Drug addiction is not a disease, it is a mental disorder coupled akin to self harming. There are many reasons and situations why people take drugs but most of the people that go on to do class As have had some kind of trauma in their lives that usually has gone untreated (professionally) or even reported. Many of these sufferers don't even realize they have a problem and if they do, quite often its sadly too late. Yes I agree that at the end of the day we all have a duty of care to ourselves first and foremost and yes in some aspects we live in a Nanny state. Drug abusers come from all corners of our society, there is no archetype victim but the one constant is how they are poorly judged by a huge chunk of the general public. I wonder how many of you have relatives that are abusing right now and you don't even know it, maybe someone very close to that you think you know everything about. It makes me cringe how so many people right here on this forum brag about using drugs
I think you are using the term disease ("actual") and not a disease narrowly or broadly to fit your narrative. Gout, high blood pressure, hypertension, high cholesterol are absolutely diseases. Maybe you prefer "medical conditions" but that's just semantics. They are diseases that can be cured or controlled with weight loss, diet change, quitting smoking, stop drinking, exercise. And I've read some interesting things lately about controlling or "curing" mild forms of heart disease and my dad is working with doctors now on his type 2 diabetes to cease medication and to control it throughout his diet and exercise. So to say a "disease" can't be cured by responsible life style choices may be a bit overstated. But these are diseases brought on by lifestyle choices, diseases brought on by no fault of the person (like most forms of cancer) or by genetics or exposure to pathogens cannot be cured by personal choices. My wife had what you would call a "real" disease that she did nothing to get and did everything to cure and we just couldn't do it. So to hear someone claim a condition that they voluntarily foisted upon themselves, to me, is just garbage. But I'm not going to judge someone for becoming an addict. _
I am just going to go ahead and say I don't know enough about this stuff and shouldn't pretend like I do. I think we agree on the main point, but my stated reason for that is probably not accurate.
No problem, I get your drift and I basically agree--the concept that "addiction" is a disease like cancer or leukemia or ALS or parkinsons or alzheimers or the multitude of infectious diseases is insulting to those folks who didn't voluntarily sign up for those diseases. _
