Physician, heal thyself.
Every time addiction is mentioned on the SDMB the Lazy Brigade comes out in force with their “you can’t help them if they don’t want to help themselves” folk wisdom bullshit.
Self-serving excuses for inaction.
Except that it is entirely true. You cannot save people who don’t want to be saved.
I lived that life. I did whatever it took to get high. You have no idea the shit I did to get high. I’ve been clean for a couple of years now, and sometimes I still get the urge to throw away everything I’ve worked for just to chase the dragon one more time. It’s not “folk wisdom bullshit,” it’s the truth.
So, given that opiate addiction is becoming a national epidemic, please share with us your method of getting an addict clean when they don’t want to. I’m all ears.
He did.
When I was ready, I took the healing that was offered. Since then I’ve been clean and sober since 1990, thanks. And worked with enough addicts and alcoholics, both personally and professionally to know of what I speak.
I always let them know help is out there when they’re ready for it and I’ll be glad to give some good orderly direction. But damned if I’ll put more effort into their recoveries than they are willing to put in themselves.
you fucking asshole, we ALL have done everything to help him. My brother has been to hell with him.
I am thinking about my 69 year old brother’s health now, not this SELFISH punk’s well being.
Go have a drink
I might be an asshole, but I’ve never wished death on a family member.
You need to be worried about whether you’re even fully human if you do that.
Oh, he’s fully human. So are you. It takes humans to write with such pain and passion and conviction and loss and rage.
It’s tough to love an addict, because they give you every reason to hate them at the same time.
One thing my mother said to me in my early days, that stuck with me, and helped motivate me to recover: “I love but, but sometimes I don’t like you.”
I would rather see him die than to see my brother die from the stress this selfish fuck causes.
And guess what, rumdum, I actually love the little motherfucker. Go have another drink, but stay out of your car.
Then you should count your blessings. Not having wished death on a family member doesn’t make you some sort of better human being. It just means you’ve been luckier with your family than most.
I had a friend who had been raped by her father over a period of years from when she was about 12 to when she was 16. She hates that man for the abuse he put her through, and she has definitely wished death upon him while he rots in prison. Does that mean she’s not fully human? How much abuse does a person need to tolerate because they are family?
Also, I’m still waiting on your method of getting an addict to clean up when they don’t want to.
What is your recommended course of action, then?
WD, you are digging yourself deeper when you post bullshit like that. It is painfully obvious that you’ve never had an addict in the family. I have. And what people are saying is absolutely true. There comes a time where you just wish with all your heart that they would go run out in traffic and get squashed by a truck, just so the pain and misery they are causing the other members of the family will stop.
Strong suggestion, bro - STFU.
It may be that Whiskey Dickens is an addict whose mind is troubled at the very idea that his friends and relatives may have these thoughts.
I had that thought in the last thread where he blamed the co-dependents for not doing enough.
Blaming everyone but the addict is one of the hallmarks of addiction.
:rolleyes: Because of course it’s the responsibility of women to “fix” men being irresponsible fuckups. Nope.
I personally can’t see why any woman would want to be with a thermonuclear fuckup like this guy, but he’s the one responsible for his own fuckup status. He (and you) don’t get to shift the blame for that onto any women who happen to be inexplicably willing to bang him.
You must be unfamiliar with Lysistrata.
They’re probably drug addicts too.
Why would you think that? Lysistrata is a fictional exploration of the imaginary notion that women can somehow “fix” irresponsible male behavior by withholding sex.
Anybody who tried to infer from Lysistrata that women have any kind of obligation or responsibility in real life to “fix” irresponsible male behavior by withholding sex would be not only sexist but an idiot.