The homeless junkies here have better access to resources than SINGLE MOTHERS. They get first priority for some fucked up reason. Druggies get section 8 and low cost housing before families and single mothers do. I absolutely love my new area but when you go down the hill and make a left, there is an encampment of tents. Loads of these people CHOOSE to be out on the streets. They want to keep getting high.
You do understand addiction is a disease, and not freedom of choice, yes?
I would call addiction a disorder.
I think the disease model does harm and I've watched it give people excuses.
I remember early in my program I saw people who got to 9 months and a year and relapsed. And it terrified me. Thinking I had some incurable "disease" and seeing other people make it that far only to relapse made me feel completely hopeless. My thinking was if these other people can't do it, I can't either and I may as well just go overdose and get it over with. I'm going on 8 years without a problem.
We always have a choice. When you are in the trenches of active addiction and you are using to avoid the withdrawal.....that's still a choice. You can choose to just withdrawal, you can choose to call for help as and go into a detox clinic, or you can choose to call your dealer. Addicts always have the choices. They just dont break down their thought processes enough. Its constant survival mode/slavery.
Every day I wake up alive I can choose. I dont let that disempowering narrative give me any passed. And that goes for everything you encounter in life. A lot of recovery is learning to respond and not react. A common thing taught in recovery therapy is identifying and knowing triggers and "playing the tape".....meaning stopping and thinking things through.
There are so many steps involved in getting drugs and using them. You make at least 50 active choices from the moment you decide to use and when you actively plunge a needle into your arm. Personal responsibility and accountability are so important if anyone desires really getting healthy. Just because something may not "feel" like a choice doesn't mean it isn't.
I'm not saying its easy.....its one of the hardest things a person can do. But being a junkie is harder. You are just numb and not really giving a shit if you die. I'm not saying addicts are not sick, either.
That incurable disease narrative can really gut a person of any hope or motivation to even bother. A disorder can be treated.