If you’re wondering why people like me are so dead-set against the disease view of addiction, then this recent comment by Dr Drew Pinsky (of MTV and VH1 fame), should make it clear:
There’s no such thing as ‘I was a heroin addict.’ That doesn’t exist in nature.
This is, in a nutshell, the ultimate message from people in the recovery culture who push the idea that addiction is a disease. They’re spreading a concept of addiction in which change is impossible, and anyone with a substance use problem is doomed to keep abusing substances for the rest of their life. Who does this help? Does it provide hope? If addiction is a life sentence, then why do nitwits like Dr Drew even try? Well according to them, there is some hope, here’s a longer version of his statement:
There’s no such thing as ‘I was a heroin addict.’ That doesn’t exist in nature. Something is going on with [her] addiction. Or she’s in recovery.
These comments were in reference to Angelina Jolie (in an article on huffpo), whose life he has no personal knowledge on, and nevertheless was actively judging, but that’s another issue. Here’s another similar comment he made about her and addiction 2 years ago:
“I’m concerned with what’s really going on with Angelina Jolie. I’ve never seen someone remit heroin completely. You’re either still on heroin, Oxycontin or something else. Unless you’re dead. Is she still using something? Is she in recovery. If she’s in recovery, I don’t see any evidence of it, because people in recovery invest themselves in simple, selfless acts of service, not global self-serving acts.”
So maybe there is hope, this “recovery” thing he speaks of – not so fast. Now pay attention because this is important – when Dr Drew speaks of recovery he DOES NOT mean that you can stop abusing substances for good and move on with your life – such an understanding of recovery couldn’t be further from his understanding. When he says “recovery” he is talking about a lifestyle prescribed by so called addiction experts which includes:
- Giving your life to a higher power, and following a pseudo-religion.
- Admitting that you are powerless over drugs and alcohol, and proclaiming that you have the disease of addiction.
- Expecting to relapse every now and then. As the saying goes “relapse is a part of recovery”.
- Living every day of your life, for the rest of your life, as a struggle against addiction.
- Indefinitely attending support group meetings such as AA or NA.
- Recruiting others into the 12-steps, indefinitely (the “selfless acts” he speaks of).
- Believing that you can only stay sober one day at a time, and that your “disease” is always getting stronger, and addiction may reclaim your life at any moment. Again, as the saying goes, you’re only “an arm’s length away from full blown addiction or alcoholism”
- Identifying as an “addict” or “alcoholic” for the rest of your life. A self-defeating label.
There’s more, and most of it is horrifyingly abusive and self-defeating. But the main point is that we shouldn’t take the word “recovery” lightly, and we shouldn’t ever think that someone like Dr Drew is using the term innocently. Whenever he says “recovery” he means all the things I listed above. He says that in any case, the statement “I was a heroin addict” is untrue, and he means it, and so does nearly every person working in a rehab or treatment program. They will take you or your loved one, and brainwash you into believing you can’t change your behavior or overcome your problem, that you can only hope to eek by in life by spending every one of your remaining days focused on “recovery”.
Furthermore, his comments serve as a good example of the attitude of people in the recovery culture. Here he is, never having personally counseled Angelina Jolie, and he’s assuming that she must be still abusing substances. He holds selfless acts as an apparent gold-standard indicator of whether one is actively abusing substances or not, which in itself is problematic, but more problematic is the fact that he expects there to be a public show of these selfless acts, otherwise she must be abusing substances. This comes from the cult-like atmosphere of the 12-step system in which you must put on a show of your holiness for others – revealing that Dr Drew and those like him, don’t care so much about the results of whether or not somebody changes their addictive behaviors – they care about whether you are living the exact lifestyle prescribed by them, and want you to run around spreading the recovery culture’s agenda. If they cared about results, then they would be happy when someone says they changed their ways and stopped abusing substances, but instead, they react to such proclamations with accusations of lying, or by psychologically abusing people with proclamations that they will fail, crash and burn, and return to substance abuse unless they follow the ways of the recovery movement.
Whereas Dr Drew and others in the recovery culture are constantly accusing those who haven’t followed their way as either not being “real addicts”, or being “dry drunks”, or outright lying about being sober – I on the other hand, think that the 12 step and disease way are flawed, horrible, ineffective models for ending a substance abuse problem – but my reaction to those who say it has worked for them, is not to say that they are lying, or that they will inevitably fail. I think most of these people have truly changed, I just happen to think that they changed in spite of the 12-steps. I deliver the credit to the person who changed, not the program which in most cases probably made it harder for them to change. In fact, I give successful 12-steppers more credit than they give themselves.
