Originally Posted by
BlueChair 
Each of us have to answer these questions for ourselves, but Ive asked myself the question as to why I should treat my husband’s addiction, and my behaviors any different than if he had cancer, or heart disease. Both of these are chronic, life threatening. Both have risk factors that people can actively work on to limit their likelihood of being affected. Both have hereditary components, both can do damage to relationships, finances, social interactions, romantic relations, In all these other diseases you can ask yourself what am I getting out of this, is the cost to me worth the benefit. In both of these the person can be in denial of symptoms and delay treatment.
So why should addiction be viewed differently? Why should we act differently, or be considered codependent just because we are in one of these relationships ? Would you research heart disease, look for the best treatments, hospitals, try and make him see how serious this is if he was in denial? What if you found a lump but he kept saying it was nothing would you be codependent to pursue and continue to address your concern? The only difference I can see is with addiction we have to be careful not to enable and prevent the natural negative consequences of addiction to be removed because it helps people become aware of the seriousness, and break their own symptom of denial.
It should be viewed differently because you don't go to the cancer store and buy more cancer. People with cancer fight like hell to get rid of it; many alcoholics take more of the "disease" into their bodies.
As someone whose mother suffered for years with breast cancer, I find your comparison of alcoholism to a lump in the breast to be nauseating. There are NO similarities between the hell she went through and someone choosing to drink their lives away. Did you really say if you had a lump in your own breast that it wouldn't be codependent if you got it treated, and somehow try to compare that to alcoholism? Aside from the total lack of logic in your writing, your agenda, not your recovery, is again showing.
You should consider other people's experiences before you compare cancer and alcoholism again. And before anyone tells me I'm triggered and that I can ignore anyone I want on here, hell yes I'm triggered and hell no this should not be ignored. Actual people are out here, and ridiculous, offensive comparisons should not be allowed to stand. If you want to delete my post, then delete the "a lump in your breast is like alcoholism" post because it's a hell of a lot more offensive.