Are You An Addict?

Why the Question is Worth Asking

NOTE: This presentation is coming from the vantage of substance addictions. While the same concepts can apply to process addictions, this presentation is phrased in a way that is specific to substance use.

I once had a friend (a medical doctor) say to me that he was not certain it was best to lump all types of addiction into one category.

That has given me a lot of thought — and I am interested in knowing more about the disadvantages of the common nomenclature.

One obvious advantage of collecting them together in religo, however, is that it can be useful in expressing their common pain.

It is very difficult to explain the experience of being addicted to non-addicted people. Indeed, in my experience trying FIVE different treatment modalities (with mixed results from each one), the most powerful benefit I’ve noticed from any is the simple fact that there are people there who can understand what I’m going through and where I’m coming from. This is a problem, because we have a LOT of addiction in this culture. According to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Data, we can reasonably (and conservatively) assume the following:

• In 2022, 48.7 million people aged 12 or older (or 17.3%) had a substance use disorder (SUD) in the past year, including 29.5 million who had an alcohol use disorder (AUD), 27.2 million who had a drug use disorder (DUD), and 8.0 million people who had both an AUD and a DUD.

That’s almost 15% of the population, which can assure you of the fact that

whether or not you’re an addict, addiction affects your life.

Currently, what we have addicted people do is tell them to go to treatment or join a mutual aid society. These are most certainly very helpful, and are probably essential. That said, we have a BIG gap between that and how we think about those addicts as people — and the types of expectations and resources we have for them when we try to create a space for them to (potentially) reintegrate into society.

I am of three minds, “like a tree in which there are three blackbirds.” I understand that a reckless person must be held at proper distance simply for damage control. I also understand that mutual aid societies can provide a unique opportunity for addicts to find a common core, connect with others, and collaborate on accessing resources.

But I ALSO think that it is not helpful for non-addicted people to simply think that it is simply not their problem — or that the problem is simply an unpleasant nuisance to be swept under the rug. I DO think that there is a larger Meaning Crisis indicated by an Enlightenment Gap, and that we have a corporate problem as a culture which is promoting greed and individual ambition over a more sacral appreciation of the beauty and grandeur of Life. Despite the advantages of rehab centers and mutual aid societies, funneling addicts into a subculture increases the likelihood of recidivism into use (and all of the potentially criminal destruction associated with that).

I’m currently engaging with Dr. Dunnington’s Addiction and Virtue, and I intend to publish here and elsewhere as a mark of that activity. He makes a good case against the disease model, while respecting and honoring the reasons it has gained a necessary popularity.

There is a larger point he makes in the book, however, about why we become addicted in the first place. And it’s the best thing I’ve seen out there. More to come.

I look forward to your letters.

Attendantly,

Aaron