Is Addiction a Disease?

Is Addiction a Disease?

I have a friend, Allen, who at eighteen, became addicted to opiates. It was a horrible contrast that led to a couple of overdoses and a decade of misery. He was either high and out of his mind or he was sick from withdrawals and suffering, 100% of the time. I could relate in a way. I was addicted too, to benzodiazapine. That’s just the fancy word for Valium or Xanax of which I had a prescription for the maximum allowable amount when I was 22 and I made sure that I didn’t find out much about withdrawals during the very same decade. I thought that I was different, and in some ways I guess I did have a much different experience. In fact, even though he was a very close friend, all of our other friends and I had to separate ourselves from him. Nobody likes a guy that can’t handle his smack. Ya know.

There were many differences in our experiences actually. The main one being supply. My prescription was $8 a month, not even a quarter of what a dose of the drug he was addicted to cost at that time. I would get 120 every four weeks from the pharmacy and another 30 – 90, for $2 apiece, from a street dealer. Of course, Allen had to go out and hunt his down. And he did whatever was necessary. It’s a hard thing to get a grip on. He is responsible, but in a way I know that isn’t really him. Before the drugs he would have never stolen a candy bar. It seemed like no matter what the action and repercussion, he would put that drug first. It came in front of friendships and his relationship with his family. He stole from several of our mutual friends and I constantly heard crazy-Allen the addict stories. I did not consider myself an addict. I didn’t steal for it, I didn’t ruin friendships, I’m sure I kept the gossip mill busy, like him though, but I had an easy, steady supply of the drugs I was addicted to.

He forced us all away from him because of his behavior. We felt conflicted knowing that had he not tried drugs he would be the awesome guy that everyone liked. I’m sure he didn’t imagine he would ever become addicted. That’s never the goal. If you’ve faced addiction before, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t then you are taking the same position that we took right before we became addicted.  Of course, I’m sure you are in no danger. The difference was that were doing drugs then justifying it with denial, because prior to being addicted you could never image that life of constant dependence on a chemical. It often happens quickly because of the snowball effect that accompanies the feelings of sudden worthlessness. I believe Allen went through that as well.

I remember coming back for three weeks in the Army to do a Hometown recruiting Program before I became addicted to Xanax. When I left, Allen wasn’t addicted either, but in 90 days when I got back, I was shocked to see how he had changed. He lost his laid-back personality and charisma that caused everyone to like him. Allen was something else now. It was like a body-snatcher got him. I didn’t see the day to day contrast, but he was addicted heavily very fast.  I will never forget how he told me his back was starting to hurt and he needed forty dollars and got upset when I didn’t have it. I knew that he was off then.

A couple of years later, I got out of the Army for good and Allen hadn’t even gotten his driver’s license yet. He still doesn’t and he is 33 years old. He won’t have the opportunity for another three and a half years. He is finishing up a 12 year sentence for a drug related incident. I get letters from him and it breaks my heart that he is going through the torture that he is.

I only recently started wondering what made him so different. I always thought he just turned into a scumbag because he didn’t care about anything but OxyContin and movies…until he pawned his DVD player and cable was out of the question. For the price of a month of the premium package he could get an 80 mg pill and be high for five hours. I didn’t understand that kind of an addiction. He and I had different severities of addictions because, again the supply, and the price. time, until I got hooked on oxycodone in 2011 after trying it once. I couldn’t think about anything else the next day until I crushed one up (one means three, by the way) sniffed it off the bathroom sink. But, I watched him do them with other friends of ours and they didn’t steal from each other and get sick from doing it every day. Those things were so expensive, that my other friends that did them, did them about twice a month and eventually just quit spending the money. Money meant nothing to Allen in the presence of an oxy. He would pay whatever the dealer wanted. That’s why they became so expensive. I knew a hundred other people just like Allen in the town we lived in.

And just like Allen, the part of their brain located in their frontal lobe had no problem differentiating the euphoria of dopamine made in a lab, from the depleted neurotransmitter that used to be made in his head and associating that pill with the feeling. Seeing how many people that do become addicted to strong opiates after several days of abuse, compared to the individuals who do not, I could almost argue that it’s not a disease. That’s normal. However, I am familiar with the numbers polled by NIDA*, ASAM* and the like. The vast majority do not become addicted when they experiment with the same thing that had him at hello.

