The more we understand that Addiction is a DISEASE, not a lifestyle choice, the more we will erase the stigma of the "fiend". I didn't "choose" my process addiction, it conveniently fed off of my emotions and CHOSE ME.
Belle, the way you cut through the noise here is electric. You take something people whisper about and drag it into daylight with both hands — no softness, no sugarcoat, just truth that actually lands. The brain science, the stories, the myth-busting… you wrote it like someone who’s lived every angle and isn’t scared of naming the hard parts out loud.
And your call to action at the end? That hit like a pulse — mile or millimeter, progress still counts. You made the whole thing feel less like an essay and more like a hand on someone’s back saying, keep going, you’re not broken — you’re rewiring.
This piece is fierce, clear, and weirdly comforting in the best way.
International and more-local illegal merchants of the drug-abuse/addiction scourge are (rightfully) targeted for long-overdue political action and criminal justice, yet Western pharmaceutical corporations have intentionally pushed their own very addictive and profitable opiate product essentially with justice-system impunity resulting in direct and indirect immense suffering and overdose death numbers for many years later and likely many more yet to come.
It indeed was a real ethical and moral crime, yet, likely due to their potent lobbyist influence on heavily-capitalistic Western governance, they got off relatively lightly and only through civil litigation. … Instead, drug addiction and addicts are misperceived by supposedly sober folk as being weak-willed and/or having committed the moral crime.
The greater the induced euphoria or escape one attains from it, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their non-self-medicating reality, the more pleasurable that escape will likely be perceived. In other words: the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while not self-medicating, the greater the need for escape from one's reality — all the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.
Frequently societally overlooked or ignored is that intense addiction usually does not originate from a bout of boredom, where a person occasionally consumed recreationally but became heavily hooked on a self-medicating substance that eventually destroyed their life and even those of loved-ones.
Especially when the substance abuse is due to past formidable mental trauma, the lasting solitarily-suffered turmoil can readily make each day an ordeal unless the traumatized mind is medicated. And, too often the worth(lessness) of the substance abuser is measured basically by their ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. Aware of this, they may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live and self-medicate their daily lives more haphazardly.
Decades ago, I, while sympathetic, would look down on those who had ‘allowed’ themselves to become addicted to hard drugs or alcohol. Although I’ve not been personally or familially affected by the opioid overdose crisis, I suffer enough unrelenting PTSD symptoms (etcetera) to know, enjoy and appreciate the great release by consuming alcohol or THC.
In the book (WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing) he co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Bruce D. Perry (M.D., Ph.D.) writes in regards to self-medicating trauma, substance abuse and addiction: “For people who are pretty well-regulated, whose basic needs have been met, who have other healthy forms of reward, taking a drug will have some impact, but the pull to come back and use again and again is not as powerful. It may be a pleasurable feeling, but you’re not necessarily going to become addicted. Addiction is complex. But I believe that many people who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse are actually trying to self-medicate due to their developmental histories of adversity and trauma.”
Albeit, while people should not be ashamed of their substance addiction, they also should not give in to it by completely giving up on any potential for eventual sobriety or perhaps a reduction in their consumption of the health-hazardous substance.
The more we understand that Addiction is a DISEASE, not a lifestyle choice, the more we will erase the stigma of the "fiend". I didn't "choose" my process addiction, it conveniently fed off of my emotions and CHOSE ME.
Belle, the way you cut through the noise here is electric. You take something people whisper about and drag it into daylight with both hands — no softness, no sugarcoat, just truth that actually lands. The brain science, the stories, the myth-busting… you wrote it like someone who’s lived every angle and isn’t scared of naming the hard parts out loud.
And your call to action at the end? That hit like a pulse — mile or millimeter, progress still counts. You made the whole thing feel less like an essay and more like a hand on someone’s back saying, keep going, you’re not broken — you’re rewiring.
This piece is fierce, clear, and weirdly comforting in the best way.
International and more-local illegal merchants of the drug-abuse/addiction scourge are (rightfully) targeted for long-overdue political action and criminal justice, yet Western pharmaceutical corporations have intentionally pushed their own very addictive and profitable opiate product essentially with justice-system impunity resulting in direct and indirect immense suffering and overdose death numbers for many years later and likely many more yet to come.
It indeed was a real ethical and moral crime, yet, likely due to their potent lobbyist influence on heavily-capitalistic Western governance, they got off relatively lightly and only through civil litigation. … Instead, drug addiction and addicts are misperceived by supposedly sober folk as being weak-willed and/or having committed the moral crime.
The greater the induced euphoria or escape one attains from it, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their non-self-medicating reality, the more pleasurable that escape will likely be perceived. In other words: the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while not self-medicating, the greater the need for escape from one's reality — all the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.
Frequently societally overlooked or ignored is that intense addiction usually does not originate from a bout of boredom, where a person occasionally consumed recreationally but became heavily hooked on a self-medicating substance that eventually destroyed their life and even those of loved-ones.
Especially when the substance abuse is due to past formidable mental trauma, the lasting solitarily-suffered turmoil can readily make each day an ordeal unless the traumatized mind is medicated. And, too often the worth(lessness) of the substance abuser is measured basically by their ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. Aware of this, they may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live and self-medicate their daily lives more haphazardly.
Decades ago, I, while sympathetic, would look down on those who had ‘allowed’ themselves to become addicted to hard drugs or alcohol. Although I’ve not been personally or familially affected by the opioid overdose crisis, I suffer enough unrelenting PTSD symptoms (etcetera) to know, enjoy and appreciate the great release by consuming alcohol or THC.
In the book (WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing) he co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Bruce D. Perry (M.D., Ph.D.) writes in regards to self-medicating trauma, substance abuse and addiction: “For people who are pretty well-regulated, whose basic needs have been met, who have other healthy forms of reward, taking a drug will have some impact, but the pull to come back and use again and again is not as powerful. It may be a pleasurable feeling, but you’re not necessarily going to become addicted. Addiction is complex. But I believe that many people who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse are actually trying to self-medicate due to their developmental histories of adversity and trauma.”
Albeit, while people should not be ashamed of their substance addiction, they also should not give in to it by completely giving up on any potential for eventual sobriety or perhaps a reduction in their consumption of the health-hazardous substance.