What Do You Wish People Understood About Addiction?
Readers,
Please share your common struggles and social misconceptions about addiction and recovery. What do you wish people understood most of all?
Happy Sharing!
The costs, the losses, the doublecrosses,
The mess, more is less, hard to digest
I wish people understood how hard we try even if it doesn't look like it on the surface. Slip ups don't mean we don't want to quit.
@courtney9310 I agree. cravings, triggers. The energy. I had someone tell me it's all in my head. Umm yea no crap it is all in my head. It's a mental issue/disease. And for the nonbelievers that judge and just say oh just stop. I only hope they or their loved ones never have to deal with it.
That it is a serious diease.
@ShadowTag oh and the people that DO NOT believe that is a disease or a mental illness. I pray these people never go thru it with themselves or a family member/friend. No one asks to be like this. Some say it's a choice, that's BS! Sure It was my choice to take that pill for the first time but it wasn't my choice to become addicted. It's not like we wished to be this way. Like we woke up one morning and said "I think I'm going to become and addict. This aggravated me. It's ignorant. And they should learn before passing judgment.
@faith4issues
exactly and the body physically needs it to keep going so you're fighting a serious condition while you take it. This could be life threatening its not a choice its a threat to keep going.
That, although it is a nasty drug. Underneath the drug is a human reaching for guidance and reassurance that there is more out there than just the life we are living.
@friendlyDreamer9090 I don't think it's that poetic. Ben Affleck actually said it best in a recent interview: "People with compulsive behavior, and I am one, have this kind of basic discomfort all the time that they're trying to make go away. You're trying to make yourself feel better with eating or drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever. But that ends up making your life worse,"
@blitheSun94, that it is not something everyone goes through. i see and hear comments like, we all go through tough times, or we all have stress. Addiction is specific. It is not just tough times nor just stress.
Understanding that I have an addiction has been the first step to healing. I used to think it was just a habit but after speaking with several people and realizing it's a problem, I reached out to a real therapist. Don't let yourself trick yourself that habits can be cured and then just never come back, you have to set a goals and values and have some sense of accountability!
@ReeceMonkeyy
Hello! :) im so glad that you reached out for help. Acknowledging is among the first steps that we have an addiction. That's indeed a very important thing to notice that whether it is just a habit or addiction. Thank you for sharing 
Addiction is hard but recovery is possible:)
Just because you have an addiction does not mean you are less of a person. It doesn't make you a failure. It most certainly doesn't make you a "bad apple." Most addicts did not choose to have an addiction, addiction can be a neurological disorder that should be treated as such.
One thing I wish people understood about addiction is how much it impacts the non-addicts. Just like you become consumed by drug addiction, we too get consumed by your pain, only there is no relief from it. We Can't just pop a pill and make the bad feelings go away, we must live with that feeling every single day of our lives, and often it even creeps into our dreams. It feels like living the same trauma day after day and never having it get resolved, no matter how many times you talk about it and try and process it. People can get over horrible things happening to them, but loving an addict is like being wounded again and again and never allowed to heal. It doesn't make any sense how someone can say they love you and then go on to do things that they know bring you pain day after day. Addicts don't notice all the ways they have changed and have become a grotesque caricature of the person we loved. It's the most disturbing fucked up thing to witness, and we begin to understand that you will continue to hurt us forever unless we do something about it. In a lot of cases the only way we can save ourselves is to cut you out of our lives. There is nothing natural or intuitive about this, we have to fight against every single one of our instincts to do this, and it feels like cutting off one of our limbs. It
@biggrump
I whole heartedly agree. I lost one of my closest friends to the prison system this year as his addiction lead to felony murder. His children were entered into the foster care system, but ultimately were able to remain with family. The mother of his children also uses. His personality has changed indefinitely and the brain damage is obvious. It has created this strange complex grief while he is still living, but no where near the man I used to know.
Addiction is such a powerful force that leaves devastating wreckage in its wake for everyone involved. The guilt from that often leads to relapse cycles which is one facet contributing to why recovery feels so impossible sometimes. I know when I was using that I was definitely engaging in behavior that I never would otherwise. However, all of that changed when I became pregnant. It is very difficult for me to understand those whose children are not enough for them to seek sobriety.
I wish people Truly understood that addiction is much more than selfish, gluttonous behavior. It is a disease that can take down anybody afflicted by it. It usually makes absolutely no sense to others around them who have watched and witnessed the destruction it brings. But most people don't ever learn anything about it. Instead, they blame, punish, and ostracize the addict. There's not much fault in this, there just isn't enough knowledge that is readily available or given or offered for those who don't suffer from it. Al-Anon is as close as it gets most often and is extremely ineffective overall. For as deadly as addiction is, moreso now than ever, there needs to be more day to day knowledge about it and how serious it is. That there is by far more to it than someone being of less moral character than the next. Just like mental health is finally receiving the 'credit' and awareness that it deserves, addiction needs the same attention and understanding.
Addiction has taken myself from a soccer Mom with a back injury to a homeless heroin addict. Five years later clean, I'm still the black sheep, immoral, less than human being than I was the other 40+ years of my life. I've never been fully accepted back into my 'real world' I've always known. And I may never be. I do believe if there was more knowledge and understanding about addiction that my own fall from grace may not have been soo hard and unforgiving.
