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Helping requires some uncomfortable truths to be socially accepted. "It's all lie, lie, lie." the GP said, and he's right -- addicts in the throes of addiction
by Domenic_S 8y ago
Helping requires some uncomfortable truths to be socially accepted. "It's all lie, lie, lie." the GP said, and he's right -- addicts in the throes of addiction lie. We have to be OK saying, this person is an addict and not really in their right mind. If we treat addiction as a mental illness, then we treat the illness and the lies start to melt away.
Some people think addiction is a moral failing; others think it is an illness. I land on the illness side. Treatment works. We can help people, but it requires throwing away the blind judgement.
- lovehashbrowns 8y ago> Some people think addiction is a moral failing That is, at least in my experience, what leads to comments like these: "He did the world a favor and hung himself." What an incredibly harsh thing to say, especially for a situation that is rarely as clear-cut as "person A is bad therefore they should die." The uncomfortable truths you mention are like bubbles rising to the top. As a society, we're starting to think about things like alcoholism, drug addiction, childhood abuse, etc. and that will hopefully lead to having fewer of these clear-cut moral judgements. I think UBI will also help, because a lot of these mental traps (bad situation -> abuse -> drugs -> bad situation -> abuse etc.) are magnified by poverty. What's funny is that some of the pushback against UBI (and welfare) is that same moral judgement. "We shouldn't have UBI because some people will spend it on drugs and alcohol."