I have no excuse. His addiction is what kept me from using opiates myself for all of those years. I thought benzos (Xanax) were nothing compared to opiates, like oxys, dilaudide, morphine, heroin, fentynal and opnana. They may not be as instantly addicting for some of us, but when I was so high all of the time from abusing both, I didn’t stand a chance. I think opiates kept me at bay by the preventive prices for all those years, but when I discovered Tampa, FL and it’s plethora of Pill Mills, prior to House bill 7095 which stopped doctors from writing so many with a dozen or so sanctions, and prevented patients from “doc shopping”, making appointments with multiple crooked doctors, by instituting a database and policies on its mandatory use, Florida’s free-for-all ended overnight in November of 2011. I saw it on the news from the Hillsborough County Jail, in Tampa. I finally ran out of benzos, and I understood the desperation that Allen had been living with.

I didn’t know it then, but your panic switch is on permanent because the part of your brain that keeps us alive in dangerous situation is activated, and though you don’t consciously think so, your grey matter in charge of survival thinks you are going to die. In fact, random neurons are firing at a rate that often causes seizures and actually can lead to death. It causes painful tension that leads to insanity within a few days. The worst part is that when the “acute withdrawal is over, your brain may not return to its pre-addicted condition for many years. This is called post-acute withdrawal syndrome and it’s indescribable, because of the duration and the level of intensity, even though the brain has started healing and producing the neurotransmitters that it ceased to create when it was receiving either GABA or dopamine, without getting too technical, for benzos and opiates respectively.

The thing about addiction is that nobody expects it. I didn’t. I’ve often heard people explain that they don’t  get addicted, no matter, if the use occasionally, which is actually likely, but if someone has to explain that , then the chances are that they are saying that for their own benefit to justify abusing the drug, which is a common indication of denial of the disease.

National Institute on Drug Abuse

www.nida.org

NIDA is a huge Federal Agency that is responsible for research, funding, treatments, drug policy consukting

and anything relating to the relationship between drugs and everything affected by drugs. This is the Agency

that should have jurisdiction over drug policy reform in the US, I believe. 

NIDA was partly responsible for the recent teduction in severity scheduling reduction of marijuana from it's

ridiculously high Federal status of Schedule 1, which meant that the Federal government regarded pot

as having the highest potential for addiction and no medicinal purposes.

NIDA was the first agency to solve drug related problems with science. It was established in 1955 and has

significantly improved the level of drug recovery quality in America since it's inception.

American Society of Addiction Medicine

www.asam.org

These are two of several giant researchers of drugs through scientific method. ASAM predates NIDA and it was 
previoujsly a NY Physicians Association focusing on .Addiction. They added the AM Addiction Medicine in the 
seventies when most of there funding was from another giant that is ultimately subservient to NIDA. They started recieving funds then directly from NIDA to research and develop medical treatments. This organization advocates for the treatment of addiction medically and educates physicians and certifies then to be able to administer addiction medicine programs.

The website I am working on, is https://addictX.org. For some reason it is in groundhog's day mode. Everyday, I add content and come back and it's disappeared. I am going to switch back to an easier to use CRM until I figure out the problem. Check it out. I'm on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and rarely twitter, but I have to crank it up a notch. I am going to be depending on my community and online supporters to implement the Focused Life Program in a transitional housing environment in Octtober. If you would like to help. Please, join me and be a part of Focused Life. I know this program will succeed. But, the more people who care and can help the better. Thank you. And, please, be the first to leave a comment on this blog.

3 Steps to Move Toward Financial Sustainability

Lets’ go ahead and get the disclaimer out of the way first. I am not a lawyer, I haven’t passed the Series 7, not a banker, not even a wealthy person. Do not substitute this information for that of a Certified Finance Pro.

This is a simplified way to help those who are about changing their lives for the better, to get started and move forward from these three first steps.

They call it the “Rat Race”…

Rich people, that is. I think Robert Kiyosaki, coined the term in his bestseller, “Rich Dad / Poor Dad“Rich Dad / Poor Dad”. The grind of making just enough to cover your bills and stretch your paycheck through the week. It’s uncomfortable, but most American’s do it. In fact, most Americans live here. 6 of 10 baby boomers have less than a thousand dollars saved for emergencies. This place sucks, so we want to elevate to the next level. Lucky, for you, it’s easy…not that you couldn't otherwise handle it….

Step   1.

