What does addiction look like? sound like? smell like? and so on...
As we prepare to read A Million Little Pieces, it's important to do some work around our ideas about addiction. Use the questions above to guide your thinking and writing.
Addiction has always been portrayed like the sloppy drunk sitting on the corner of the road shouting profanities and hollering at women, or twitchy person with terrible teeth, fiddling with their fingers looking for their next fix. The truth is addiction is much more silent than you think. It is the little things that define it, things that are hard to notice. Reaching for one more drink when you know you shouldn't. Taking that painkiller when you're not really hurting. Betting something that you don't have in hopes of recovering, just so that you can play that next hand. Or reaching for that cigarette even tho you know it hurts everyone around you. Addiction is that little voice in your head that makes you forget the negative consequences. Addiction is in the faces of the people sitting next to you, addiction is what you see in the mirror, addiction is everywhere.
Addiction is helpless. People who are true addicts don't know how to help themselves; they cannot think logically and often push those are are trying to help them away. Addiction can lead to mental disorders that morph that addict's reality. Some people continue to fight and eventually beat their addiction, but others accept their fate as it is and continue their downward spiral. Addiction looks like a three legged kitten; it is trying to walk, but there is something holding it back. People take pity on it and try to help it, but all too many times the kitten is too proud and doesn't want anybody's help. It doesn't matter how supportive an addict's family is, in the end the addict is going to make their own choice on whether or not they want to get better. No rehab facility can fully cure somebody unless the person is willing to conquer their addiction. Addiction takes over a person's life like no other disease I know. It takes their mind, their body, their family and ultimately their soul.
I was too young to know it then, but one of my cousins was an alcoholic. My mother did not tell me a few years after he stopped drinking, but I was shocked. How could someone who looked so put together on the outside be so broken on the inside? I have to admit that I did not want to read A Million Little Pieces, but my mother, who was very much a part of my cousin’s recovery, reminded me that this was his story.
Addiction The definition of addiction is “the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.” When I think of addiction, I think of being helpless and confused. More specifically, related to drugs and alcohol. The feeling of not knowing what you are doing or why you are doing it. The frightening though that you have no control over anything in your line. My uncle has struggled with this type of addiction for as long as I can remember. Addiction takes over his thoughts, actions, everything. It scares me to see the man I once loved and idolized, turn into someone completely different. Alcohol and drugs change him as a person. He becomes unaware and unconcerned about himself and the people around him. I don't understand why this happens to him, but I understand the reality of it. Addiction means relying on only one way of escaping problems. For my uncle, drugs and alcohol is not a solution, but rather a distraction.
An addiction does not just affect the addict it affects the people who are around them. For instance, two of my stepfather's siblings are addicted to alcohol. They call him when they need help or bother him when they are drunk. It is hard for him to see them that way. He has ended up taking his brother to many clinics multiple times but it has never really worked. Many addicts do not realize how many people they are effecting because they are too focused on what they want. And if they are seriously under the addiction they would do anything to get what they need. I have had people in my family steal money from their own father. Money that they had been saved for years and years. Either to use the money on substances or to pay off their lingering bills. It is too common, these addictions, and sometimes if we try to help them we just get buried deeper and deeper into their mess. The mess that they are trying to escape from themselves.
Addiction is a frightening thing. It comes in hundreds of forms. Addictions aren’t healthy. In my opinion, it is never healthy to do something too much. Even if you are doing a healthy thing, it is still never smart to do it too much. For example, working out is healthy… but working out too much can become unhealthy. It is especially unhealthy to do something so much that you feel you cannot live without it. Someone very close to my family became addicted to alcohol. It is probably one of the most terrifying things I have witnessed. I write about it in the present tense because it is still happening. The addiction hurts her and her entire family. It is wild to me that she could do something so harmful to herself. She knows it is wrong. She admits that it is wrong. However, she cannot stop. That is why addiction is so scary. Despite what is right, it is tough to make a smart choice. She has admitted to her family, her friends (my mom), her therapist, and many others that she understands what she is doing is tearing apart her family… but she still does it. She has reached out and gotten help, but she has relapsed, relapsed, and relapsed. That is why addiction seems so scary to me because from what I have seen it looks uncontrollable. She wants to stop, but she apparently can’t. Addiction impairs the ability to make the right choice.
Addiction happens when you are dependent on something and have to have it or do it. An addiction can change your attitude and who you are. In my life, I see people who have very strong addiction to drugs and alcohol and those addictions drag people into the dark side of life. I think that everyone has an addiction; it can be very small. My addiction would be to shopping. Everytime I see something that I want, I have to have it. I will think about whether or not I can afford it, but that usually never stops me; the numbers on that tag are invisible. It is very hard for me to go into a store and come out empty handed, especially Lulu Lemon. The bright neon colors drag me in wanting to buy a overly priced headband but in the end I will come out with an even more over price bottom or top. I’m not sure why I feel the strong desire to have something that is not a necessity. I don’t want to be spoiled and I don’t want to be a brat but the addiction to shopping has the power to turn me into a person I never want to meet.
