There is a huge number of Americans and an extremely profitable drug trade. Not all even agree drugs, such as pot, should be illegal. Do we make an informed choice when we decide to try or continue to use any drug or drink? It seems the facts that drug use is so widely known, you would have to be living under a rock not to be informed at least somewhat of the dangers of addiction, psychological, and physical health. Is addiction a choice of continuing a drug or drink we enjoy that makes us feel good or is this an illness?
******************************************************
07-24-03, 01:29 PM
honilov
Addiction is definitely a choice. It's a bad choice, that I believe a person thinks in the beginning, that they can try it, and can stop when they want to, and before they know it, they're hooked.

I've never been addicted to drugs, and if I was fool enough to start today, it would be my choice. I don't think it's an illness, although some people believe otherwise. Instead of an addict being sick, I think they are pitiful.

07-24-03, 01:36 PM
Georgia85
Stardust - from what I understand, some addiction tendencies stem from a psychological disorder (found in the DSM) called "addictive personality". People with this disorder become fixated on something as a means of escape from their reality which they feel they have no control over. This might be in the form of drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, even the internet! While initially they might get a rush from their vice, eventually the rush is replaced with "numbness". But they continue on and it takes more and more to get them to that level of bliss and escape.

I feel addiction is a double edged sword. While there are surely drugs that are addictable...one would not be addicted to them if they didn't seek them out as a form of escape in the first place. The exception to this rule would be prescribed pain killers for legitimate useage.

I hope my answer, while it may not be what you were looking for, did help to explain the way some people view drugs and alchol.

07-24-03, 02:33 PM
honilov
Georgia, you gave a great answer, but it appeared to me that Stardust was referring to street drugs, in which there is no psychological disorder involved. You might be right, but I just don't buy this about it being a form of escape. I know too many addicts that had everything going for them..there were no problems to escape from. So one might ask..what were their reasons...stupidity, I believe.

07-24-03, 04:56 PM
puppyblues
I have to disagree with you, honi. I think addiction is a genetic make up of a person. Some people can go their whole lives without knowing they are actually addicts because they never went down the road to find out. Others go down that road, get hooked and THEN and only then do we call them addicts.

I feel I would definately be an alcoholic and drug addict if I were to start using. My parents are both former drug and alcohol users and yes, they were both addicts. They can't drink at all now. If they do, they can't stop. That scared the hell out of me, so I never even tried drugs.
As for alcohol, I did my share of partying and I know that if I had kept going, I'd definately be hooked now.

Then, there are people that can drink/do drugs and really just do it recreationally. You'd 'think' they'd be addicts, but they aren't.

I really do think it's genitic. That's just my opinion. Smile

07-24-03, 05:37 PM
Jelp01
Addicts begin their addiction by taking that first drink, by taking their first hit of a drug, etc. I believe in that sense, addiction is a choice. The person could have chosen not to take that first drink or drug.

However, once they get started, many, many times they can't stop without help. And are addicted. They get to the point that it really isn't a choice. They HAVE to have the drug, or alcohol, or find help to stop.

I know I have a highly addictive personality. On my mother's side of the family, all three of her uncles (2 on her mother's side and one on her dad's side), were alcholics. And my grandfather liked the taste of alcohol, but drank sparingly because he didn't want to end up like his brother. And MY uncle, my mom's brother, used to drink fairly heavily too, though thank goodness not nearly as much now as he used to.

The one and the only time I ever sat down in a bar and had a couple of beers, even though I stopped at two, I could have had ten more, easily. And the stuff didn't taste good at all!!!I actually wanted more, but had the good sense to stop then. That scared me. I never was a drinker before then, and I got quite a buzz just after those couple of beers. And I definitely don't drink now. And I have no doubt that had I started with cigarettes and drugs, I'd be hooked on them.

So for me, anyway, I stay away from all those things because I know I'd be hooked.

The psychological addiction to these substances may not be a choice, but it is a choice to start using them. In that sense, addiction can be a choice too.

