How come addicts get so much sympathy? Is being a selfish asshole really an "illness"?

They do deserve help but when an addict lies cheats and steals to get high because they lost the power of choice in using (usually because of intense withdrawal) they get no sympathy.

I bet you use terms like "druggies". It's okay user i remember being prepubescent as well. Being an addict is fucked, being in recovery and being committed to it is something that deserves respect. I'm a recovering poly addict but I was never a selfish prick. Never alienated myself or lost track of what really mattered, I was just numb all the time and realized one day that life is too short to spend it fucked up all the time. Unlike other people I can't do anything in moderation. To a degree it's an illness, to a degree it's self inflicted. At the end of the day being an addict/mentally ill isn't something people generally want sympathy for unless they're self diagnosed or larping to get attention. Those people should anhero themselves.

Right?! I can't be the only one that thinks that. Like I didn't even attempt drugs, shouldn't I get a fucking medal for that?

>being a selfish asshole
>the illness of chemical addiction
pick one

People feel sympathy for recovering addicts and their families/friends. I don't think people really care about some junkie who isn't even trying to get clean.

No.

Mad points

the worse is when they brag about how long they did drugs before becoming clean. guess at the end, they just need some attention to help them move on. its insane people would do drugs just for that.

Well, no shit. I'm being rhetorical.

Yes.

Because of the work needed TO quit. If someone was smoking for 15 years and then managed to quit, would you give them a "Hey, congrats?" Probably, if nothing, out of courtesy. What if they weighed 500 pounds and managed to lose it all and became really hot looking? Would you say "nice job?" Those are both situations they "got themselves into." Now imagine you knew they were able to lose the weight when every cell in their body was screaming at them to eat like shit? That it's something that, once it starts, they are never normal again, their body now wants it and even ONE slip will be enough to send their lives spiraling out of control.

I DO think addiction is a disease, but a mental disease. It's a mental disorder. Most addicts were, before addiction, really great people. I'm an alcoholic, and the sort of people you see in the rooms are not who'd you'd expect. Sure there will be some strung out people, but you've got doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen...all sorts. The one thing I don't like is that, in this country, it's pure abstinence. AA or no way, when in other countries they're experimenting with medication that can fix the issue. Oh well.

They won't need TO work in order TO quit if they didn't get hooked in the first place.

It's like saying good job when you fix something you intentionally broke.

Nobody really starts using drugs planning to become addicted and to destroy their lives and their families

>implying all addicts are selfish assholes

Did you just get out of high school, bud? Mad because your junkie dad beat you or something? Well get over it. The only thing worse than addiction is people who elevate themselves on a pedestal because they aren't users. And people like you wonder why addicts rush to a world in which they are familiar and not ridiculed as outcasts.

It's a LOT deeper than just wanting to get high, you fucking nitwit.

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No one INTENTIONALLY goes out to become an addict. I certainly didn't intentionally become an alcoholic. I just did what I thought everybody was doing in high school and college, we all drank. I thought I just like to party more than them. Eventually, it got out of control and when I tried to stop it was much more difficult than just putting the drink down. So if you're talking about hard drugs, like heroin or crack, again, people generally work UP to that shit, from lighter stuff. I don't think people wake up one morning and decided to become a crack head.

I’m sensing a lot of projection in this post

Drugs are bad but if you get addicted that's your own problem bud. discord gg 9nQu8gG

Just as there's a lot of children in this thread whose only encounter with drugs is the bullshit propagated by past generations. Drugs are here to stay, and people will always use them to escape their personal issues. If you don't like drugs don't fucking do them.
Simple.

Why even try drugs in the first place? There's way more of us that didn't and we're fine.

Addicts can’t use drugs without it taking over their lives. People say it’s weak but it doesn’t really matter what they think

I think the moment you decided to try drugs, you are intentionally sabotaging your body. You took the risk upon yourself.

Because not everybody lives cookie cutter lives in a country "founded" on freedom of choice. These are all arguments from people who have obviously never been in any social scenarios in which drugs are abundant, so why even argue?

No, I don't care about those already addicted. I'm talking about those that never touch it in the first place, I don't and never had the urge the try. So why do people try in the first place?

What? So there are social events where it's better to succumb to drugs? I don't see how there will be unless there's a gun pointing directly at your head telling you to do drugs.

A number of different reasons, abuse, childhood trauma, depression. Addiction runs deeper than wanting to get high and that’s what people don’t understand. Using drugs is a symptom of something that is happening deep inside. People who stay clean address this and never have to use drugs again

Ah, if that's the case I understand. What I don't get is why Kyle that got addicted because he tried it for shits and giggles so we got to applaud him for his determination after he become sober.

Yeah, they're called drug houses you obvious suburban prick. People come in, shoot dope, stay high and leave. But if you're not coming in to buy or get high best believe the owner is getting sketched out, so he's GOING to get aggravated and ask you to get the fuck out, most likely with a stolen firearm. People GROW UP in these houses.

