Saw this comment on another blog. Presented (almost) without comment:
      
     “Some cases of ‘addiction’ are actually attempts to replace what is naturally missing in their bodies. In the case of opiate addiction, some, not all, are using it for legitimate mental health treatment. While I do not advocate taking illicit substances to solve this, there exists a growing mountain of evidence supporting the notion that a lack of endogenous opioids inside of our bodies can lead to many illnesses, including depression. While not necessarily the case and knowing nothing of your situation, if your child has been suffering from depression for some time it may be worth looking in to.”

     “…using it for legitimate mental health treatment”???????????
   
     “…legitimate”??????????

     Wow. Um, yeah, opiates work for depression because they get you high as shit. Are these people serious?

     This is probably one of the more insane things I’ve ever read in my life, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that doctors are now telling you that our brains actually need prescription opiates organically or constitutionally. Okay folks, I think it may be time to pack it in, as it is now commonly accepted that more opiates serve as a legitimate mental health treatment strategy for people addicted to opiates. What an absolute travesty that this is what we’ve been reduced to in the nanny state of America.

God, please help us…

     Why is sobriety something to be celebrated when nobody should become an addict to begin with? Why is becoming normal and non-abusive again something that deserves praise and recognition? Isn’t that the wrong message to send to a group of people who are trying to rid themselves of self-pity, delusion, arrogance and grandiosity?    

     Back in 2012, I wrote a post, Living Amends, and in it there is an important story. It was about a girl I know who treated her heroin addiction with Methadone and became horribly addicted to Methadone for 12 years. Methadone destroyed her life and her body and nearly killed her. At any rate, she had finally been sober for ONE WHOLE YEAR (wow, yay) and on her “sober anniversary”, she ran to the phone and excitedly called her parents to tell them. It went something like this.

     “Mom, Dad, I’ve been sober for an entire year!” 

     “Uh huh.”

     “I got my 1-year sobriety chip!” 

     “Great. So why are you calling? Is there anything else going on?“

     The conversation was very anti-climactic. Her parents were not impressed, nor should they be. They basically said, Look, how about you stay sober for the rest of your life without needing a trophy for it or announcing it on the nightly news?

     What wise parents my friend has. The conversation humbled her, and of course, anything that humbles addicts is good for us. Both a perception she held about accomplishment and an attitude she possessed about self-importance were challenged and ultimately shattered. She changed that day, and since then has helped more addicts recover than I can count. She came to learn what true accomplishment really is, and because of this, her life of service has been a tremendous success.

     So let me again repeat a very important lesson for us drug addicts and alcoholics. In fact, thinking this way is so important that if we do not, we will most likely never make it.

Achieving physical sobriety and recovering is not an accomplishment, it is our responsibility. 

     The truth is that we never should have become drug addicts and alcoholics to begin with. It is wrong to think that we were stricken with addiction and are victims who have since achieved a great victory. Our addiction has ripped the hearts out of so many and caused indescribable damage, pain and agony. Our loved ones have suffered beyond measure, and are often forced to deal with their own version of terror, anxiety, grief, depression, chaos and insanity, all inflicted upon them by our behavior.

     So please, dig deep, and ask yourself if it is really appropriate for us to sit around congratulating ourselves because we stopped hurting those who we have destroyed so willingly? But hey, if you want to pat yourself on the back, that is your prerogative. This is just my view, and it is part of the foundation that has enabled me to become recovered and propel me into a life of adulthood, a life where there are other people who exist besides me, other people who have feelings, worries, concerns, illnesses and hard times, as well as good times and blessings.

     Because of my newfound attitude, given I was so pathologically obsessed with myself, my needs and my image, I am now able to both empathize with my loved ones as well as congratulate them on their own successes. But let me tell you something, I wouldn’t be able to behave like an adult if I was still patting myself on the back for achieving sobriety. The entire point of getting sober is because we are getting work done that should have been done years ago! We are achieving something that should have never needed to be achieved! We don’t celebrate our sobriety because nobody in our lives wants to continue to have to go back there and re-live this total lunacy.

    The point, for me anyway, of getting better is to leave my disgusting addiction in the fucking dust and move on, to grow up, become a man and be the husband, son, brother and father that my family has always deserved. Sorry, but I don’t get to congratulate myself because I robbed them of myself and of their peace and today I no longer rob them. People who abuse other people shouldn’t be recognized and applauded because they stopped.

     Isn’t stopping just becoming normal again??? Sobriety is just what everybody else already does and it is just assumed as a basic human responsibility. Not being a drug addict isn’t something special.

     So no, I don’t celebrate anniversaries. Addiction and alcoholism should be left where they belong as we continue to run the other way, forward, and begin to amass actual life accomplishments. Fine, get your 24-hour chip and applaud yourself, but then be on your way. The 24-hour chip is really the only one we need anyway, as we are forever one drink away from total destruction again. Get it? We move forward but always remember that our bodies are forever changed. It’s just that we don’t announce it from the hilltops.

     Um… addicts who tell you all dramatically and emphatically how much they wish they could stop and how they wish they weren’t addicts are lying through their teeth. I feel for the parents out there who have to suffer the false hope and bullshit we peddle.