07-24-03, 05:41 PM
MrsS
An "addict" is someone who continues with their use of drugs, alcohol, gummy bears, whatever after the drug of choice ceases to be pleasurable but being without it is unbearable, or when the substance has become a serious problem in their life... To use is a choice...the addict has gone past "choice" ...who would willfully choose to trade their job, relationship, health, family and self respect for drugs or alcohol? The problem is that many a perfectly intelligent, well educated person has thought they could just use "once in a while"....and some can....for others, the casual use spirals out of their control.

07-24-03, 08:21 PM
Stardust
This is getting confusing. I do firmly believe in inherited addictive personalities that overindulge to the point of threatening health whether physical or psychological. On the subject of food, I do not overeat. I do have my pet things that are a must have, like Pepsi and I love onion bagel sandwiches. If I run out of either, I run to the store. Would you consider something like that addictive personality? What about smoking cigarettes also?

07-25-03, 12:10 AM
Kelleygirl
Stardust, here's an interesting site re addiction including nicotine.

http://www.ccguide.org.uk/addicts.html

07-25-03, 07:22 AM
Elexina
Use is a choice. We all make that first decision to use and to continue to use. There is a fine line between controlled use and addiction. Addiction is when you cannot control your use. You can reverse an addiction and work out of it, but I can't think that anyone would make a choice to become an addict...

07-25-03, 09:04 PM
honilov
After people see what it does to other people, and they still start drugs, knowing what it will do to them...then it's a choice, to do or not to do.

Straight and simple.

07-26-03, 04:44 PM
samantha
I know that with my ADD i also have a very adictive personality... so far im doing ok, ive never gotten hooked on anything ive tried but i do know its in my nature to do that...

07-28-03, 07:52 AM
Elexina
Honilov, it is a choice to use, especially after seeing the harmful effects of such an activity. An addiction is something that happens before you realize it, and is not a choice.
Once you have realized you have an addiction and yet to nothing about it, that is a choice. To consciously remain addicted is a choice. To be addicted is not.
(Of course there are other factors such as denial or if the person is trying to fix things but hasn't been able to. That person is choosing not to recognize the addiction, or is choosing not to be addicted but is as of yet unable to follow through, etc.)

07-28-03, 05:33 PM
honilov
Elexina, that's a nice way to explain it, but I guess I just see it as almost the same thing, since you 'choose' to use. Since the 'use' comes first, and then the 'addiction', the line is so thin, until they might as well be merged as one, and the same. It just seems to me like you are choosing both, because you have full knowledge that you will become addicted, with use.

You make a valid point, though. Smile

07-28-03, 07:56 PM
crescen7

quote:Originally posted by honilov:
It just seems to me like you are choosing both, because you have full knowledge that you will become addicted, with use.



I agree. mostly...

I might modify that slightly to state that when one "chooses" to use, they knowingly put themselves at risk of addiction. In most cases people who become addicted to substance continue to choose to ignore indications that they are becoming addicted. So.. I tend to agree it really is a choice.

07-29-03, 09:16 AM
Elexina
I agree, the line is thin. You choose to use and knowingly put yourself at risk for addiction. But there IS a line and it is very difficult to know exactly when simple use ends and addiction begins. People don't realize how close they are to addiction until they are addicted. They do not actively choose to be addicts, it just happens. They choose to follow a path that might lead them to addiction, and addiction is often the end result of their choices, but addiction itself is not a choice.
I'm sorry, I just know too many addicts and former addicts to agree with you about choice. I am not making excuses for these people, mind you. I do not agree with self-destructive behavior that leads to addiction. I just know how awful it is for these people and they would never choose to be addicts. It doesn't work that way.

07-29-03, 02:11 PM
DvdGStwrt
A choice? Sure, I used to drop acid sociably, sort of like people drinking at a party.

Smoked pot? Yeah, but then so was everyone else.

Neither of these two drugs impressed me much, I was able to walk away from them, rarely using them because they didn't have the 'kick' I would eventually find in Coke and Meth.

Having 'Experimented' with drugs in the form of alcohol, pot and acid, and not getting overly addicted (even drinking was easy to stop, cause I didn't like the effects) It wasn't until I was 'turned on' to coke that my troubles really started.

