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.

:grouphug:

Very well said. I agree 100%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Sure they do. This website is chock full of people who had a choice and chose recovery.

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.

Interesting reading for those that have different views on the so called "disease model"


Drug Addiction Is Not A Brain Disease It is a Choice

I don't like the implication here that I see my sister as a crummy person, a loser, or a jerk. I think none of those things. I love her very much and I know that she is a good person. Nothing that I said indicated otherwise.

She is an addict, that is her illness. I'm not saying that addiction equates to the things that were listed, and I haven't heard anyone else doing that either.

I believe she has the ability to make the choice to seek recovery. I also believe that she has the strength to succeed in recovery if she chooses to do so. If I thought she was just a loser there wouldn't be any hope at all. If I thought she was just a loser I wouldn't have hope for her recovery.

I think that by recognizing her autonomy and granting her the dignity to make decisions for herself as an adult I am showing her more respect and love than I ever have before.

Thank you for this. You're right that I'm using "choose to use" as the only alternative to "choose to recover" - because it really is a binary state at that point. For the addict there is only one or the other, use or recovery. Perhaps therein is where my language sounds more accusatory than I intend.

When I say that my sister has a choice, I am saying it with love and respect, acknowledgement of her whole self, not with judgement or diminution.

We are taught in school, by our parents that drugs are bad (maybe not all of us but I would think most kids that go through elementary school are taught that), and can lead to all of these horrible outcomes, yet still people choose to try it. As soon as you make that choice to try a known addictive substance, you are risking becoming an addict. To me, that is a choice that can lead to a "disease".

It is a matter of choice once the addict has the tools, knows how to use them to stay clean, and chooses not to. Someone with cancer does not have a choice. I agree it is a disease, and I believe we have (I say we because I was abused drugs years ago for about a year) the choice to keep using and die(whether figuratively or literally) or grab a lifeline and climb out of that hell. Cancer victims do not have that luxury. I, for one, am tired of the analogy.

If your a family member living with someone in active addiction, or recovery I think there are close similarities to family members who live with cancer patients, or those who are in remission.

In both instances, family is left in a precarious position; dealing with changes in the family dynamic, perhaps the loss of a partner who is able to contribute to the family income, childcare duties, emotional needs of the spouse. In both situations there are many raw emotions, fear, misplaced anger, guilt, resentment.

For many family members either disease can mean you make changes to your own life in order to support your loved one. You may begin to research the disease, treatment options, become focused on what you can do to help; weighing options, going to doctor appointments, offering emotional support, sometimes physical support. Often a family member can suffer their own emotional crisis, fall into depression, anxiety, take on the role of caregiver, neglect themselves during times of crisis of their partner. Some do it knowing their partner will not get better.

Sadly, The one distinction I often see is the loved one of a cancer patient is applauded for their love and dedication; while the loved one of an addicted person is told they are themselves sick for tolerating similar behaviors in their loved one, and for offering their support.

Distinct difference between the two for me are the symptoms of disease. Both may bring general anxiety, fear and constant tension into the home. Family members may be subject to bad moods, demanding behavior, guilt trips, episodes of denial; but addicts experience guilt, shame, believe using drugs is like breathing or the need for water; so they lie, steal; do whatever it takes to continue their use.

By whom? They aren't forced into anything. Nobody forced my sister to rob me, she CHOSE to rob me. It almost sounds like you think they are completely incapable people. I feel like throughout this thread people are reading diminution into my posts, but the opposite is actually true. The reality is that statements like this are diminutive. Assuming that all addicts are victims that cannot possibly help themselves is diminutive.

There's more than just a day, there's a whole month: Recovery Month 2013 - Home

People don't choose cancer, and people don't choose to be addicted.

The former got unlucky, and the latter thought they could get away with
JUST ONE dance with the devil.

(but the devil is one hell of a jealous dance partner)

(((Interbear))). I completely understand and agree with your entire post, all of them. It is sad and unfortunate that many continue to use addiction as an excuse for poor choices and poor behavior.

As you may know, my Dad has cancer and has been fighting for his life with everything be has. I, too, find the comparison of cancer and addiction to be rather unfathomable.

I am sorry your thread has been taken in this direction. It appears to be less then supportive and more of the same old "contrarianistic" view points.

Best advice I can give you (unsolicited or not, lol) is to take what you want and leave the rest. Your recovery is inspiring and continues to shine brightly. :)

Cancer is not a noble disease and addiction is not ignoble. They are are caused by some combination of genetics, environment (lifestyle) and luck (probability). Some people with cancer recover - same way with addiction - some don't. Its the way it is.