Once an Addict, Always an Addict?
I hate this idea that <i>addiction</i> is someone just getting high so they don&#x27;t have to feel bad feelings, which seems to be the underlying assumption of most discussions.<p>My dad drank heavily for a lot of years. I grew up hearing tales of his legendary drinking. Mom would buy him a case of beer on Sunday and if he ran out mid-week, he would drunkenly accuse her of drinking his beer -- which makes no sense because mom is a tea totaller. He would go on a bar crawl on nickel night and hit dozens of bars with his buddies. Etc.<p>He was in the army and he fought in the front lines of two wars, WWII and Vietnam. He retired when I was three and apparently began tapering off.<p>I don&#x27;t recall him having the DTs. I don&#x27;t recall him drinking heavy in my lifetime. I recall him having a beer as part of dinner when I was four or five.<p>When I was seven, he was diagnosed with a heart condition. He blamed it on the alcohol and never touched the stuff again (except for a few sips when my brother hit drinking age while talking to him about what made for a good beer, I think).<p>By then, he had been out of the army for four years or so. He had time to taper off for a few years before making his dramatic announcement that he wasn&#x27;t drinking again.<p>I think he drank to suppress his nightmares from serving in two wars. I think he didn&#x27;t need to actively suppress his nightmares anymore after he dropped his retirement papers and no longer had to live in fear of being sent back.<p>I think people drink and drug for a reason. We just mostly don&#x27;t bother to try to figure out what the reason is for this specific person and we just act like &quot;You are a badly behaved child who needs a spanking and you need to just try harder.&quot; And then blame them when that stupid idea consistently fails to be an effective solution to their problem.<p>Edited. Cuz typos and auto-corrupt.