A 12-step guide to show that ‘drug addiction is NOT a disease’

I'm sick and tired of hearing everyone saying we should treat drug addiction like a disease — just like cancer or diabetes — and force insurers to pay for it!

It's such an accepted concept that, like other lies we are forced to believe in the PC environment we live in, my suggestion that addiction is NOT a disease is offensive to many people. Therefore let me state once again, and just as unequivocally despite who it pisses off: ADDICTION IS NOT A DISEASE.

I'm not a drug addict. But I have friends and family who have been touched by the horror of it. My close friend is a recovering addict and a drug counselor who confides that she has had much more success when she tells people it is NOT a disease.

Twelve- steppers learn that they are "powerless" over their addictions, but that's not because it's a disease that befell them. It's because you need a higher power to help you recover. Ultimately it is your willpower with God's (or whoever your higher power is) help.

My friend is thankful she got clean in the 1970s before this "addiction is a disease" stuff was so public. (Though the theory came into being in the 60s)

She also reports that the idea that they have a disease routinely causes kids (especially today's kids who have a victim mentality as it is) to feel weak and to allow them to think it's not their fault. Which it is.

This is why I feel it's my social responsibility to tell people ITS NOT A DISEASE, instead of latching onto this theory like everyone else.

While I agree that the overprescribing of medications is a problem that can manifest itself into an addiction, those meds are just an excuse — just another thing to blame — which gives addicts another reason to feel sorry for themselves instead of taking responsibility.

I have not been a drug addict myself but I will tell you that you'd have to call my nicotine addiction a disease, too. But it can't be, because it is sheer willpower and God's help that made me get over it.

A disease is something you CANNOT REMOVE FROM YOUR LIFE THROUGH HARD WORK AND DETERMINATION. The passivity that the "disease" idea suggests and promotes is why people aren't getting better. A disease HAPPENS TO YOU. Drug addiction doesn't HAPPEN TO YOU.

Cancer happens to you. Heart Disease, kidney failure, they happen to you. Because these are diseases. Drug addiction is not. For the simple, (or the stupid) these are 12 easy steps you can follow to tell the difference between disease and drug addiction. Let's use Gov. Christie's go-to comparison, cancer, as our example.

Unlike drug addiction:

1. Cancer doesn't have a 28 day rehab;

2. You can't point to the exact moment the cancer started;

3. Cancer can't be eradicated with hard work and self discipline;

4. Cancer doesn't give you satisfaction: a high, a confident feeling or an enjoyable moment;

5. Cancer doesn't make you the life of the party;

6. You can't get cancer because your friends convinced you to try it;

7. We don't know exactly what caused your cancer (and don't say smokers cause their cancers because though we know smoking CAN cause cancer, we don't know definitively if your cancer was directly caused by your smoking);

8. You can't spend money, steal money or sell yourself for money to buy cancer;

9. You'll never get in trouble with the law or go to jail for cancer;

10. Cancer doesn't feel good;

11. After you recover from cancer, you're never tempted to slip back into it; and

12. You don't lose friends and family because you have cancer. In fact, you tend to gain more.

To reiterate, if you're not sure if you have a disease, here's the litmus test: If you can stop it with a combination of faith, self-discipline, support from friends and family, hard work and the strong desire to beat it, IT'S NOT A DISEASE.

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