     Some guy recently accused me of watching Fox News and killing the message with too much political interjections or some such nonsense. First of all, it is the Truth that is the message, whether we’re talking about addiction or anything else, and therefore, the message is just fine and always will be. Second, I subscribe to neither faux political party in this country or the hoax that is the Left/Right paradigm. So sorry, my friend, this is way beyond mainstream political debate in America, which has the depth of, say, the crushed beer can between the bicep and forearm of The Situation, or perhaps the season finale of Teen Mom.

     People think that I’m cynical, which I won’t argue, but I am actually quite happy, content and at peace. People think this blog is controversial, but I don’t see it that way. It is simply an attempt to see things as they are and to shine a light on addiction and recovery. And, um, by the way, the content is free, so if you don’t like it, you might consider trying to produce something of your own ;-) Anyway, listen, I am sorry to be a dick, but I’m trying to help, not hurt, and in order to do so, certain things must be said and certain perceptions must be challenged.

     So regarding some of the links, they are not political. I don’t care what ‘side’ you are on. The left and the right are interchangeable. We are all being played, as the agenda is one in the same: to grow the monster that is government and to procure personal power, prestige and control at all costs. The Left are outwardly profligate and pretend to be anti-war when in reality they are both pro-war and profligate. The Right are outwardly pro-war and pretend to be fiscally conservative when in reality they are both pro-war and just as profligate as the economically and historically illiterate Left. Both want massive government, maximum profligacy, a sheered middle class and a full blown police state.

     Both parties consist primarily of morons who understand little to nothing about how the world and the economy actually work, although the Left does take the cake for being completely and utterly clueless about economics and monetary policy, as they actually believe and continue to assert that government, not businesses, create jobs. Huh? People believe this stuff. Let me explain something to you. When government expands, real GDP shrinks. That is just math. Government doesn’t create anything. It exists and funds itself solely by extracting and stealing the wealth of its private citizens. That’s a little Truth 101 for you.

     Take the student loan debacle for instance. Student loans don’t help you, they hurt you, though you wouldn’t think so given the way your saviors in Washington talk about the virtue of having a college degree. Lmfao. We have recently crossed 1 trillion dollars in student loans and a 40% 1-year default rate, and yet, because these poor students are robbed of any financial IQ or real facts about the system and end up with a liberal arts degree that is essentially worthless, they don’t understand the scam that they are party to. Sure the scam stems from government, the big banks and the universities themselves, but the countless students who’ve been brainwashed into thinking they all need a college degree are the fuel which grows the fire. I wrote a piece about why tuition costs continue to rise, Student Slavery, but in a nutshell, it is because of unlimited access to student loans and the unlimited demand it creates, both of which are exploited by the universities and colleges. When government makes debt available to anyone with a heartbeat, tuition costs are guaranteed to rise, and rise they have.

     At any rate, all of this stuff about addiction or about monetary policy, governments, central banks and the dynamics of power only pisses people off if it somehow disagrees with what you believe. It’s sad that we have become so conditioned by the nonsense on TV, sort of ineducable, if you will, such that nobody is willing to be wrong anymore in this country, change their thinking, and learn new things. But hey, that’s what we are. We vote for what we get, and therefore we deserve what we get. We the people are just as guilty as the government clowns.

     But the truth is I care nothing about what anybody thinks. I am interested in the truth and I care about the truth, and for the sake of your future and more importantly for the future of your children, you should care too. Those who troll, argue and bicker are like adult-size children, desperate, and focused more on satisfying petty disputes as opposed to going out there and taking action and making a difference. I pray that we all wake up from our blindness, obstinacy and pomp, realize how stupid we have been, and save this world from the Godless lunatics who run it.

     And on that note, I am actively working on a comprehensive website and all of this content will be transferred at some point, so be annoyed while there is yet time ;) I also have begun an outline for a new book on the process of taking Steps for anybody, not just addicts and alcoholics. I hope families and spouses will find it useful in their own journeys of recovery and healing.

     “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.” -Alcoholics Anonymous, pp.83-84

     I remember making an amends to an old boss, one of a long list of people whom I swore I’d forever avoid like the plague. I was bubbling over with shame, humiliation and disgrace after driving company trucks around jammed out of my skull, stealing pills from people’s homes we entered, selling drugs to other employees, and threatening my poor boss in an effort to extort thousands of dollars out of him. Walking into his office that day I could feel streams of sweat trickling down the back of my arms… and just to add some insult, the ass of my pants was soaked through as well. Nervous, shaking, heart-pounding and gut churning, I approached him and became accountable for my wrongs.

     People often say, “Wow, congratulations on beating addiction!”

     Given that’s very generous and all, I don’t pat myself on the back just because I stopped hurting people. Beating cancer is 100% different than beating addiction. The cancer (in most cases), we don’t give to ourselves. The addiction we do. That is a just a fact. And to falsely use the disease model to abscond us from mutating ourselves into addicts sets a terrible moral hazard. So I’m to believe it doesn’t matter that I started off just fine and decided to run away from feelings of discomfort and boredom to go get plastered night after night until I finally broke myself and became an alcoholic? Really? Come on, that is just so naive.