Addiction is not cancer

Old 10-25-2013, 12:02 PM
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Addiction is not cancer

I am tired of hearing this comparison.

My sister chooses to use heroin every day. I did not choose to get a tumor. Every day she wakes up and chooses to inject heroin into her veins. I did not wake up on any day and try to get a tumor. But I got one. They found it when I nearly bled to death from the hemorrhaging.

Every day my sister decides not to get treatment for her heroin addiction, and that is her right. As soon as I discovered I was ill I went to the doctor. I managed my diet, I managed my vitamin supplements, I stopped introducing any and all estrogen-altering substances into my system or environment. I immediately started taking the recommended medication to treat my tumor in preparation for surgery to have it removed.

All through this time, my sister was doing heroin every day. Every day I woke up freaking out about my tumor, and every day she woke up and decided to use heroin. Every day she woke up and decided not to choose recovery.

I had my tumor removed. There were complications during surgery. Many complications. Recovery would be a long slow battle, but it wasn't cancer! Much rejoicing!

Every day I woke up determined to recover from my surgery. I took my pain medication as prescribed. Every day during this time, my sister chose to do heroin.

My tumor came back. I chose to go to the doctor. I underwent a second surgery. Through this recurrence and treatment, as with the last, my sister woke up every day and chose to use heroin.

My sister chooses to do heroin every day. That is her choice. I hope that one day she will make a different choice. I also hope that my tumor doesn't come back again. I wish that I had as much control over my tumor as she does over her heroin use.

I see this comparison all the time and I really don't think the analogy holds any water. They're not the same. My sister and I do not have the same disease. I didn't get to choose my tumor. But I do get to make the decision to treat my condition. She gets that same decision. I still hope that she will choose recovery.

Thanks for letting me share.

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Old 10-25-2013, 12:27 PM
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Very well said. I agree 100%.
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Old 10-25-2013, 12:31 PM
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Thank you for this. I share much of your experience, both personally and with other family members, and my former partner is a person addicted to substances. Although I do see him as ill, I agree that there is a tremendous difference between his illness and an illness such as cancer. And I have to say that about my own (other) illness: I chose to do all that I did in the past when it came to my codependency. No one forced me, although the IMPULSE came from places within me that made me feel as if I HAD to do some of the things I did. But only with a lot of critical work on myself was I able to begin to unravel the rat's nest of "causes", and to do THAT was a choice, as well.

Choice is the difference, and it relates to both sides of the street. Both a person addicted to substances and a person who we call "co-dependent" chooses to engage in self-destructive behavior. This makes neither one "good" nor "bad" -- it's simply illness –– but only by taking responsibility for one's actions can recovery begin.
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Old 10-25-2013, 12:38 PM
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Im so sorry to hear about your tumor and your struggle with that. And yes you are right- Addiction is not Cancer in any way shape or form.

But addiction is a disease, and should be treated like one. Your sister has chosen not to get help for her disease, and I am so sorry for that.
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Old 10-25-2013, 12:53 PM
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Watching someone slowly kill themselves is like watching someone slowly die. Yes, you have the choice to not watch... but it still hurts to think about it.
It might hurt worse that they are the reason they are dying and not an incurable disease.
I'm sorry you had cancer, but obviously cancer and addiction are two different things or else they wouldn't be named two different things.
If your watching someone slowly die (be it there fault or not)... it still hurts like hell.
I agree that addiction is totally different but grieving for a loved one... is not. We may have to agree to disagree on this one.
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Old 10-25-2013, 01:51 PM
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Just to be clear, I didn't have cancer. My tumors turned out to be benign. I am extremely thankful for that. But when my life was in the balance, I felt more powerless than ever. If anything, that experience actually made it easier for me to choose recovery for myself. Things get less ambiguous when we are dealing with extremes.
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Old 10-25-2013, 02:03 PM
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When people say that we must overlook lying, stealing, unacceptable behavior, violence, etc. because a person has an untreated addiction disease, it makes as much sense to me as accepting lying, stealing, unacceptable behavior, violence, etc. from someone who has cancer. I will not accept the unacceptable, disease or not.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:07 PM
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I have to thank you interuppted for your quote - I've chosen to leave my partner and luckily my family was the solid foundation in the darkness - now I just have to figure out how to fly on my own.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:10 PM
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I think its more of an analogy which is by definition an imperfect comparison. Its a serious disease or disorder of the brain. Many people do not get addicted even though they use or drink. I don't think people choose to get addicted. You can also compare it diabetes or heart disease.

