Years of bad Information.  It didn’t start with “Just Say No” but that solidified the idea that a person chooses to be an addict.  Well intended programs tried, through education, to get people to make “Health Choices”,and prevent them from making bad choices.  Thus an entire industry was created around “Prevention”.  

We spent billions on Prevention and have been bombarded with millions of messages that people choose to be addicts.  All of these programs were and still are well intentioned, many have shown success but they spread a theme that a person with a disease chose to have that disease.

As you read through this blog, you will (Hopefully!) learn that, while there are many paths to active addiction, once there, the disease controls the actions and behaviors.  The person active with the disease of addiction has little to any choice in the matter.

However, choice is where we have focused our efforts for years, and the concept of choice has infiltrated all aspects of the disease of addiction.  For example the latest mission statement from the D.A.R.E. program:

D.A.R.E. envisions a world in which students everywhere are empowered to respect others and choose to lead lives free from violence, substance abuse, and other dangerous behaviors.

(We are not trying to pick on D.A.R.E. but trying to provide understanding why we are where we are…)

Here are a few more examples:

• Just say no (This implies the person with a disease chose to say YES!)
• D.A.R.E. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (You can choose to resist)
• They have to live with the consequences of their actions (They chose this path)
• Why don’t they just stop? Why do they just keep using? (They could just choose to stop)
• An addict has to want to get help (So they can choose to get help)
• Some addicts are not ready to go into recovery (They are choosing to keep using)
• If someone relapses it’s their fault (They didn’t choose to stay clean)
• The addict has to hit bottom before they really can seek help (Uh, The bottom is death!)
• God is punishing them for their sins (All those poor choices add up!)
• God can save them from their addiction (They have to choose God)

We can go on, but the point is, the idea of someone makes a choice to have a disease is insidiously inserted into everything associated with our current understanding of addiction.  

The good news is, this is changing.  Unfortunately, too many people know too many people who are affected by the disease of addiction.  They know their friends, loved ones or work associates were not bad people, making bad choices and they are seeking and finding understanding (You are reading one product of that right now!)

Let’s make one more point here.  Thousands of people have died because of the misunderstanding of the disease of addiction.  Join us in honoring their lives and making sure that from now on, this will not happen again.  We will understand, we will love and we will help and heal those afflicted with and affected by the disease of addiction.