judge not lest ye be judged.

All right kids, we're gonna take a few minutes to talk about addiction. What it is, what it really means, the misconceptions people have, and how it's treated. Because I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the ignorance, in most cases intentional, of such a complex and misunderstood disease.

Addicts are people too. Don't try and act like you've never done something dumb. Like fucking without a rubber which produces unplanned children.

But hey, babies are socially acceptable. It's cool to bring a child into the world and potentially fuck it up because of your lack of preparedness, but it's not okay to spend your time alone, hurting only yourself, which is not the potential happiness of someone else's entire lifetime.

Because THAT makes fucking sense. (I'm kind of pissed right now, can anyone tell?)

OR how cigarettes and alcohol are socially acceptable even though more people die from cigarette and alcohol related health issues than over doses. And we can buy this shit at the gas station! The grocery store!

And by presenting these facts I'm NOT saying that narcotics are okay! I'm just trying to shine a little light on the hypocrisy of people.

Alcohol Use and Health*

• There are approximately 80,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States.¹
•  This makes excessive alcohol use the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation.² Excessive alcohol use is responsible for 2.3 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) annually, or an average of about 30 years of potential life lost for each death.¹

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.*

• Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.³
• In the United States, smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these smoking-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure).¹

MEANWHILE...

• In 2008, more than 36,000 people died from drug overdoses, and most of these deaths were caused by prescription drugs.*

And see how it says prescription drugs? Funny... that shit is supposed to be regulated by the government...I mean, our insurance pays for that shit.

Sorry this statistic wasn't as impressive as the others, but I couldn't find the original site I was looking at and all the other stats were on numbers of users as opposed to number of deaths. Still. I feel my point is made.

Anyway.

WHAT IT IS

Merriam Webster's Online dictionary defines it;

addiction:  noun a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal;
broadly: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

It is also listed in the DSM-IV with varying levels of specificity.

Dependence or significant impairment or distress, as manifested by 3 or more of the following during a 12 month period:**

1. Tolerance or markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect or markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of substance
2. Withdrawal symptoms or the use of certain substances to avoid withdrawal symptoms
3. Use of a substance in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended
4. persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use
5. Involvement in chronic behavior to obtain the substance, use the substance, or recover from its effects
6. Reduction or abandonment of social, occupational or recreational activities because of substance use 
   
7. Use of substances even though there is a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance

WHAT THAT REALLY MEANS

So what does all this psychobabble actually mean you say?

It means that we are all pre-programmed to become some type of addict. Whether or not it is genetically dominant in you or your family has not been documented with a completely certainty, more as a reoccurring trend. And whether or not it actually happens is partially up to you. This is a nature vs nurture thing. If it's in your family history, but you are raised in a completely different environment, will you still be susceptible to becoming an addict? Conversely, if it doesn't run in your family and you still become an addict is it because of how you were raised? If you step out of the physiological components of addiction, ie the "I must have this shit to function" part and look at the psychological aspects, which is what most people consider, it gets kinda Freudian.

According to Freud our mind is divided into 3 categories:

• The id which is characterized by a desire for instant gratification. This is what is at work when we are all born. It's the-- I WANT IT, I WANT IT NOW. As a baby we scream till we get our bottle (or boobie) or if we need a diaper change. This is a purely instinct driven, unconscious part of our mind.

• The ego which is what serves our id. The id, in a sense, is purely fantasy. Our mind conjures images of what we want and the ego seeks to fulfill them. So the ego is what separates our mental reality from the reality of the outside world.

• The super ego or our morals. This is all the junk we learned when we were kids about how to get a gold star and stay out of time out. This is the Jiminy Cricket part.

Addicts, criminals, and newborns are all very id driven. In the case of the newborns it's obvious, they don't know anything else. But addicts especially are driven by that instant gratification mentality. Which, on a side note, I believe society at large is becoming very id driven. We live in a world of instant gratification. Push a button, it's there. Turn a switch, it's there.

And we're wondering why there's such an overwhelming problem with addiction in the world today.

For fucks sake.

So if we take it a step further and get into the actual physiological response to the brain it gets a bit more medicall-y sounding. Basically what it comes down to is DOPAMINE. Dopamine is happy juice. It's what our brain releases when it's happy along the "reward pathway."

