Do you take rehab'd drunks seriously?

[madmanx]

the world is too forgiving nowadays, treating addiction like it's a disease..... if people want that extra beer so bad let them live in their drunken misery

Pointless and painfully obvious attempt to be argumentative....

[twiddler]

People go through their problem in different ways. There's no reason for me to attempt to rationalize a lack of seriousness.

[Afrospinach]

Addiction is a choice, I would never understand why would someone get addicted in the first place.

So how did you discover that you are not an alcoholic?

[Laringar]

Sometimes it's hard to know on threads like this which responses are just trolling.

[zknm7]

If you don't want to do something then don't do it.... Don't people have any will power or something? 0o

This attitude displays a total lack of understanding of how addiction works... Once you pass a certain point you no longer have a choice, and only professional help and a lot of effort can return you to a "normal" state, however even then you will likely continue to crave your drug of choice for the rest of your life in some manner... If you need an everyday example simply ask a smoker how easy it is to "choose" not to smoke. And that's just a simple example, because if you are a smoker and you stop smoking you will be irritable and moody but you wont be physically sick.... tell me, if you knew that you would be violently ill, shitting yourself repeatedly with diarrhea shits and having uncontrollable leg spasms for anywhere from three days to several weeks, and all you had to do to avoid being so violently ill was take a certain kind of pill.... would you take that pill? That's pretty much the choice anybody addicted (or even physically dependent on) painkillers has to make every day, to say nothing of the fact that pretty much everyone who abuses painkillers is self-medicating because of severe depression or some other similar reason.... I had the same attitude as you and those like you once, but the simple fact of the matter is I didn't know what I was talking about. Addiction is a disease, and it requires treatment. Once you're an addict it's no longer simply a matter of willpower, it only becomes a matter of willpower again when you get the help you need and stop using, and even then it's an every day fight for sobriety... it's why the AA and NA mantra is "One day at a time."

[Mihalik]

There are two types of addictions.

Physiological and psychological. Of course physiological addictions often have a psychological component.

People develop addictions for a variety of reasons. You can kick em with the right type of therapy, medical treatment and finally support that is needed not to resume the addiction. AA meetings and sponsors are essentially that. People you can commiserate with.

[Deleted]

I suppose start with ad hominem, end with ad hominem - but that's why I made my first post to begin with. Hating on people for who they are

Angsty Edgy posts and harping on about logical fallacies. It's like a stereotype come to life and escaped from the lab where they were cloning it.

[Noomz]

Like people who go to AA meetings and have sponsors and are you'know trying to stay sober.


Do you?

Yes. I knew one. He was the most wonderful person I've ever known. He passed away in cancer a about 2 weeks ago. He was an amazingly gentle person that had as a young person fallen in with the wrong crowd, had a really shitty life but had managed to get out of it. I would let a hundred spoiled gamer brats die just to have that man still alive.

Getting into an addiction may be what you consider a choice, but it isn't. That's the definition of the word addiction.
You need new friends and encouragement and positive enforcement to get out of an addiction. That's what such groups as AA are for. Some times that's not enough and people have to be forcibly taken into care to stop them from dying to their addiction.
It's extremely difficult to get out of and the people who act like it isn't, have had absolutely no experience of it in any way, shape or form.
All it takes to get stuck in an addiction is one wrong step, one mistake.

[Independent voter]

no, once a drunk always a drunk

The alcoholics in AA say the same thing, they accept it as part of who they are.

[Noomz]

Here, lemme give you this. It will make all the pain go away. You will never feel as good as this. Trust me. It's absolutely the best feeling ever. You will forget about all that bad stuff that happened in your life.

And the best thing is: The first shot is for free. Just come to me when you need more


There is not so much difference between addictions. Alcoholism is a real problem just like any other drug addiction.

So very, very well put!
That's often how it starts. Whatever substance it's about, the intake of it is to numb something else. Then it becomes an addiction, where it's not just about numbing whatever pain you had before you started, but the pain of withdrawal.

[Charge me Doctor]

It depends on if the person has actual addiction to alcohol, or just can't handle himself.
There is really difference between person feeling physical pain without alcohol, and who has shitton of issues with his body because of it, and person who keeps drinking too much at parties

[Deleted]

I don't see why I wouldn't unless something happened that I experienced with that person due to her/him being drunk or something.

[Klora]

I'm one of them. I've been going to AA meetings weekly since 2010, have had a sponsor since 2011. In 2012 I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2, and found out I had been self-medicating for nearly 10 years prior to my diagnoses. The important thing to realize is we're all there to better our lives, those who do it for someone else's benefit are bound to fail, but if you want to make positive improvements in your life, I see no reason to disregard that effort.

[Granda]

I have seen some of the most ignorant and disgusting opinions about addiction in this thread, quite frankly you guys should be ashamed of yourselves. My father has been sober for 16 years now. He also became an addictions counselor with a masters in psychology. He has more strength and conviction than most of you will ever have.

[lakisa]

absolutely everyone deserves second chance if they try to let go of it, it is ironic how MMO players make fun of them even thought WoW is addiction as well

[Revi]

Why would I not? They had a problem and had the strength to take steps to overcome it.

[Rollo]

yeah, it's just like an illness. i still don't get why people decide to have cancer and stuff. sounds so stupid.

There are illnesses out there that can be attributed to poorly made choices. Many cancer's (and diseases/illnesses) can be attributed to differing lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, sun tanning, intercourse...).

Chemical dependency is an illness due to changes in brain chemistry.

[Gandrake]

nope

when my aunt died it scared my uncle straight off the bottle. threw it out, quit cold turkey. never talks about how long he's been sober. some things in life, you just do.

if you have so little control over your life that you need a bottle to get through it i dont know what to tell you. i down bottles for fun.

[Orange Joe]

no, once a drunk always a drunk

Once an ass always an ass.

[DocHibb]

If they're making an honest effort, then yes.

However, if they've burned bridges, and were in a coma for nearly a year (due to out of control alcoholism), with the family at the hospital bedside almost every day, then choose to continue drinking, no. Speaking from a personal perspective.