Welcome back! How've you been?

Well?

Look, if you're not going to participate in this discussion I guess I'll have to carry it on my own.

Right, then.

*A-hem*

Let's consider addiction. What is addiction? Physical, mental, psychological? Sociable?

My own definition: A thing becomes an addiction when it begins to impinge on your living a normal life, for a given definition of normal.

So a man who drinks five drinks or more of alcohol per night, but maintains an active (not athletically, but socially) and healthy life, provides for his wife and kiddies manages to plan for a future beyond his own lifetime, and doesn't cause the neighbours to shun himself or his family is probably doing okay. He may be an alcoholic, but it's not a wasting disease (yes, this discussion goes for women too, but I'm easier not having to worry about which term I used last).

Conversely, a man who doesn't keep liquor in the house, but spends his every spare hour on the computer surfing Jane's Guide in a locked room in his underwear would appear to have a fairly serious problem.

1) Can we more-or-less agree that addiction is more about effect than cause?

There are those who would criticize the drinker for taking risks with his health. But quite frankly it's his life, and if he wants to crap out at fifty-five or so, it's really his business, and he might well live a long, long time.

I'll also stipulate that dying at fifty-five isn't a good decision to make for your family, but many people plan very carefully to die much later, only to have their plans abruptly cancelled by what insurance companies might call "acts of living", or perhaps "near-life experiences" (An industry which basically takes the short end of a bet that you're gonna die some day and still makes money could call it anything).

Can we then also agree on something else? 2) No-one ever wanted to become an addict!

No-one ever said "Boy, I'd sure like to be unable to stop ingesting a substance that makes me irritable, murderous and paranoid when I'm not on it, and impotent and paranoid when I am!"

But we haven't yet quite defined addiction. In the examples above, one man regularly consumes a substance that is poisonous to the human body and has nasty aftereffects and long-term side effects. Nontheless, he appears to be a productive and caring, capable member of society.

The second sits at a computer, cutting himself off from the rest of his life, to indulge in mental fantasies which weaken his relationship with his family, friends, and others--including the police when the neighbours eventually call them about the odd smell.

(In another booze example--what of the man who drinks once a year, but typically wakes up in a Mexican jail with a wedding band and a worrying rash?)

It could be argued that the alcoholic has no choice--he's physiologically and psychologically addicted. Then what excuse has the porn-consumer?

Lest you be concerned I am neither anti-porn, nor anti-alcohol, and believe in moderation in all things--including moderation.

We're really not done with the definition yet: So an addiction is any behaviour which has a seriously detrimental effect on you and on your life, but which you are nevertheless 3) unable or unwilling to stop?

I include "or unwilling" because most addicts are so changed by their habit that they don't really want to stop. I didn't really want to quit smoking--any of the times I failed, and even the two times I've really succeeded. I expect I'll still have the odd one from time to time.

Porn addiction I don't truly believe in . I mean, it seems easy to me to walk away from a computer and not feel compelled to look at naughty pictures. But it was a big deal to me when I stopped smoking, so what do I know?

I didn't believe in gambling addiction, but I understand the pull. I stopped at the casino last night and headed for the door twenty-five dollars ahead. Ten feet from the entrance I fed forty dollars into a slot machine.

But that was a choice I made. Not a well-thought-out choice. I knew what the choices were and went the wrong way. Anyone could do it, right?

And that's what I come back to. When I drive through the lower east side and see the human wreckage swarming the streets. Some of these people didn't have the foggiest idea where something new could take them, and they sure as hell never thought they would wind up here.

So I find it hard to believe in porn addiction, sex addiction, gambling addiction--It's pretty easy to stop gambling once you've run out of money, sold your house, and otherwise ruined your life--I've never heard of anyone turning tricks to support a nasty slot machine habit.

If porn is a problem, go back to dial-up internet service. It may not stop you dowloading dirty movies, but it'll take so long you'll lose er, um. . . interest. Yes, that's a male-specific reference. Women porn addicts don't appear to make the news much.

Sex addiction--I suffered from a similar condition for years, it was called teenagerhood. And I learned that the urges are controllable--otherwise there'd be no reason to ever charge a man with rape. The behaviour is entirely up to the owner of the penis involved. When sexual urges go beyond that boundary we consider said penis-owner to be insane.

So conditions (1), (2), and (3) leave us with a huge mix of addicts and posers. Can we refine our definition of addiction any further? Perhaps it's just the cumulative result of a series of unfortunate choices?

But that's too close to our starting point: From some point of origin, an addict makes choices that result is his or her engaging in detrimental behaviour they feel unable to stop.

So how now to differentiate real addiction from the endless stream of whiners?

Why would a man or woman with things at stake jeopardize said things (and people), for fantasy? And from personal observation, fairly pale fantasy at that.

Ah--there's the rub. Perhaps addiction is the wasted and perverted shadow of a dream. Of being popular, of being loved, of being pain-free in our souls. Consumers get into addiction for a feeling--and I think it's the same feeling. Silencing that thing that wrenches deep in your guts when someone in the world shits on you. The thing that makes "puppies cry and men commit suicide" (R. A. Heinlein).

And the worst of it is that in every addiction, from smoking to porn, to crack, the merchants sell it until we can't come up with the price anymore. Then they leave us in the gutter and move on to other customers--often our kids. Addiction is the sacrifice of a future for the price of a dream.

Nice ₤µ¢Ж!ή€ poetry, eh?

The point is that:
1) Addiction is the result of a bad choice.
2) It's involuntary--that is, it is no longer a choice for the victim, or the choice is intensely painful to make.
3) It is detrimental to the addict, and to their near and dear.
4) It is the effects that make true addictions so hideous.

More on this in due time--I'm making my way somewhere with this, but it's a long one:

My sister opposes decriminalization of drugs, my roomate espouses legalizing heroin. both define the moral correctness of their positions by what the legality or illegality of drugs says about their homeland, and by the social position of addicts.

True to the (slightly left of) centreist thrust of this blog, I'm trying to find a position thta represents the facts and will resonate with a large number of people.

But I have to leave off here. I'm worried that I'm becoming addicted to spilling my random and unimportant thoughts into cyberspace--talk about masturbatory activity!

And I was the putz who worried that I wouldn't have anything to say.

Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission--a friendly site.

A note: I was looking for a picture of the Eastside slum area to link to--didn't find one. Perhaps the Premier had all such pictures wiped from search engines in order to impress the Olympic Comittee?

Perhaps someone would prefer that we just forget that this is more than just a nightmare memory. The Missing-women killer (I know his name, but think it deserves forgetting) isn't the only predator out there. They prey on the weak, and the addicts are, in so many ways, the weakest of us.