But then the drug campaign was the simple egg in the frying pan in my day and age, you may have seen it, "Here's your brain, here's your brain on drugs"

More of a funny - 'Fried' being a good term to describe some drug use -

Today they took it a step further, adding the woman beating the heck out of her kitchen with the frying pan... Still slightly humoropus, more so since I been there - done that.

As a product of the 80's I grew up in a time when 'social' drug use was ok - today things may be different - I doubt it. My neices are doing E and possibly meth 'socially' - doing the rave thing too - neither believe that they can end up like me or my partner - both of us having rode the merry-go-round of drug culture.

Sure, we all know that the potential for dependency is there, but we all believe that these things happen to 'someone else' Even death and illness happens to other people - not me - I'm blessed, I'm better than them. And when we are in our teens, well, we just know so much more than our eleders - Big Grin

De Nile is more than just a river in.... You get the picture.

There are plenty of people out there who have second hand understanding of addiction, doctors, family members who watched drugs/alcohol destroy a person - but they 'pick up the habit'.

Choice? only in the broadest of terms - I think we are deceived by the 'It won't happen to me' myth. One which no amount of 'talking' will convince us otherwise.

It takes first hand knowledge to fully understand that: yep, it can and most often will happen to me.

There is no choice under these conditions.

David

03-02-04, 01:58 AM
SeattleRon
sorry i'm late with this.
Addiction is a mental thing. "I gotta smoke because dammit, if I don't I'm goin through with....aw I just gotta smoke I have to have it.
The drug war is a civil war. we are fighting ourselves. If something as addictive as smokes are legal. Why not let us indulge in all the rest.
Narcotics are the cause of death to several people and plenty inocent people a year. Thats only caused through dealings. BELIEVE me.
If we legalized all of it, and then made laws. Everything would be ok.
It's this simple. You get high thats your problem. You get high and cause "harm" to an innocent persons. Your ass goes to death row.
Thats the problem with everything today.
All the laws are way too lite.
If the laws were like I want, everything would be cool.

Harm = physical harm caused by being high. which would result in any injury to any persons. Including a physical altercation because of being under the influence.
Which include physical contact, contact with weapons, or a murder. \



No government will tell me how to live my short life. I will live my life how I see fit.
You only get so many years around this place ya know. So this is it. I will live my life as I see fit

03-20-04, 05:39 AM
soaringhorse
Yes, addiction is a choice, unless of course you are a baby whose mother had so many drugs in her system, that you are born with crack or any other drug in your system.

Try explaining to a child who lost their parents due to someone being on drugs, or drunk in a car accident, that it wasn't illegal for them to do drugs, kind of sad, huh? Confused Did those parents have a choice?
I do not beleive in legallizing drugs, and for that matter there should be a control on alcohol intake, it's just as bad. You can't just indulge in all this stuff as much as you want, and then expect to get behind a wheel of a car and put innocent peoples lives in danger because of your stupidty. What do you say to the victims of the dead? Oh, I didn't know what I was doing....I was too dazed and confused. WRONG! You made that choice when you started abusing it, and knew what the consequences would be. There is no excuse.
We all want to have the freedom to make our choices of self indulgence, but there comes a time when you have to consider other people as well, you know the innocent ones, that have been killed over someone elses neglect. There is such a thing as right from wrong. No if's, maybe's or any gray lines in between. Freedom of choice does not include anything illegal.

03-22-04, 03:57 AM
SeattleRon
i know where you're coming from soaring horse.
thats why I said what I said. Do what you want, but if you do something stupid to get someone killed while on drugs. Then you should get the Death Penalty.

Drugs are always gonna be around regardless of the laws. Why not compromise.
"You do drugs, thats up to you. The minute you're involved in the serious injury or death to someone You go to Death Row.
People do drughs regardless. Might as well let'em, but when they mess up. Bring down the mighty hand of justice....

03-22-04, 11:04 AM
Elexina
Is addiction a choice?
It is certainly a choice to use drugs. But when people use them and become addicted, that is not part of the choice.
They did make the choice to use them in the first place and they do make the choice to continue to use them, but there is a lot more to it than that.
It is not as simple, for some people, as just saying, "I'm not going to do it anymore." Sometimes that works. Usually it's not that easy. Because addiction is more than just mental and more than just a choice.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,