I honestly don’t buy into the whole imbalanced brain thing. Perhaps we have the propensity toward addiction but then again what about those that have the propensity to shop or eat chocolate… Is that too an imbalanced brain?
Frankly I think the whole disease concept was created by the American medical establishment so that they could get 3rd party payment. There is a very frightening trend that has developed momentum in the past few decades. The new trend is for doctors to assign labels and prescribe drugs. The result… a whole generation of people who believe they have a mental disorder and have become dependant on script drugs.
I can’t count how many times we have people come in with these labels and have been brainwashed to believe they are Bi Polar, Manic Depressive or other similar labels. That is not to say that the individual doesn’t have the typical symptoms… just that labels and drugs are not usually the answer… these limiting beliefs make our work all the more challenging. We have to un-brainwash the individual and teach them to empower themselves.
I my opinion the medical establishment has done more to create a dependant society then anything else. There are billions spent on short term treatment for addiction with very little solid results.
I remember when I was doing the treatment thing. I have been through 14 programs and Habilitat 2X. One center I went to three separate times for a month stay each time. The doctors knew I needed something more substantial than what they were offering but they took me in each time… you think they treated me for free? Nope! 10K each time…. Meanwhile they knew it wouldn’t work… after all relapse is part of addiction right? WRONG! I was a billable commodity for them. Finally at the end of the 3rd treatment they suggested I might need a longer term program. They knew that from the 1st stay! But it won them another 20K to just let me go through the motions.
I have been labeled many things… Bipolar, Manic Depressive, Clinically Depressed, Anti Social, Incorrigible, and many others I don’t care to even remember. They prescribed me drugs, drugs and more drugs… lithium, librium, xanax, methadone, paxil, seraquil, valium, atavan, prozac and more… they said I had a chemical imbalance….
Of course I had a chemical imbalance… I was taking all those drugs along with Heroin, Cocaine, and Methamphetamine. That tends to confuse the natural order of the brain’s chemistry! But after a prolonged period of abstinence my brain did what brains do… it started to function normally again…. I hope anyway!
It took time… a long time… that’s why short term programs don’t get long term results… There is no short term solution to a long term problem… fact is that drugs create a long term problem with the brain… they alter the brain’s functions… at the time I couldn’t understand why, after a month off the stuff I still felt hopeless… “Anhedonia” look it up! It’s basically the inability to experience pleasure brought on, in the addicts case, by mixed up brain chemistry brought on by drugs. This condition can take months and months to overcome. Luckily in most cases it will go away… I have seen some people take up to 20 months to start to feel normal again, especially with Meth. If we “truly” knew how much it would mix us up we would probably never had tried the stuff to begin with. At least that’s my thought today! Back then no one could tell me anything…. But that’s a story for a different day!
I have never met a junkie that took his first hit with the intention of becoming a junkie. People start off because of peer pressure, to party and have fun like everyone else…. Some people just can’t stop after that. Their whole existence becomes tied to the finding, funding and using of the drugs. Most of us have a moment in our addiction where we ask ourselves “how the hell did this happen to me?”
“The person takes the drug, the drugs takes the drug, the drug takes the person!”
The road to recover has a lot to do with not using drugs. The road to life has more to do with taking charge of our own lives and finding new ways to deal with our problems. I get a kick out of people when they tell me “I’m in recovery too!” I almost always reply with “REALLY! I am RECOVERED!” The idea that we will always be in recovery is not a belief that I care to subscribe to. I always like to ask people when they plan on finishing their recovery. See, their belief that they will never be rid of their addiction keeps them focused on not using drugs… The main focus of that idea is “USING DRUGS.” We teach people to focus on life, creating opportunities, and doing what will create a better tomorrow for them and their families.
So, is addiction a disease? I think not. If so, where did mine go? If there is a disease I would say it is more of a disease of character… one of mediocrity, mass thinking, and lack of discipline. These things can be overcome with the right motivation. I know because I did it! For all those wonderful doctors who tried so hard to convince me that I had a label and needed their drugs…. Well, they were wrong! Every last one of them! With all the school and all their experience, they couldn’t help me. I had to help myself!
Ask any shrink if they think long term treatment works better for addictions and they will tell you “YES!” The fact is that there is no money in long term success just like there is no money in the cure for cancer etc…. Ok…ok… now you think I some kind of conspiracy theorist… Nope… treating addiction is big business and there are many people getting fat from the profits… Why? Because they are in the money business not the people business. Profitability is of the highest order. Show me a clinic that will treat someone for free, that is without any form of compensation…There might be a few good doers but the reality is that most people are in the business for the almighty dollar… Hence the idea that addiction is a disease. Show me a doctor that can get paid for treating addiction without the addiction being a disease… How about we make PMS a disease? Or overeating… hell that kills more people than addiction by far! Smoking? Why isn’t that a disease? It’s an addiction? If we follow the flawed logic that drugs kill people and they should be illegal and the people who do them should be locked up… what about the tobacco industry? Why is Budweiser sold on every corner but when I got busted with a $5 piece of crack I was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not advocate for legalizing dope. Just that the system is full of double standards.
Habilitat and a few others like it seem to be the only organized efforts to treat the person not the addiction. We see it every day…. A person comes in thinking their addiction is the problem… take away the drugs and you have a person with many other issues, self-esteem, guilt, historical pain, abuse, neglect, lack of coping skills, anger issues, lack of confidence and many more… For any addict to recover fully these areas have to change otherwise the cycle will repeat itself. Addiction is a symptom of a serious set of problems that can’t and won’t be fixed with a label or a pill. Either way… it all comes down to choice… Showing people that they have a choice is where the efforts pay off!
Jeff Nash
Recovered Addict
Facility Director
Habilitat, Inc.