Today I was asked how someone could continue to drink knowing full well the damage it is causing which raises a whole other issue; the lack of perspective those with healthy minds have in relating to those suffering from this mental illness.
One point to make early on is this: No one, not a single person, woke up one morning and thought to themselves (or better yet spoke out loud and said), “Today’s the day. Today’s the day I want to become an alcoholic”
Drugs of abuse can be addictive at the psychological level, the physical level or both. However, all psychologically addictive drugs have a physical addictive component. The level of the addiction is directly related to the amount of discomfort an addict experiences when the drug use is discontinued.
There were counselors there, and on and off, for a month, alone and in group, they tried to make me feel like they gave a shit whether I lived or died after I left the relative safety of the treatment center.
I’d been through a couple of detox facilities and one “dual-diagnosis” unit — where they treat the addiction stuff and “adjust yer meds” at the same time. In that one, I came out hooked on more shit than when I went in.
In rehab, they told us, only two out of ten of us would still be clean & sober at the end of one year. Several of us were likely to be dead. Some wouldn’t last twenty-four hours outside of the walls before we’d be drunk or high. Some of us would be back again, and a lucky one or two would find the strength to surrender.