Addiction is snorting a line in the bathroom the day after having a heart attack. Addiction is buying that pair of Jimmy Choos despite credit card debt and an overflowing closet. Addiction is latching onto a heap of belongings that the majority of people would consider to be garbage. Addiction is different for everyone, and it can happen to anyone. It can begin slowly as a hobby or recreational activity. A few drinks after a family member's death escalates into a few tall glasses of vodka every day. Or one cigarette at a party becomes 1 pack of cigarettes before school every day. Years of addiction progress to decades of recovery. But as mentally and physically painful as addictions are for those addicted and those around them, addictions can be overcome. Months or years or decades of a treatment center, therapy, counseling or proper medication can lead a person on a path to recovery and a happy life. However, inability to begin driving on the path or veering off the path can cause major accidents and road blocks in the lives of the addicted and their loved ones; sometimes these accidents are fatal. Cigarette smoking becomes lung cancer, bulimia becomes cardiac arrest, shopping becomes credit card fraud, hoarding becomes isolating, and use of an illegal drug becomes an overdose. So it is important to identify whether a friend, family member or acquaintance is developing an addiction, has developed an addiction or is having serious medical complications resulting from an addiction. Talk to them, a professional, or someone who is very close to them. Help steer them away from the addictive activity they are engaging in. No one has to die or eternally suffer from an addiction.
Addictions come in various forms however the endpoint of addiction without help looks identical to the next person struggling with substance abuse. Addiction is not always easily spotted, there are many people today who I would consider functioning alcoholics, they live their lives avoiding their issue with alcohol and never address the problem head on. Alcohol and substance abuse look different from every angle, it can be as obvious as a group of college kids doing shots to a unhappily married women who turns to the liquor cabinet to escape her own life.
When the word addiction comes up in conversation, it is assumed it is substance abuse. However, addiction can be anything you want it to be. Addiction to me is having nowhere to turn so you turn to self destruction. Any sort of abuse onto oneself, to purposely and repeatedly hurt yourself, is addiction. It is like the world is handing you mental pain on a silver platter and you have no control over it. The only way to gain control is to inflict your own pain on yourself. This could be alcohol, drugs and even self harm. The problem with addiction is, since you were the only person who got to the point of ‘addict,’ you are the only person who can pull yourself out.
Addiction is the sound of liquid against glass, lapping gently back and forth to the rhythm of nothing. The soft sound of pill capsules against plastic jars. The sound of crunching paper, or the grumble of a stomach. The sound of pain and conflict. It looks like the bags under your eyes, the run to your nose, and the red dots up and down your arms. Back alleyway, shopping centers, and homes. Addiction is not limited to a specific pastime. It's the inability to stop an activity, thing, or substance from progressing. To stop won't come easy, but not much comes easy as it is. Knowing you need to stop, but reaching for the bottle, pills, or credit card anyways.
Addiction isn't pretty. I believe it's an escape that one turns to when they want to numb away their pain or forget reality. It's a tedious, redundant and painful cycle for both the person with the addiction and their loved ones. One never knows what to expect when dealing with addiction and what may come during their journey. It very unhealthy, whether it's a drug addiction or a shopping addiction. Addiction takes over one's mind and can invades one's life by crowding their mind with obsessiveness over what they need. It usually isn't resolved until one goes and receives help because denial is the common trait that trails addiction. It's an impulsive and uncontrollable feeling that one feels they must satsify at that instant, similar to the feeling I feel when I get a mosquito bite in the summer and can't resist itching it. I know it's not good for me to itch and have it scar my skin, but in the moment it'd be so satisfying and I'd feel really good. There's a realization that it currently may feel good but in the long run detrimental. Addiction makes, breaks and tests relationships amongst loved ones.
In my mind addiction is scary. I see people who are struggling with drugs and alcohol. People who are harming themselves in a way that makes them satisfied, but only for a while. Addiction makes me depressed. I hate thinking about people who are struggling with an addiction that is doing more harm than good. Shopping or coffee addictions can harm people to a certain extent, but not the same ways drugs and alcohol can. I hate addictions. My biggest fear is addiction. I would feel like I was losing a part of myself in my addiction and thats what happens. Most addicts end up doing things they normally wouldn’t do just to get a quick fix. I can’t imagine that. I wouldn’t want to hurt the people I love for a few pills. I guess addiction is more than just the drugs or the drinks. Certain types of addictions have deep psychological pieces that grow over time until someone just wants to escape. Addiction slowly grows over time and takes over a person completely. I hate addictions.