Addiction has stigma. So people lie to hide it. (I guess its like leprosy before antibiotics). Lepers were social outcasts. Addiction also drives the need for money (esp. illegal substances which are expensive). I think there is a difference between understanding that lying etc. are symptoms and overlooking. I think addicts should be held accountable for their actions. But the prison system is not the answer for a non-violent addict.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:21 PM
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Agreed! People make choices every day, we are so lucky we get to make choices, yet some make poor choices. My AXH had the same friends I did, and I hung out with these people, but I made the choice not to use any drugs. I had bad things happen to me as a kid too, but I chose not to do drugs. I had alcoholic parents and I made the choice that drugs and alcohol wouldn't be my answer and they wouldn't do me any good. I had this same conversation with my AXH and told him he had a choice, call a sponsor and get to meetings, or relapse. He chose heroin. Not my problem anymore.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:26 PM
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interrupted, you forgot one thing though. Your sister didn't choose to destroy her life with heroin. She didn't grow up as a kid hoping to have nothing and be nothing in life.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Upsetnneedhelp View Post
interrupted, you forgot one thing though. Your sister didn't choose to destroy her life with heroin. She didn't grow up as a kid hoping to have nothing and be nothing in life.
She makes that choice every day that she doesn't choose recovery. Nobody else is making that choice for her, nobody else can. We have all tried. And I don't think she's nothing.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:42 PM
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who wants to be an addict? .... their lives are miserable. I agree addiction isn't cancer, it isn't diabetes, it isn't a lot of things but I DO believe it is an illness. The addicts brain does not function the same way a normal brain does. Many, many people can drink alcohol socially, smoke weed recreationally, do cocaine and any number of other drugs recreationally ... heck many people abuse pain killers and don't turn into addicts. yet so many cannot stop.

You wouldn't tell a schizophrenic if he just had enough will power the voices would stop .... we don't tell ADHD kids to just suck it up and sit still (well sadly a lot of people do do that but thats another board) Oh if you come to Jesus and have faith your diabetes will go away, or your MS, etc ... There is no sense talking to someone about addiction if they don't believe it is an illness.

For some it is easier to see their loved one as a crummy person who cares for no one but themselves, call them a loser, a jerk whatever it takes to make yourself feel better ...

after watching my son struggle for years now, having success only to stumble and fall but continuing to fight the battle I CHOOSE to believe that inside he is who I know him to be, a really good kid with all kinds of beauty to offer the world I pray for him daily, I will never give up on him and I refuse to label and judge him because I don't have a clue as to the battle he faces every day inside his head.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:59 PM
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I think its compared to cancer because they share a lot of things. Both are complex disease, require specialized care, may not respond to treatment, and if they do it can reoccur, once you have it your at higher risk for it coming back even if you do all the right things. A person who recovers from cancer might exercise, eat better, get checkups, but it could come back. A person who goes in to recovery can do all the right things and work whatever program they want, but it wont make them a superhero, things can always happen to trigger them and they can relapse even if they don't want to. I could think about it like a tumor in the brain. It starts out small and I dont notice anything happening, then it gets larger and maybe some of my family thinks something is wrong with me but I feel ok, they say this coke I take might be to blame but there is nothing wrong with me that I can see, then I start making some mistakes, people are getting angry, and they keep saying the coke it to blame, but it is the only thing that makes me feel better and I dont understand why they cant see that, I try to go to work and make good decisions but they end up not working out, they sounded good at the time and now I think maybe something is wrong with me, but it cant be the coke because it makes me feel better without it I feel sick, depressed, like I will die. The addiction tumor gets bigger and bigger and now my brain isn't working right but I'm not sure what is going on all I know is I feel worse if I don't have the coke and I think my family is crazy because they think it is causing my problems so I lie to keep them from knowing, or being angry. Until one day I get so sick I end up going off with a friend of a friend who is a dealer, and I hang out there not realizing I'm very sick, even throwing up blood I don't know why. None of it makes sense until I wake up in the hospital after two weeks, part detoxed and now maybe I think they could be right it was the coke, but I think maybe I can quit on my own .

