SerenityRanch Blog:"At least I'm not as bad as them?"
Posted by
Deon Smit on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 @ 04:20 PM
This statement is quite common in treatment services, especially in a mixed service that deals with both alcohol and what is considered illicit and non-illicit drug addiction. There are always the stereotype images when the general public thinks of addicts.
On the one hand it is the alcoholic on the park bench, possibly homeless with a little brown paper bag covering his bottle of preferred poison. The other side of the coin is the “junkie” somewhere in a “crack house” with a bleeding nose and needles hanging out of his or her arm.
The biggest shock to the system for anyone coming into treatment may be finding out that the largest percentage of people with addiction issues are very likely the same people you work with or go to school with. Very often it turns out to be a family member. Addiction does not discriminate. It can, and will, affect anyone from the stereotype we mentioned to the wealthiest in our society.
This stereotypical belief is probably the basis of some form of self-preservation for most alcoholics and addicts. “At least I am not as bad as them”. Ever hear that before? One of the most eye opening experiences for any alcoholic could be sitting in a room with a heroin addict. At first glance there is no similarity in what the alcoholic and addict use. Ask these same people which is more closely related. Is it cocaine and heroin? or alcohol and heroin? Most people would answer cocaine and heroin. This is wrong.
In the way that heroin and alcohol react to the body and brain it is in fact heroin and alcohol that are closer relations. Both heroin and alcohol are physically addictive. In other words, they both attach to receptors in your brain that will cause physical withdrawal if you cannot have heroin or alcohol. Both substances suppress your central nervous system. When used together they form a dangerous overdose cocktail. Both substances can cause physical and mental health problems. Both can kill you very easily. Even the behaviors associated with using the two different substances are remarkably alike. The big difference is that by an accident of history, alcohol is legal and that heroin is not.
So the next time you think: “at least I am not as bad as them”, think again, and ask yourself: If alcohol was invented today, would it be legal?
Below is a link to an informative video about alcohol and its effects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXjANz9r5F0
And its damaging effects
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCliI779EGM