The fact is, heroin addicts become former heroin addicts all the time. The same is true for any substance addiction, and most do it without treatment or 12-step programs. I am one such person. Personally, I was a heroin addict, I wrapped that up 9 years ago, and I will never be a heroin addict again. I am not “in recovery”, and I never recovered because I had no disease of addiction to recover from. I had a way of living that I needed to change. When I was “recovering” I was wasting my life away, going in and out of treatment programs and meetings, and continuing to abuse substances on and off. I finally quit abusing substances for good, stopped recovering, and started living.
To read some other people’s comments on Dr Drew’s statements, check out Stinkin-Thinkin.com
What do yuzz all think of the ‘ emotional immaturity ‘ theory of drug addicts ? It might be just another stereotype but it does seem to fit on my observations.
Psychologists say they didn’t learn to deal with their bad feelings in the first place and so drowned them in drugs/booze. They stayed at the emotional age they were before they started using and when they quit, they are left to face their original problems and without the right therapy, there’s a good chance of relapse.
I am not an addict and have never been a user but somebody i care about is. Its fascinating stuff to learn about.
Great piece, really well observed, thanks!
To this: “…He holds selfless acts as an apparent gold-standard indicator of whether one is actively abusing substances or not, which in itself is problematic, but more problematic is the fact that he expects there to be a public show of these selfless acts, otherwise she must be abusing substances.”
I would only add that interesting;y the multi-billion dollar 12-step based “recovery” industry does not recognize what you or I would call acts of selflessness like the generosity of mind and spirit that IS the act of parenting small children or tireless work for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR – a UN agency that currently assists 20 million refugees in approximately 120 countries) or efforts to do real concrete constructive things in devastated New Orleans or even something as simple as donating blood. Those are not considered “selfless acts.” I actually heard an AA old-timer share with obvious bitterness and envy that Brad Pitt was just looking for good press when he built houses (house!) in New Orleans.
The ONLY so called “selfless acts” that steppers acknowledge is pouring coffee at an AA meeting. Curiously they go on to say that 12-step religion is a “selfish program,” which it is. It’s like a pyramid scheme. The only successful members are those at the top who achieve this by occupying their time with religious proselytizing and controlling others, Like any pyramid it narrows at the top and the top-dogs are people who relish placing themselves in a position to judge others and literally consign them to ugly lonely death if they resist being controlled. It’s disgusting.
I don’t know Angelina Jolie, but most likely she aged out of substance abuse just like the vast majority of people who abuse any substance do, particularly when they become parents.
Well said – there are a lot of absurd judgments going on when such acts are so easily dismissed, it definitely betrays an even deeper twisted worldview than I realized. You’re totally right, he would be more impressed if she made coffee at a meeting than by anything else.
“I don’t know Angelina Jolie, but most likely she aged out of substance abuse just like the vast majority of people who abuse any substance do, particularly when they become parents.”
absolutely
You know, I remember growing up watching “Loveline” on MTV in the 1990s with Adam Corolla and Dr. Drew and as a teenager he just seemed to be this young, hip, caring, smart, good looking and idealistic doctor who just wanted to help young people. I know at the time he seemed to have all the answers and was a great role model. It’s just so sad to his utter and complete disintegration of any and all integrity he had over time and to see the warped shadow of his likeness pervading all celebrity rehabilitation. I had no idea he would descend to such a sniveling, miserable attention whore and give up sound medical practice to become such a snake oil salesman. How sad for him but more importantly, how dangerous and frightening for all the young and impressionable people he still has the capacity to damage.
Thank you for this article. I am also a “former” heroin addict. I began using heroin at age 15, and at my most intense point, I was injecting $250 a day worth of heroin and working as an escort to support my addiction. That was over 10 years ago, and I haven’t touched it since. I am, however, an occasional alcohol drinker, except for now as I am currently pregnant with my first child. I don’t consider myself sober or in recovery, by any means, because I, too, don’t feel that there is anything for me to recover from. I was a young woman experiencing an intense experience. And, quite honestly, I feel that the best thing I ever did for myself with regard to getting off and away from drugs was to stay out of and away from AA/NA. I stopped using drugs and found a different way to live my life. An empowered way. I learned how to love myself. And I did’t see love as “admitting” that anything had power over me, most especially a substance. That implies that I didn’t have a choice in the matter, and I feel that everything in life is a choice. I didn’t feel that affirming that I was bad, wrong, broken and unfixable by stating that “I am an addict/alcoholic” and always will be an addict/alcoholic was self-loving. I didn’t feel that I needed to base my self-worth on how much time I had sober or how many I had ‘saved’ by carrying the message to the other doomed souls they call addicts. And love is not punishing myself over and over and over for the mistakes I’d made in the past, taking a “moral inventory” of all the times I’ve wronged others, beating myself up about that, and living in that self-loathing cycle for the rest of my life. And my definition of love is certainly not being part of a pseudo-religious cult that judges others and teaches its followers that “There’s no such thing as ‘I was a heroin addict.’ That doesn’t exist in nature. Something is going on with [her] addiction. Or she’s in recovery.” If thats the case then I guess I’m a freak of nature, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been called that. I’ll wear that label proudly.