A lot of this comes from my husband. He is in rehab now. I hope one day your sister gets help, my husband almost died of this disease.
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:59 PM
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While addiction is not cancer, making the "choice" to quit is not nearly as easy as it seems. At the point that addiction has taken hold, forces beyond simple will-power are required to reverse the drastic chemical and biological changes that substance abuse has made in the brain. Once an addict, the drive to use chemicals is as strong in the addicted person as the drive to eat, sleep, and have sex is for non addicts.

This paper by Dr. Garrett is probably the best explanation I have read about why, in the midst of their lives falling apart due to addiction, addicts have such a difficult time giving up the very thing that is causing them such misery.

The Addict's Dilemna

As I reread the paper, I noticed this interesting comparison to cancer treatment:

"Addiction is a process that over time encroaches upon and over time invades the normal, healthy "tissue" of the addict’s personality in a manner strikingly similar to the way a malignant tumor crowds and infiltrates the tissue around it. And just as in many cases the Dilemna for the treatment of a bodily cancer is how to remove or destroy the cancer while simultaneously sparing as much as possible of the nearby non-cancerous and often vital host tissue, so does recovery from advanced addiction require a similar separation of "tissues," with destruction of one and protection of another. The process of recovery from addiction in fact quite often resembles the radiation treatment and chemotherapy of a grave malignancy during which the individual often experiences side effects and feels quite ill from the treatment."
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Old 10-25-2013, 03:59 PM
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Once a person is addicted to heroin or alcohol they don't really have a choice either. They bodies demand the narcotic and they will use to avoid the horrible withdrawals. Society seems frightened by addiction while accepting of other diseases. Lots of fund raisers for cancer but I've never really seen any for addiction. Many people fighting cancer are forced to go back to treatment if the cancer returns. Just like the addict who has a relapse. They are both chronic and lifelong conditions.
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Old 10-25-2013, 04:07 PM
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I've heard from far, far too many addicts in recovery that they started their path of recovery when they chose to stop consuming substances. The same can be said about the folks I know in my groups (I go to Nar-Anon) -- they began their recovery when they chose to do change their attitudes and stop consuming the lives of others.

I, for one, am not claiming that addiction is NOT an illness (and I get the sense that Interrupted is not doing so either), but there is a difference and that difference is choice. No one chooses to be an addict (of substances, gambling, people, etc.), but for the vast majority of folks who have spoken up about their RECOVERY, it seems that the unifying thread is choice.
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Old 10-25-2013, 04:18 PM
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If you think about it like a tumor in the brain caused by the substances, when you stop the substances, gradually the tumor starts shrinking and the brain is able to start functioning again. Addiction tumor cant be cut out, it can only be shrunk down to manageable levels.
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Old 10-25-2013, 04:22 PM
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Once a person is addicted to heroin or alcohol they don't really have a choice either. They bodies demand the narcotic and they will use to avoid the horrible withdrawals.
Sure they do. This website is chock full of people who had a choice and chose recovery.
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Old 10-25-2013, 04:29 PM
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If it was a simple matter of choice (in response to negative consequences) no one would be an addict or alcoholic. There is obviously something else going on, which science has yet to understand.
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