Pay yourself first. That doesn't really make much sense, but it is the single most effective change you can make in your life, and like most everything discussed here, you can do it now, today.  All you do is take about 10% to 15% of your profit, income, whatever and put it in your account, not to be messed with,

Paying yourself first means that you take a predetermined amount, let’s try 10% for now, until we get to some personal finance basic statements. I think that almost all of us could cut a latte, cigarettes, or anything out of your life to cover the price of your savings needs. Better yet, don’t cut it out (unless it’s cigarettes or the like), but find a creative way to increase your income. The point of these posts, ultimately, are to get you to see that there isn’t anything that you aren’t capable of doing. It’s not bullshit. With a positive/realistic outlook on life, yourself and your abilities, it’s true what they tell you in kindergarten.

So, right now, make the change. That’s the beauty of change; you can do it instantly if you don’t fight yourself about it, and it adds up to dollars.  Speaking of which, that reminds me of……

Step 2.

Use the power of compounding, tax-free interest. This isn’t a tax-avoidance blurb, but we can go over some of the basic vehicles in which to drive you tax-free moulah around in. This is where you will want to do some research on your own. Don’t just any-many-Moe a bank, and do what their guru says. She/he is not obligated to have your best interests in mind. Needless, then, to say; he/she most certainly does not. He or she can be a wealth of consulting knowledge once you can sift through the crap. Remember, banks are the ones that rocked our economy, so hard that everyone in the world felt it about seven years ago. It seemed like misconduct, even control fraud to me, but no one was arrested but me that day. If I had been smart, and went to school in Boston, for Finance, then I would have been compounding interest instead of good time.

The way to make the most of this is to use a Traditional or Roth IRA, educational savings plan like a 529 plan, for your kids’ college money, even life insurance policies can be a good way to grow your cash garden without having to worry about weeds.

Make sure you put away a month of income, at least, in a money market account or the stock market, only taking very little, if any risks at all with this. This is your emergency fund and the cornerstone of a good healthy portfolio. This money cannot be tax deferred, by nature, because you may need it quickly and tax-advantaged accounts like your 401k, are penalized if you dip into the cookie jar earlier than agreed.

A 401k is an IRA that is contributed to by both you and your employer. An IRA is a retirement fund and you can own anything (almost) in your IRA. This part is tricky, often, Talk to a pro. I think the only thing that you aren’t allowed to have is collectible wine, because you might drink it.

A 529 plan is one of the educational savings plans that grows un-taxed, while, normally, your child grows up and then it is used for college tuition, books, computers, Beats by Dre (It’s true), rent during school and even a vehicle. The best part is, this is not calculated by the Pell Grantors. If you have a kid, head to Fidelity or your least hated financial institution and drop a couple of Jacksons on your IRA, Life Insurance Policy and/or that 529 plan for little Billy. Oh, and if Bill Jr.uses that dough on college expenses for real, like Beats by Dre, he may not pay taxes on the back-end either. You cannot beat that.

Briefly, if you have a high deductible health insurance policy, you can open a tax—free savings account, known eloquently as a Health Savings Account (HSA), this is not an exhaustive list, but I thought I’d throw that weirdo in just to show you that there are many tax-advantaged accounts and processes. Please, educate yourself further, after taking these first two steps and manifesting them in your life. This is a zero-sum game that we are all playing. There is foreclosure built into the fractal banking system and Modern Money Mechanics. It is overwhelming, but you’ll adapt or someone will be eating your lunch. It’s a dirty game, yawl. I shouldn't even be telling you this, I should want you to lose….Relax, I’m only joking. I want to see as many people rise up and fight smarter to even the playing fields. The game is fixed, but only as long as we allow ourselves to not be educated about said game.

That is why Rule 3, should be Rule One, applies to every aspect of your life and is under your responsibility 100%. [ABC] Always Be Clowning’, Oh wait that was my old motto. 
My new one doesn't need a catchy acronym and it is a good thing, no matter who you’d like to ask. Improve yourself daily. Learn and compound ideas. Help those around you understand, and seek help for what you don’t understand. The truth is that once a human accumulates an unimaginably vast fortune, hundreds of millions or billions, often she is a slave to the money in a whole new way. The object is to keep her from being so stressed out, by participating in your in own financial planning. The pros won’t always steer you in the right direction. Good intentioned layman, won’t either. I hope you take this to heart and out of your next paycheck, take 10%, walk inside your bank and add it to your IRA, find resources that will help you understand how to handle your money.

--Money makes a great servant, but a horrible master. —    -----whose quote is that?

Resources:
www.yahoo.com/finance, 

www.google.com/finance, 

www.bloomberg.com, 

www.fidelity.com  My Favorite