That’s really the reason I left the clinic and the field. I had enough death and catastrophe. It was really starting to affect me outside of work - my relationship with my own family, my friends, my husband… I feel fortunate that I had the insight to quit when I did, rather than yielding to the pressures I felt to keep a “good” job with benefits and a high salary (of course we were paid well - you can’t get people to do these jobs for free, usually. Hell, we had a hard time getting people to do them for pay. About 1/3 of our hires didn’t last more than a day or two.)
Among other things, one of my duties was filling out the paperwork on the desceased. This is not fun. It’s not fun even when you don’t know the people, but when you do… it’s really not fun. I stopped caring. That was very very bad.
I realize you asked QtM that, but I’ll answer anyway and let’s see if we both agree or not.
I say nictotine is more addictive than canabis.
For that matter, I say nicotine is at least as addictive as heroin, based on how hard it was for people to shake the habit. We had a lot of ex-opiate abusers puffing away in the smoking lounge going “Man” puff puff "I gave up the smack " puff puff “and the pills but I just can’t” puff puff “get rid of the cigarettes!” Sometimes it worked the other way around. That, and my mother, who had taken a lot of painkillers over the years for various medical problems but has never showed any sign of addition to them, yet 5 heart attacks, two bypass surgeries, and emphysema have not convinced her to stop smoking. THAT"s addiction for you right there. What she coughs up in the morning looks like road tar, but she keeps sucking on the coffin nails.
Diogenes, I can agree with the last sentence, but nothing proceeding.
First of all, there isn’t a single gene for addiction. It’s not that straight forward. It’s most likely a combination of genes and environment.
Back to diabetes (apologies to diabetics, but it’s one of my favored analogies). SOME people will be diabetics no matter what you do, but they’re the minority. A lot more people could become diabetics in the right environment, but they aren’t doomed to it. For example, we know the Pima tribe has an unusual suspectability to both obesity and diabetes. I think the US population of Pima’s is running almost 50% diabetic right now. BUT - the Pimas in Mexico do not have an abnormal elevation of diabetes. They’re the same damn family - same genes. It’s the environment that’s triggering the problem. Other folks are so resistant to diabetes it is almost fair to say they’re immune to it (barring traumatic damage to the pancreas).
So… most people have some suspectibility to addiction. But most people also have a healthy enough environment that this tendency is never triggered. Maybe they’ll have a drinking problem for a year or two, or smoke too much pot for awhile, but if their life improves they’ll ditch the stuff and have no problems staying “clean”. Lots of others will never have this problem.
Other folks… well… for some reason additcion is more likely in them, but they aren’t doomed to it. Certainly, some of the environments our clientle came from were horrific. Truly truly awful stuff. But it was damn rare for an ENTIRE family to be in treatment all at once. Sure, multiple relatives - but most of them time there were a significant number of sisters, brothers, counsins, what have you with similar genes and similar environment who managed to stay away from the stuff. Certainly, not all the kids of our patients grew up to be addicts themselves. Nothing unsual for the adult offspring of a junkie with a 30 year addiction history to be drug free themselves. Nothing unusual if they were junkies, too - you just can’t predict which way the kid will go at birth.
(One of the most pernicious myths I’ve heard multiple times is that a baby born “addicted” to heroin is doomed to grow up to be an addict. That is NOT true. You simply can’t predict this. And, to be accurate, NO baby is born an addict. They might have a physical dependency on opiates, but that is NOT the same as addiction)
Other times… man, I’ve known people who had a tremendously unimaginable hell growing up and they’ve never touched drugs.
So the only conclusion I can come to is that it’s a very complex interplay between heredity and environment.
Strictly speaking, addiction is ALWAYS in the head. It’s the mental rut that’s the biggest obstacles. You can get ANYONE off drugs by locking them into a padded cell for a week. The problem is keeping them off once they’re back in the real world. Which is why I laugh whenever I hear about a celebrity going into detox for a month “to get off drugs once and for all”. I’m sure Morton Downey, Jr. can quit drugs anytime - but can he make it stick for good? THAT’s the real test.
Drugs don’t so much put ideas or emotions into your head that you wouldn’t otherwise have as they strip your inhibitions away. Like Clint and his wife “screwing like monkeys” when they were high. Released inhibitions. If you’re horny, you screw “like a monkey”. If you’re angry, you fly into a rage. If you’re sad, you sob hysterically. No brakes, just wildly careening reactions.
As for us non-drug users being boring… well, Clint, maybe I am. But I’ll stick with my boring flying (including that stunt flying course I’m taking this summer) thank you very much. It certainly isn’t any more expensive. And I know a lot of boring pilots still healthy in their 70’s and 80’s and enjoying life. Not so sure about illegal drug users - I’ve known a lot of those, several thousand, and while a couple reached retirement age damn few made it past 40. Perhaps moderation is the best course, overall.
You’re right that most people never acquire a life-threatening addiction. You’re also correct that a lot of these folks would find some other way to get high or even kill themselves. It WAS a constant problem in the rehab business. Get the person off heroin they start drinking, get them off alcohol they try crack, get them off crack they discover marijuana, get them off marijuana they discover LSD or glue sniffing or the joys of drinking kerosene. Sad, very sad. And why we’re NEVER going to “win the war on drugs” in the sense of truly eliminating the problem.
However - and I can’t emphasize this enough - drugs addicts are generally NOT “stupid”, “idiots”, or "morons". In fact, high intelligence is a RISK FACTOR for addiction. Yes, smart people really are slightly more prone to drug addiction than stupid people. Doesn’t mean there aren’t mentally retarded addicts, just that there are a lot more addicted Mensa members.
See, that’s one of the sad things about addiction. It makes geniuses act like morons. What a waste. What a sad, tragic waste.
But don’t say to yourself - “only stupid people get addicted, and I’m smarter than average, so I won’t get addicted”. It’s just not true. If you believe that, you’re only fooling yourself.
