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Originally Posted by xepherys
I still don't understand, but maybe I never will. I disagree, IMHO, that strength doesn't play a big role. To assume "luck" is a key ingredient to beating addiction, and strength is not plays greatly into my above stated theory that it's a crutch or excuse to use until you take responsibility for it yourself. Both my parents were smokers. My mom used to drink a lot and my dad was a raging alcoholic (alcoholism "runs" in my family... *bullshit*) and he ended up dying of a drug and alcohol overdose when I was 16 or 17. I grew up in a lower-middle class, blue collar neighborhood. Despite all of those things, I never smoked or did drugs and only ever drank socially and within a VERY reasonable limit. You'll note my use of quotes above. Can alcoholism really be GENETIC? I dunno, maybe, but the jury is still out on that for me. I didn't WANT to be a drunk that so many of my relatives were. I didn't WANT to stink like cigarettes. That sounds like will to me, not luck. I think letting yourself GET addicted shows that alck of will. Perhaps getting unaddicted takes something more. This is, by no means, a personal attack, either. Just my thoughts on the subject.
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I know I was addicted to something, and I think I uderstand it pretty well both because I was addicted, and because I came out of it. I can tell you that will power only played a small role in my experience. I know that luck played into my getting out of my hole. It's not a cruch, because I did get over both my addictions. Maybe it's like this: there are tools available to certian people in order to get over addiction. Maybe will power would work for you, maybe it wouldn't. I know will power didn't work for me because I tried to kick the habit again and again and again to no avail. It took the catalyst of losing my friend, not will power, to shake me from my addiction. Fear was the motivator, not strength of will.
As for addiction being genetic, yes, in some cases it is. In some cases it's not. Speaking as a son of a doctor in psych, I can say with confidence that some people have a tendency to be proned to addiction because of their genetics. If your parent is addicted to something, it is not a guerentee that you will be proned to addiction.
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Originally Posted by xepherys
Sometimes the beggar is wiser than the businessman. The viewer can often give insight to the work that the artist hadn't previously seen.
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I guess my metaphore doesn't hold up. Let's say I get my foot ran over by a car. Later I'm in a conversation about the feeling of having your foot be run over by things (these things come up). I can describe with accuracy each step and feeling of my experience in great detail. Others can guess what it would be like to get their foot run over by stuff, but they lack experience.