So yes, Chad. That shit happens

And it doesn't even have to be that exact scenario. People who grow up around drugs and see it as normal behavior are ofc going to seed their way into that lifestyle. This is one of those topics where if you don't have first or even second-hand experience, just shut the fuck up and let the druggies do what they want. If it kills them, whatever. Darwinism

Getting clean isn’t easy. Also addicts who get clean are typically great people. In order to stay clean you have to do the opposite behaviors of what you did in addiction. So to stay clean you can’t be a piece of shit anymore

They can do what they want, not trying to stop them. I'm just here trying to understand what's so brave in them quitting what they led themselves into.

addicted piece of shit, addicted fucking garbage, you will learn your place beneath the audacity of a true man. A sober man.

Know that even the lowliest of the sober man is greater than your greatest addicted prodigy. A dick numbering 12 inches or more you cannot compete and while you laugh yourself giddy in denial revel in knowing that every single day while you go to work a real man, a sober man, is destroying your gf or wife in your house and on your bed and she will never tell you because she craves what you cannot offer.

There is nothing you can do about it. An untamable beast of pure masculinity in comparison to you, you shrivel in cowardice behind your computer screen. Never in your sorry pathetic addicted-guilted life will you ever call one of us a "druggie" to our faces because you know that you would not escape retribution.

Claim your superiority with your drugs all you want because deep down you know that its a fall-back to mask your incompetence and insecurity over having become worthless in the eyes of those greater than you. Try as you will reality cannot and will not be prevented by the likes of you.

You are the minority. We are the majority. We are lord and master - judge and jury. You will not escape, you will be bred out of existence and your children just as your women will bow to us.

If they got addicted outside their means of control, then I understand.

But if they intentionally got themselves addicted though like Kyle? Fuck no.

Kyle knows what his doing, he knows the risk. And yet he chose to let it happen.

This guy is resentful because his mom was a dick sucking junkie and his dad was a crack head that molested him.

this all coming from a man who probably has ends on ends of psychotic/bipolar meds judging by the way you wrote that.

I don’t think it matters how it started, anybody who gets clean and stays clean I think should deserve alittle respect

I just learned a lot in this thread, you should read this here.Some of them had no choice in this matter, you shouldn't judge them as hard.

I disagree with you but I respect your opinion so I won't try and convince you otherwise.

No, you're not. Be honest with yourself. You're here to say you don't think there's anything all that special or good about people quitting and it annoys you that people praise it. You're not here to understand anything, you're here to say what you think. The sooner you can be honest with your INTENT, the sooner people can actually have a discussion with you.

>addicted piece of shit,
eats another salted french fry

> addicted fucking garbage,
drinks red bull 20oz

> you will learn your place
inhales whataburger cheeseburger

>beneath the audacity of
orders 20 chicken nugget

>a true man. A sober man.
gets a 19 inch greasy pizza

>he thinks that addiction is strictly reserved to drugs

Is every and all threads on Yas Forums troll-threads now?
Are there no conversations at all anymore?

Pic unrelated

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It's more of the process of learning to live without something that has filled an empty void in your life, one you didn't even know you had.

For many people who are so addicted, coming off the drugs would just be suicide, because their bodies are so accustomed to the dosages of chemicals that when all that is gone, everything in the brain/nervous system goes haywire.
It's especially terrible in alcoholics/benzodiazepine addicts, as there is a high chance of fatal withdrawal symptoms in the first month/few of quitting. Take it from a former benzo fiend, it is absolutely a fight for your life. I've seen heroin addicts unable to function entirely after just 3 hours of not hitting foil.

Nobody gets in this life for the outcome. They are dazzled by the way movies/media popularize these drugs and they want to see for themselves if they can handle it. And yes, most of the time they can't, but that IS on them.

The problem is that there are so many drug addicts who treat it as a game that it lessens the credibility of addicts who were forced into the lifestyle, either by poverty, family/friend relations, or mental trauma.

The world of drugs is just too vast and broad to even put on a spectrum these days. There's so much out there, especially when pharm companies keep plopping out new opiates every other week and act surprised when their patients turn into heroin addicts.

I actually learned a lot from this post here. So that's really my intent. It seems those that had no control towards their addiction deserves the praises. But those that did it for fun don't as they understand the risk and yet willingly took it. That's my statement now after I read that post.

Being a selfish asshole is not an illness. Addiction might be, depending on how you define an illness. Addiction means the synapses in the brain is so damaged that in order to function normally it needs whatever caused the addiction. If it doesn't get it, it results in a variety of problems, the least being personality changes. An addict without the addictive thing may very well cease to function cognitively as you and I do. The part of the brain that handles empathy is shut down in favour of other parts which enables the person to get whatever caused the addiction. While this craving is going on, the person is not who you remember, and some are completely unable to act with empathy. It is not that they can and don't want to, it's that they can't because that part of the brain isn't functioning properly at the moment. After they have what caused the addictive behaviour, they will return to normal functionality, and that may or may not include crippling anxiety over what they have done. A cycle of trying to quit, failing, hurting loved ones, and then trying to quit again is pretty common. Some addictions are simply not possible to break for the individual, and an outside party must force the change.

