by Emma Riley Sutton

Created on: April 10, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2008

Addiction being a disease is a lazy way of thinking. Addiction to alcohol and/or drugs is not a disease. Addiction is a behavior. It is a behavior that can be modified, if not completely changed. It takes a strong will and support of loved ones to be changed, yet it can be done.

Diabetes is a disease. Cancer is a disease. Diabetics do not wake up in the morning and will themselves to have high blood sugar. Cancer patients do not tell their tumors to grow or not to grow. Addicts wake up everyday and decide if they will or will not drink alcohol or use drugs. It is a conscience choice. Cocaine, speed, vodka, whiskey or whatever the poison of choice does not suddenly appear in their systems. It is purposefully put there by the addict themselves.

"I don't know how I got drunk," an alcoholic friend of mine told me when I picked her up from a bar when she was too drunk to drive home.

Really? You don't know. I know how it happened. You got in your car and drove to a bar. You got out of the car and walked into the bar. Once inside, you ordered a drink. Then you ordered another one. And, another one. The man in corner then bought you one. You gladly accepted the drink. You bought a few more drinks. Maybe even accepted more from the man in the corner. You finally decided to go home, but couldn't find the right key to your car. That was when you called me.

I was a bartender for about a year in college. I am not the most experienced bartender and I still don't know much about alcohol, but there are a few things I do know. I know I have never seen a bottle climb from behind the bar and pour itself into someone's glass. I know that booze doesn't chase people down the street, begging to be drank. I know that alcohol can't be drank unless someone opens their mouth and swallows it.

"This crack has a grip on me," a college classmate told me once.

Really. It has a grip on you? I thought you had a grip on the pipe as you lit it up. Crack must be some drug. It found you. It opened the door and walked in, a pipe and lighter in tow. I can certainly see how I would want to avoid that drug. It just suddenly appears and holds a gun to you head and makes you smoke it.

I went to a party while in college. I saw the drugs pulled from pockets and purses. I also saw me make a mad dash to the door. The drugs were there; they were available. They didn't jump on me, force themselves on me. I made a conscience choice to leave. I also made the conscience choice never to go back.

Addiction is a disease? I just don't get it. I know that alcohol and drugs can alter your way of thinking. It can only do that if you let it. Alcohol can not alter your way of thinking if you never drink it. Drugs can not alter your way of thinking unless you use them. Make the conscience choice to abstain and there will never be a problem.

Of course, making the conscience choice to abstain is too late for too many people. They have already made the conscience choice to play with fire. Now they have to make the conscience choice to put that fire out. They need to change their behavior. They need to do whatever it takes not to end up in a situation where drugs and alcohol are available to them. That is known as a strong will. They need people around them who will stay around them and do whatever it takes to keep them away from those situations.

It isn't easy, yet it can be done. Make the choice not to drink and not to do drugs and stick with it. Change your behavior. Hold tight to people who love you and want you to be clean and sober. Seek out people who want you clean and sober. Ask for help and don't take no for answer. Make the conscience choice to live.

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