Love is truly the answer. And I’m grateful that I discovered that when I did. I’m grateful that I continue to discover that everyday. I’m grateful that I CHOOSE to love myself instead of choosing to disempower myself. Its all about choice, and I choose love.
Danielle your story is amazing. It gives me a little hope that someday my sister, who has been a heroin addict for over 6 years will choose to love herself and stop using heroin.
I do believe in the disease concept. I feel like there was always something wrong with me, lots of anxiety and low self esteem, etc. Then drugs came along and I thought it was the best thing ever! But with the help of NA I’ve become a much better person and learned how to love myself a little bit. I don’t understand all the NA/AA hate out there. They work for some people, and others they don’t. I was a heroin addict and the only reason I would stop going is so that I could drink again. I don’t kid myself. Just my thoughts.
Thanks Danielle! Very inspiring post.
I’m well over a year clean off of heroin.
NA/AA can steal someone away from having a rich, flourishing social life beyond their addiction. I’ve moved on to a job in a great community and have the love and support of family and so many friends. I suppose the meetings can provide that for people who couldn’t otherwise find it. But it’s not for me. The steps can offer a valuable guideline for a rewarding way of life. The problem is the cult aspect of the program, it can be divisive and alienating.
I think it’s important for me to not forget the awful things I’ve done due to addiction, but more importantly I have to always remember that it’s what you DO presently that defines you, not what you’ve done. I spent my whole youth paralyzed with regret, but today I’m an unstoppable force of responsibility and integrity. As long as you know who you want to be, and have the wherewithal to be true to that ideal, then you will be happy and live a life full of love and joy.
Folks in the program say the steps can bring you a life beyond your wildest dreams, but I’m here to say that you can also have that without needing to dredge out to meetings every day.
I was a heroin addict for 20 + years. I quit on my own and have no desire to ever use again. I went on Methadon twice and the first time I quit that I was weaned down to less than 5 mg a day. It took me close to 5 months for my bones to stop aching and for me to get a decent nights sleep. Then My husband wanted us to move back to the city…big mistake. The second time on methadon, I went back on heroin for a few months and quit cold turkey. As we all know it was a rough 5 days and then I was ok. No one should ever be given methadon for addiction replacement. Just give people decent heroin instead.
When did i stop yenning for a fix? Like quiting smoking it took a long time and here’s a tip – don’t hang out with other smokers! Find something else to do with your minds, because once your physical cravings stop… the hardest thing to beat is the mental cravings.
Good luck… and stay off the prescription drugs…they’ll kill you.
20 years smoke free and 30 years junk free.
Your amazing love what you said my son has an addiction & i know its more than weed i no he also uses coke but wondering if he’s using heroin also not sure but i try helping him its so hard i really don’t no what to do anymore… but u give me some hope & your realistic… thank you ☺
If I hadn’t gone to treatment and admitted that I was/am an addict and that my disease of addiction so happened to express itself through heroin for the last 15 years, I’d still be shooting up. Thankfully, through NA, AA, counseling, and mindfulness I can start to rebuild and refamialarize with the self I was before dope came in my life. My behaviors and actions are what I choose to change now. I choose to not shoot dope anymore. I can’t choose to not be an addict. Many facets of my life I approach with an addictive tendency, whether it be relationships, exercise, work, conversations… It’s the awareness of being an addict that allows me to address and change my behaviors.
“If you’re not working on a recovery, you’re working on a relapse”. I learned that “I can’t, but we can”. I tried for so long to fight this life on my own, only to lose repeatedly. When I recognized that there were others out there that related and empathized with my past and my struggles, my resolve was strengthened. I wasn’t alone anymore. It’s this companionship and fellowship that emboldens me and helps lift me out of the darkness of addiction. Unity brings us together and allows us to be free.