Apples and Origami... A Comparison Blog

In the height of my drinking career if I would stop at a moment’s notice, put it down and power through a few weeks of abstinence to prove I didn’t have a problem with alcohol I would succeed in my efforts. This would give me a false positive in my hillbilly makeshift scientific study of whether or not I had a problem with the “occasional adult beverage.”

It would also validate my preconceived notions of being a normal person who just likes to have some fun and tie one on every once in a while. 

Never mind the fact that WHEN I would drink it would easily get out of control and I would think and do things no sane, law abiding, moral flag waving individual would entertain.

I describe it as a click in the brain. I would be having a beer or bourbon or Beaujolais and halfway through a sip of the finely crafted beverage wafting under my nose an insatiable drive would hit maximum warp and I’d need to consume all I could as quickly as possible.

I’d awake the next morning fearful of what I may have said or done.

 “I put a thief in my mouth to steal my brain.” I was not heeding the words of Cassio to Iago.

In our interview with Dr. Stephen Loyd he said, “Addiction is the continued use [of a substance] despite consequences."

Yet, despite the consequences at hand, I would continue the same song and dance on repeat like the next time would be different. 

I bring up the brain because we are comparing apples and origami when talking about Substance Use Disorder instead of Alcohol Use Disorder. As it relates to drugs like heroin and cocaine we might at least have moved closer to the proverbial apples and oranges motif.

Some folks can have a cocktail every so often, enjoy the effects of said fancy drink and go on about their lives with less fondness for that experience than the way they enjoyed a sunset over the ocean’s horizon back in ’09.

Some folks can have their wisdom teeth removed, get a prescription for a hard hitting opioid, take it a couple of days and then be done with it because the pain has subsided but the experience  of that drug makes them nauseous and lethargic and to them the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. 

Now, we talk about this all time. It is widely accepted inside the rooms of 12 step gatherings (and outside for that matter) that some folks have a predisposition to addiction to alcohol while others do not. 

We all know people who took OxyContin or Percocet or any number of other pain killers for a brief time and then just got rid of the rest or put them in the back of the medicine cabinet forgetting about them for an entire decade. 

If it is predominantly accepted that there are different types of folks who can and can’t be affected the same way, why can we not also see that there are possibly different ways to treat the various aspects of the disease of Substance Use Disorder? 

I know folks who were full blown heroin addicts who’ve said goodbye to that life and never looked back. They are movin’ and groovin’ forward with years of time behind them and their hard-line abstinence only practice is part of their solution. 

Yet, what I have also seen from the same beautiful folks is a fully formed determination that all others should, dare I say, MUST enter the same journey of recovery no matter the differences. 

I see comment sections light up like dopamine pathways on cocaine when someone dares to announce their support for Medication Assisted Treatment or any form of Harm Reduction in pursuit of facing addiction, dependency and the phenomena of cravings in the best way possible for them.

I hear alcoholics in the rooms of meeting spaces tout the importance of abstinence only practice while IV Heroin users go to jail for a “poor man’s rehab” only to come out later, use again and die of a fatal overdose. 

So I leave you with this question… If there are various substances being used by a variety of people why can there not be an equal variety in treatment options? Perhaps the comparison needs to be chucked out the window. I mean, in all fairness, that’s one of the first things I heard in a 12 step meeting… “Do not compare your situation with that of others in the room. Look for the similarities and don’t do it alone.