Why does the brain prefer opium to broccoli?***

The question of addiction has been put that way by Steven Hyman, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. The answer involves the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells that lies beneath the cerebral hemispheres. When a human being or other animal performs an action that satisfies a need or fulfills a desire, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released into the nucleus accumbens and produces pleasure. It serves as a signal that the action promotes survival or reproduction, directly or indirectly. The system is called the reward pathway. When we do something that provides this reward, the brain records the experience and we are likely to do it again. Damage to the nucleus accumbens and drugs that block dopamine release in the region make everything less rewarding.

In nature, rewards usually come only with effort and after a delay. Addictive drugs provide a shortcut. Each in its own way sets in motion a biological process that results in flooding the nucleus accumbens with dopamine. The pleasure is not serving survival or reproduction, and evolution has not provided our brains with an easy way to withstand the onslaught. In a person who becomes addicted through repeated use of a drug, overwhelmed receptor cells call for a shutdown. The natural capacity to produce dopamine in the reward system is reduced, while the need persists and the drug seems to be the only way to fulfill it. The brain is losing its access to other, less immediate and powerful sources of reward. Addicts may require constantly higher doses and a quicker passage into the brain. It’s as though the normal machinery of motivation is no longer functioning; they want the drug even when it no longer gives pleasure.

MISCONCEPTIONS

What I'm trying to say in all of this is that it is a medically documented issue. That ignorant people beget ignorance. It is my hope that by trying to educate as many people as possible that not only will addicts regain some of their sense of selves through the support of the general public but that in turn it will help prevent the number of addictions in the end. Being an addict makes you a social pariah. Why would you want to come forward and ask for help if people are going to judge you? Why not just keep doing what you're doing and let people think you're fine? This mindset is NOT OKAY with me. Everyone has problems in life and they shouldn't be afraid to ask for help just because some fucktard doesn't understand.

Quitting isn't as simple as, "Well why don't you just stop?" Try telling your body that you don't have to pee anymore, or that you don't need to eat. As you read above your brain has internalized this feeling and taken it to a primitive level that says it needs the dope for survival. At this point it is not a choice.

TREATMENT

There are a variety of treatment programs out there for the whole scope of addictions. I'm pretty sure there are even ones for sex and porn addicts. There are inpatient, outpatient, clinics, 12 step programs, halfway houses, medical aided rehabilitation, homeopathic treatments...

Basically it's whatever works best for the person. And no one is going to get clean unless they want to. You can't force your agenda on somebody else and expect it to work. If they're not ready it just won't work. Some people need the structure and routine of an intense inpatient treatment program, followed up with 12 step meetings forever after. I personally think 12 step programs are another form of brainwashing/addiction, but that's just a personal opinion and not a very popular one.

The rehabilitation programs I plan on working for are the ones that allow the use of medication to not only help the patient come off the drugs in a healthy manner, making it less likely that they'll relapse, but also treat the possible underlying mental health issues that could have contributed to the addiction in the first place. 

And if you think you need help, get it. It takes a stronger person to ask for help than it does to sit back and wait to die. Or to go to jail. Because there's only three ways out of that lifestyle. Recovery, Jail, Death. 

That's it.

PREVENTION = EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION. 

Children are not being taught proper drug facts in school today and the whole "War on Drugs" propaganda is insulting to our intelligence. Open your eyes people... it's everywhere. And the sooner they start teaching that and showing people what it's REALLY like out there, the better our chances are of decreasing the number of drug related deaths.

For any additional information you can look through the links below that I used or check out The National Institute of Drug Abuse if you want to learn more about a specific drug or area. There's all kinds of cool charts and maps 'n shit.

Okay guys, I got serious in this one. Something I saw on Facebook set me off and it made me want to take the time to put an informed piece together. Stop being so goddamned ignorant. Before you judge, turn the mirror back on yourself and look real fuckin' hard. Instead of being judgmental get yourself some balls and learn how to have compassion. Y'know, maybe try and help somebody.

*cdc.gov

**http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/FederalCourts/PPS/Fedprob/2006-09/accountability_table1.html

***http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/The_addicted_brain.htm