Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Is addiction an illness?

2»

Comments

  • #52
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Addiction, illness or disease what does it matter the definition. They need help. Unless people who have a problem with defining it as an illness want to somehow justify blaming the addict and not offering them the help they may need?



  • #53
    jucko
    Registered Users Posts: 191 ✭✭jucko


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118356035#Comment_118356035

    having struggled myself, this is correct, by changing who i was and having more focus and self control. i'm out the other side,you are who you think you are.



  • #54
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,271 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    I taught a number of children who were born while their mothers were still using. They had to be weaned off what was in their system at birth. In the environment they lived in, it was only a matter of time before they went the same way. A couple of them are dead now, but remarkably one girl is in her mid 30s now, despite having been at death's door many times. From what I can see of her, she seems to go on and off it regularly.

    Wondering how the 'personal responsibility' folk would judge them?



  • #55
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,909 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360710#Comment_118360710

    theyd do just that, 'judge' them!



  • #56
    Tony EH
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,566 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360481#Comment_118360481

    It matters because there's a real danger whereby the addict abdicates their responsibility for their actions and therefore their predicament and falls back on "it's not my fault, I have a disease", which allows relapses to occur more frequently.

    Also, this isn't about "blame", it's about correct nomenclature and I think that's important in helping addicts to overcome their addictions. I've known several former addicts and they all tell you that the hardest step was realising that the actions had very severe consequences. That they needed to change their actions and to stop making excuses for their addiction. It was they who needed to learn to control the addiction and not the other way around.



  • #57
    Tony EH
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,566 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360556#Comment_118360556

    Good to hear that you came out the other side. 👍️



  • #58
    Tony EH
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,566 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360710#Comment_118360710

    It's not about "judging". It's about recognising what the problem is and why someone chooses to go down a certain path. Obviously those kids you taught were born into some very serious circumstances that facilitated mental issues that they ended up trying to medicate, because of the "environment they lived in".



  • #59
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360143#Comment_118360143

    Quote - “The "illness" factor can be said to come from the mental issues that the addict may have had, or still be, suffering from before their addiction. But calling the addiction an illness or a disease is wrong to my mind.”


    Are you a professional involved in addiction? I’m not really up to date on current definitions. What are the current definitions those in a professional setting are using?

    From my own experience I am sober 16 years, I struggled to explain what exactly was driving my addiction back then and I still don’t really know now. Getting off the drink was very tough and the first 2 years sober was hard, after that it’s been fine. I just know in my heart I can never safety touch the stuff again and I remember how awful the last few years of drinking was for me.

    I struggle to understand how people who have no professional knowledge of the subject or no personal experience of addiction are so sure in their pronouncements on the subject?



  • #60
    Tony EH
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,566 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360931#Comment_118360931

    This is a discussion forum. It's going to involve people discussing things.

    And no, I'm not a "professional involved in addiction". But I don't HAVE to be. I'm capable of forming an opinion on these matters due to my own life experiences and what I've read on the issue. But just because someone expresses an opinion on a given matter, it doesn't mean that that opinion isn't subject to change. It's just their position at that moment in time.

    It's good to hear that you were able to get sober. My uncle was an alcoholic and wasn't as lucky. But back when he died, the data and supports weren't as numerous and available as they are today. Had they been, it's doubtful they would have have been any use to him anyway as he never faced up to the fact that he was an alcoholic. Nor did he ever face up to the matter of his depression either which was, more than likely, the reason for his heavy drinking to begin with.

    It's those types of mental issues that are often (although not exclusively) the genesis of addiction problems. You might have been different and I'm sure you've done many deep dives into why you started drinking so heavily to begin with.

    I will say this about alcohol though. It's an insidious drug that can creep up on you and because society deems it as a "good time", where being completely pissed isn't anything to be worried about. And it isn't, so long as it's not 4 or 5 nights a week. But, inevitably, there will be folk who will be unable to regulate their drinking properly and the view that's subtly perpetuated that it's "harmless" doesn't help them either.



  • Advertisement
Advertisement