It's fucking ugly and pretending like addicts have full functionality over their actions suggests that you are either incredibly ignorant who can't find this information on your own, despite being online and having access to google etc. Or it suggests that addiction is not required to become an asshole. Pick one.

But that's just one case out of MANY as far as why someone would try drugs. If someone tries it "for shits and giggles," and gets addicted to them...well it is what it is. But that is rarely the situation that an addict found themselves in. People make poor choices for a number of different reasons. Addictions is, more often than not, a SYMPTOM of a much deeper and more troubling issue the person is going through. Address the issues, which is what 12 step programs and sponsors and all that attempt to do, and the addict can get clean and stay clean. The reason we praise them is because of the amount of time and effort that goes into this process of change. And, honestly, why the fuck not? If someone has lost everything and has been sucking dick in an alley to get a fix but worked through their shit, got their life back together, mended bridges with the people they've harmed...what purpose would saying "yeah well it's your own fault. IIIIIII never tried it in the first place," serve? Other than to make the person saying it feel superior? Give the guy a break. Without any first hand experience in the situation or being in the circles where this shit happens, it would be very hard to explain it in a way that will be satisfying to you.

And I'm glad that you can see that now. I grew up around some of the biggest methheads in MISSOURI, so that's saying something. I used to have kids from the neighboring suburbs ask what the lifestyle of drugs/dealing was like but I always told them if you weren't born for it, don't go for it.

All the kids that didn't listen to me are either dead, in rehab, or just so fucked out of their minds they've lost everything(and im talking RICH kids)

I understand. My thinking have changed after reading some post on this thread. If you just try it for fun, you don't get praises after you quit. Since you know about the risk and yet you tried. If it's out of your control, then more power to you.

You brought something interesting into the table regarding media romanticizing drug use. But my counterpoint is that anti drug campaigns would balance that out and people would know about the risk regardless.

Do you think having better and more of those campaigns would be more effective in reducing the amount of people that will be trying it willingly?

I mean it's a bit of a situation where someone dies while skydiving. They new the risk going in, they were looking for a rush of excitement and something new. And people sometimes aren't even aware of how EASILY one can become addicted, so they think "Oh, I'll just try it once, just to see." Your example of Kyle would be like my example of skydiving without a parachute. Sure, that would be dumb, but that's rarely what people think it is when they're in the moment. So when they do, and that parachute doesn't open and they slam into the ground, it can destroy their lives. Now, imagining they managed to survive it, and through therapy, time, and hard work, managed to walk again...I think it's something I can at least say "I'm glad you're back," to if nothing else.

Yea, I read some the post here and agreed if they had no choice but to be exposed to drugs because of their age or lifestyle then its perfectly fine to pat their back once they got their feet up.

Though your point brought something else to the table, I may not know Kyle that well anyway. Maybe he got his own void to fill and doing it for "shits and giggles" is just an excuse. It doesn't take much effort to praise someone anyhow.

Very well said. Thank you.

I think the campaigns as they are (D.A.R.E for one is prehistoric and needs to GO) are all somewhat flawed.
There needs to be more of a harm-reduction center towards people who are already addicts. How to keep needles clean, how not to overuse a vein and cause damage, etc,.

I think we've come a long way since the "this is your brain on drugs" PSA but there is definitely room for change. Kids these days are simply just going to do it. It's popular culture, and whatever they see their favorite celebrity do they're gonna imitate. Now obviously this isn't true in ALL students, but the amount of drug use, including the harder ones like meth/heroin, has been rising steadily among teenagers. And these kids don't know what the fuck they're doing when it comes to that world. They can easily get robbed, raped, or killed by some sketch posing as a dealer, or they can easily overdose because they just have no idea what they're getting their hands into, especially with fent pills going around like $5 ass in TJ.

As far as preventing the children from using, that's a really vague and large ballpark to be hitting in. Maybe the star football quarterback for his high school tears his ACL, gets prescribed percocets for the pain and within months he's a full blown opiate addict. That's just something that's really hard to fight, because even if you only take oxycodone one time, you can THINK you don't need it, but at the end of the day without a dose or two, you're going to be depressed, slow, in pain and angry at everything.

We're in an age where drugs are kinda the most popular thing to do right now so it's just really hit or miss with a lot of people, unfortunately. I'm just glad I got out of that life.

That post really brought in a new perspective for me, I didn't consider those that were born in drug abusive families. They literally got no choice at all.

Reason why I asked in the first place is that is quite common in my circle of society, rich kid got hooked, went through rehab , tons of praises but won't stop mentioning it ever. I'm 22 currently and my family is just doing well enough for me to meet rich people around my age. It kinda sickens me

Honestly, this thread had a bunch of information that really opened my eyes.