everyone on the same page, understanding that she was not addicted but rather dependent, thank goodness. That's a perfect example of how using the two terms interchangeably can cause unnecessary issues for people...mislabeling people (on BOTH sides of this debate) is doing a great disservice to those people.
Like I said before, the LABELS aren't that important...not IMO anyway, but I think that it's important to acknowledge the difference, for both kinds of people. People who are dependent but not addicted probably could greatly benefit from knowing they aren't an "addict"...because it's confusing and scary...plus, they may end up being subjected to things that aren't appropriate, like being red flagged, being subjected to NA meetings they don't need, etc. It's very unfortunate that some people DO think they're an addict when they're not. I've experienced this in the health care field.
For those who ARE addicted, it's important for THOSE people to recognize the difference because if they allow to convince themselves that they're ONLY dependent, they probably will stay in denial and not get the help they need.
Just because it's common to use some of these terms interchangeably does NOT mean they are the same thing. Sad thing is, even doctors lump the two together...and that only fuels the misconceptions out there.
I had an 80-something year old patient once who was admitted to the hospital for Percocet w/d (she had some significant heart and BP problems). This woman was NOT an addict, but everyone was telling her she was. She never abused her med, she took them every day for many years for pain issues...like so many, she had NO idea about tolerance, dependency, nothing. She was DEVASTATED and scared...her family was mad at her and disappointed, and were looking into drug rehabs for her. Her chart was flagged and everything. She went through ALL of that emotional turmoil for nothing...over a label. She didn't deserve that....all it did was confuse her and make her so upset. We finally got everyone on the same page, understanding that she was not addicted but rather dependent, thank goodness. That's a perfect example of how using the two terms interchangeably can cause unnecessary issues for people...mislabeling people (on BOTH sides of this debate) is doing a great disservice to those people.
People become addicted to all kinds of things. It is when it causes damage not only to you but to others (family, work, friends) that it becomes a problem. Drug addicts and alcoholics tend to isolate and emerge to seek out their DOC. They let it rule there lives instead of being a part of their lives. Gambling is an addiction that isn't physical it is emotional and it takes over their lives the way drugs do for addicts. Their is such a thing as pseudo addicts where the person is dependent but stockpiles, takes more than they need on occassion for fun or extra activities but they usually don't run out before a refill.
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I respectfully disagree, there IS a difference. There ARE a lot of areas where the two are similar and even interwine for some people, but there is a big difference between someone who is just physically dependent on a drug and someone who has the mental dependency aspect.
Someone here once described it very well, and very simply...dependence is PHYSICAL, addiction is MENTAL. That does pretty much describe the difference in a nut shell.
The way I look at it is...a person who is dependent but not an addict doesn't display those maladaptive behaviors that an addict does. There's no "romancing" the drug, no mental NEED or desire to take them. People who are not addicted would not seek the drug out other than for their pain (or whatever a med is Rx'ed for). Even when they KNEW that skipping doses would lead to w/d...they still really don't have that mental need for the medication. A physical one, sure, because of course they don't want to have to experience w/ds. Besides the w/d, they can just walk away from it, and never look back, never having a need or interest in tsking those pills again...whereas an addict has to struggle with those desires and cravings for the rest of their life.
The mental and behavioral aspect of an addiction is what differentiates the two. The two terms are often used interchangeably, where is where a lot of confusion comes from, IMO.
Both are issues that need addressed, but even that is appraoched differently. A person who is dependent doesn't need the aftercare, doesn't need to explore why they are taking the meds...they just need help getting off of them when the time comes.
I think this is a great discussion, I feel strongly that there needs to be more awareness and understanding about the differences between the two. I think people who are just dependent need to be sure they're not being treated as if they have an addiction. Like,I personally strongly disagree with Suboxone being used for someone who is only dependent. ACTUALLY, Sub docs should NOT be treating them, as there is very specific criteria a patient has to meet in order to be accepted for sub treatment...and some of those criteria involve the addictive history and behaviors...which would not be present in a person who is only dependent. I never saw any patients like that in the clinic I worked for. The doc I worled with took those criteria seriously. One of the guidelines is (or used to be) that a person had to be abusing drugs for at least 12 months...she was adamant about that, unless a person was very close. If a person had only been abusing opiates for a couple months, she told them that sub treatment was not appropriate for them.
And, lastly it shouldn't be about one (dependency vs addiction) being "better" or "worse" than the other (as we see a lot of times in people's attitudes), they're just different. Apples and oranges.