Addiction and celebrities

Previously I have written about addiction and debt. While reading my own post by myself, I've asked this question, why do some celebrities tend to become addicts if addiction by itself has anything to do with debt at all? When writing this past short article, I was a little mad at 'authorities' who try to make this connection between debt and substance-abuse. While I understand the emphasis they put on addiction treatment and relapse, I really don't understand why they behave so minimalist.

Here is the fact, we have many addicted celebrities on earth who are rich, wealthy in a fact, and they can't escape relapse either. Maybe addiction treatments must concentrate on the history of one's addiction as much as the present of the addiction.

Here is a list of famous celebrity addicts. Here is how this web site makes its statement about this, which I think is true:

Drug and alcohol addiction knows no boundaries when it comes to social classes, wealth, ethnicity or status. Addiction is a part of every group of people everywhere.

This list of famous and celebrity addicts is by no means comprehensive. Sometimes it is helpful that people who are struggling with addiction know some famous names that have struggled or are struggling with the same issues. It helps one to not feel so alone in the process.

Addiction and debt

Relapse of addiction after treatment is related to debt, according to statistics. Personally, I don't believe in this however I am going to evaluate it anyway. In any psychological disorder, financial status of a person is really a factor in recovery and relapse. For the case of addiction, I don't think that this is more related in comparison to other psychological disorders. I think the effect is the same.

On the other hand, there is this huge industry about drug addiction recovery and they somehow try to inject a feeling of being inferior in comparison to a whole society.

I don't believe an addicted person is less worthy that a person who is infected with a disease. I think professionals sometimes put too much blame on addicts.

Debt is not unique to people who are suffering from drug addiction. Addiction is only a condition. Debt is a problem of the world.

I am voting republican

Ok, sorry, this is out of topic but not completely out of topic:

Complicated nature of addiction

Social scientists, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists pay a great deal of attention to understand the nature of addiction. It is complicated because it is a disease, it is psychological but also biological, it is also inherited as well as cultural.

If you take the opportunity to visit a rehabilitation center and talk to several people, you would see that almost all of them have different reasons for their addictions. This is even so for a simple alcohol addict or a caffeine addict or a cigarette smoker.

The image of an addict in our minds that comes mostly from Hollywood movies does not reflect the truth. Like it is in homosexuality, you cannot always look to a person and say "yes, this is an addict" or "no this person is not an addict".

Parents of teenagers also feel this difficulty when to tell their children have a drug addiction or not. If the child is not an addict and her parents insist on controlling her on substance abuse, this is another traumatic scene for the teenage. Without any addiction she is going to have other psychological disorders regarding trust, oppression, etc.

Due to this complicated nature of addictions, it is best to trust professional diagnosis and addiction treatment.

Gov. Mitt Romney meets a medical marijuana patient

Clayton Holton of Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana asks Gov. Mitt Romney if he will have seriously ill patients like himself arrested for using medical marijuana with their doctor's approval. Gov. Romney doesn't answer the question and turns his back on Clayton.

Heroine addiction and treatment

There are eight million heroine addicts in the world at the moment. Recovery from heroine is not an easy process. It is considered as the most difficult addiction treatment by authorities.

Medical treatment is effective for withdrawal symptoms which makes recovery easier. When it comes to heroine addiction, the 80% ratio of relapse puts preventing relapse more important than the recovery itself.

There are also interacting drugs with heroine. As WikiPedia puts:

Opioids are strong central nervous system depressants, but regular users develop physiological tolerance. In combination with other central nervous system depressants, heroin may still kill even experienced users, particularly if their tolerance to the drug has reduced or the strength of their usual dose has increased.

Toxicology studies of heroin-related deaths reveal frequent involvement of other central nervous system depressants, including alcohol, benzodiazepines such as temazepam (Restoril; Normison), and, to a rising degree, methadone. Ironically, benzodiazepines are often used in the treatment of heroin addiction while they cause much more severe withdrawal symptoms.

Cocaine sometimes proves to be fatal when used in combination with heroin. Though "speedballs" (when injected) or "moonrocks" (when smoked) are a popular mix of the two drugs among users, combinations of stimulants and depressants can have unpredictable and sometimes fatal results. In the United States in early 2006, a rash of deaths was attributed to either a combination of fentanyl and heroin, or pure fentanyl masquerading as heroin particularly in the Detroit Metro Area; one news report refers to the combination as 'laced heroin', though this is likely a generic rather than a specific term.

And for options of recovery:

In situations where the addictive quality is judged to be of lower consequence than other measures (such as cases of terminal illness) diamorphine is a valuable drug. The slow and often very painful end to a cancer sufferer's life can be greatly relieved by the careful use of diamorphine to relieve the pain and worry. In this situation the drug can allow a sufferer to live their last few weeks more actively and independently than would otherwise be possible.

Source: Wikipedia.

Diseased person model in drug rehabilitation

A controversial topic in drug addiction treatment is the diseased person model. Diseased person model, according to wikipedia:

Some psychotherapists question the validity of the "diseased person" model used within the drug rehabilitation environment. Instead, they state the individual person is entirely capable of rejecting previous behaviors. Further, they contend the use of the disease model of addiction simply perpetuates the addicts' feelings of worthlessness, powerlessness, and inevitably causes inner conflicts that could be resolved if the addict were to approach addiction as behavior that is no longer productive, the same as childhood tantrums. Most drug rehabilitation programs do not utilize any of these ideas, inasmuch as they are seen to contradict the assumption the addict is a sick person in need of help.

So, this is open to discussion. I agree with some psychotherapists on the issue, especially with the idea that the diseased person model perpetuates the addicted person's emotions and situation.

This is not a controversy unique to substance abuse treatment. There is always this conflict between psychotherapists and other health professionals. The society tends to behave towards each member as if they are never grown up and are still children regardless of their age.

Ironically, many drug addicts are addicts just because of this paradigm, at least in my opinion. Treating a person as if she will never grow up ends up in unhealthy behavior in that person.

Of course, I can understand that the addict may be very agitated by his or her situation and should be treated accordingly. However, this is not the issue. This looks something like learning and implementing respect to others in every corner of life.

Therefore, I don't think that the diseased person model discussion is unique to drug recovery efforts. It's everywhere in our society.