09/29/2025
1. Rock bottom=death. Addiction is fatal left untreated. Do not let your loved ones hit rock bottom.
2. Drugs are drugs in this instance. The ideology behind hard vs. soft is designed to separate people, propagating judgment and fueling stigma. It also allows people to rationalize and justify their own "less harmful" use. Finally, it allows corporations to distract from the harm "legal" drugs like alcohol, to***co, and Pharma cause. The 2 historically legal drugs (alcohol and to***co) have killed more than ALL illicit drugs combined.
3. If drugs were truly addictive, anyone who ever tried them would be addicted (including alcohol).
4. Recovery is the long process of re-connecting with our authentic selves and healing the wounds that chemicals helped to soothe.
5. Abstinence is simply not using. Often, the first steps toward recovery, but not always. Abstinence is simply not enough to heal addiction.
6. Recovery is often a lifelong process to keep the chronic disorder in remission. For many, treatment is the beginning of the healing journey.
7. Addiction is rooted in trauma. Much of that trauma occurs between the ages of 0-3. Genetics as an explanation glosses over the suffering of trauma and the effects on brain development. Epigenetics would be a slightly better explanation.
8. Relapse is a part of the disorder, not a failure of recovery. Some people never return to use just as cancer stays in remission for some and reoccurring for others.
9. Addiction is a complex neurobiological disorder that no one chooses.
10. Functioning alcoholics just haven't lost their employment YET.
11. Addiction can and does weaken us, but recovery and redemption are superpowers.
12. Detox can break physical dependency. It does nothing for cravings, urges, or heal emotional woundedness.