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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am HORRIFIED at the likening of cancer to addiction.  I have lost family members to both and the ones who died of cancer, my extremely health-conscious mother included, could have done NOTHING to prevent it.  That is simply not true with addiction - you can't always beat it, but you can TRY.

I'm actually shaking with anger at this comparison.[/quote]

First, I am very sorry about your mother. I hope you find peace.

I'm the poster with the brother battling addiction. Did you read all of my posts? He started when he was 10 years old. Amy Winehouse started using at 13. I don't know her story, but there were things that happened to my brother - external things - and by all accounts and according to every therapist and doctor he has talked with and who has tried to help him, there are severe mental illnesses (several) happening.

I think there are two layers to this equation. First, many folks do not realize that mental illness includes addiction. True, hardcore addiction is a symptom of another mental illness usually. This may not always be true of casual drug use, but the more casual users are the ones that can "choose" to get themselves back out of the rabbit hole. A real addict's "self" has been gutted and completely hollowed out by drugs. The disease has taken over nearly all other elements of his / her personality, like a rapidly metastasizing cancer. Recovery from a heroin addiction is as impossible for many as recovery from late stage cancer. This makes you shake with anger? I am angry, too. I am angry that addiction is a terrible disease, just like cancer. I am angry that so many people remain so terribly, terribly ignorant.

The second level I discussed is that there are many people, in this world, who think that mental illness is different from other types of illness. Never mind that there are observable chemical differences in the brain in mental illness patients that are not present in normal people. If it is something someone can observe as being personality-related, many don't "buy" that it is a disease. Yet, the chemistry is similar to most disease. Mental illness is usually caused by a physical, chemical abnormality or malfunction. It can be triggered (like a number of diseases, including M.S.) by stress and external factors.

BTW, I don't blame smokers for their cancer deaths, nor do I blame sunseekers for their cancer deaths. I don't blame people for cancers that I believe are environmentally generated at all. To do so is terrible. But to "shake with anger" that someone would explain to you how disease is disease is disease, and illness is illness, and mental illness is real, is misguided. [/quote]

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