All new drugs are non-addictive.
Meprobamate, the first tranquillizer, came out in the 1950s. It was guaranteed non-addictive. It is highly addictive.
Some of the older members of my recovery club told me about the first days of Valium. Right there before a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, one woman would ask another, “Have you got a Valium on you?”
Valium was new and therefore nonaddictive. The FDA and the medical community agreed on that.
By the time I got into recovery, Valium addicts were part of the crew.
People say marijuana is not addictive, but the recovery community is full of people who abused it.
Let me tell you the secret to all this: Drugs are not addictive. PEOPLE are addictive.
The definition of “addictive” is that you suffer physical withdrawals when the drug is taken away. Anyone has who has ever quit drinking coffee will describe for you the almost unbearable pain most people get when caffeine is withdrawn. If you drink one cup of coffee a day, you will suffer a sharp head pain when you quit that is like having a needle in your head.
That is addiction.
But this physical pain is not the reason most people are alcoholics or addicts. Most people who become addicts are used to pain.
One man who called me during my time in the program was on heroin. When I arrived he was standing in the bathroom, which was covered with blood. He was naked. He was sobbing and jabbing the needle into his private parts and screaming, “I can’t find a vein!”
Addicts use the needle so much they destroy veins. Many addicts’ arms are caved in from the collapsed veins. Many junkies get to the point where they simply enjoy the pain of a needle without the drug.
I know why. Every year when I was child I would try to chew some of my grandfather’s tobacco. It was horrible. It burned my mouth and I couldn’t get the taste out all day. But my grandfather liked the taste, because he associated it with the pleasure nicotine gave him.
An addict is not afraid of the pain of withdrawal. What he suffers from is living without the comforter a drug pulls over him.
It is not the drug that is addictive. It is the addict.
#1 by Don on 06/08/2005 - 9:20 am
They might what to examine my genetic profile for an anti-addiction gene. I just don’t seem to get addicted to things, unless one considers mathematics or White Racial Issues as qualifying.
#2 by Peter on 06/08/2005 - 11:43 am
Whenever I forget to read Bob’s Blog, I get a sharp stabbing pain in my left temple.
Is that addiction, or do I just enjoy Bob’s antidote to leftist crap?
#3 by Don on 06/08/2005 - 9:11 pm
RE:Whenever I forget to read Bob’s Blog, I get a sharp stabbing pain in my left temple.
Bob did just get back from New Orleans, where I understand you can get some good buys on Voodoo dolls. So you will not want to forget often.
#4 by Mike S. on 06/08/2005 - 10:00 pm
I grew up with an alcoholic parent and started on the same path myself. I’ve always believed that addiction was a symptom of a larger problem in ones life. Having come thru it I can say this was the case in my own life. I’ve had many friends along the way that I could apply this too as well.
I’ve always found AA’s version of God to be the easiest to accept out of all religions I’ve been exposed to.
#5 by Peter on 06/08/2005 - 10:57 pm
RE: Don
ROFL
#6 by Bob on 06/13/2005 - 3:49 pm
Peter, my compliments to your left temple. It’s got good taste.