Addiction can be seen as a problem or something good. A person can be addicted to drugs, shopping, reading, sports, television, alcohol, sexual pleasures and the list goes on. I believe that an addiction is something a person has been exposed to so much that they crave and need it to feel “happy” “relaxed”. With young teenagers like us, we see a lot of addiction to video games, weed, alcohol, and social media networks. I personally have an addiction to watching and playing sports as well as buying/collecting sneakers. Its fair to say its a healthy addiction but it does have negative effects. An addiction becomes extremely serious when all that person can do is think about pleasing themselves. Across the nation we see people go through rehab to withdraw from addiction to drugs. Addiction to drugs is a very serious epidemic in the real world mainly because to cure it is extremely hard physically and mentally.
Addiction has always been portrayed like the sloppy drunk sitting on the corner of the road shouting profanities and hollering at women, or twitchy person with terrible teeth, fiddling with their fingers looking for their next fix. The truth is addiction is much more silent than you think. It is the little things that define it, things that are hard to notice. Reaching for one more drink when you know you shouldn't. Taking that painkiller when you're not really hurting. Betting something that you don't have in hopes of recovering, just so that you can play that next hand. Or reaching for that cigarette even tho you know it hurts everyone around you. Addiction is that little voice in your head that makes you forget the negative consequences. Addiction is in the faces of the people sitting next to you, addiction is what you see in the mirror, addiction is everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAddiction is helpless. People who are true addicts don't know how to help themselves; they cannot think logically and often push those are are trying to help them away. Addiction can lead to mental disorders that morph that addict's reality. Some people continue to fight and eventually beat their addiction, but others accept their fate as it is and continue their downward spiral. Addiction looks like a three legged kitten; it is trying to walk, but there is something holding it back. People take pity on it and try to help it, but all too many times the kitten is too proud and doesn't want anybody's help.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter how supportive an addict's family is, in the end the addict is going to make their own choice on whether or not they want to get better. No rehab facility can fully cure somebody unless the person is willing to conquer their addiction. Addiction takes over a person's life like no other disease I know. It takes their mind, their body, their family and ultimately their soul.
I was too young to know it then, but one of my cousins was an alcoholic. My mother did not tell me a few years after he stopped drinking, but I was shocked. How could someone who looked so put together on the outside be so broken on the inside? I have to admit that I did not want to read A Million Little Pieces, but my mother, who was very much a part of my cousin’s recovery, reminded me that this was his story.
ReplyDeleteAddiction
ReplyDeleteThe definition of addiction is “the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.” When I think of addiction, I think of being helpless and confused. More specifically, related to drugs and alcohol. The feeling of not knowing what you are doing or why you are doing it. The frightening though that you have no control over anything in your line. My uncle has struggled with this type of addiction for as long as I can remember. Addiction takes over his thoughts, actions, everything. It scares me to see the man I once loved and idolized, turn into someone completely different. Alcohol and drugs change him as a person. He becomes unaware and unconcerned about himself and the people around him. I don't understand why this happens to him, but I understand the reality of it. Addiction means relying on only one way of escaping problems. For my uncle, drugs and alcohol is not a solution, but rather a distraction.
An addiction does not just affect the addict it affects the people who are around them. For instance, two of my stepfather's siblings are addicted to alcohol. They call him when they need help or bother him when they are drunk. It is hard for him to see them that way. He has ended up taking his brother to many clinics multiple times but it has never really worked. Many addicts do not realize how many people they are effecting because they are too focused on what they want. And if they are seriously under the addiction they would do anything to get what they need. I have had people in my family steal money from their own father. Money that they had been saved for years and years. Either to use the money on substances or to pay off their lingering bills. It is too common, these addictions, and sometimes if we try to help them we just get buried deeper and deeper into their mess. The mess that they are trying to escape from themselves.
ReplyDeleteAddiction is a frightening thing. It comes in hundreds of forms. Addictions aren’t healthy. In my opinion, it is never healthy to do something too much. Even if you are doing a healthy thing, it is still never smart to do it too much. For example, working out is healthy… but working out too much can become unhealthy. It is especially unhealthy to do something so much that you feel you cannot live without it. Someone very close to my family became addicted to alcohol. It is probably one of the most terrifying things I have witnessed. I write about it in the present tense because it is still happening. The addiction hurts her and her entire family. It is wild to me that she could do something so harmful to herself. She knows it is wrong. She admits that it is wrong. However, she cannot stop. That is why addiction is so scary. Despite what is right, it is tough to make a smart choice. She has admitted to her family, her friends (my mom), her therapist, and many others that she understands what she is doing is tearing apart her family… but she still does it. She has reached out and gotten help, but she has relapsed, relapsed, and relapsed. That is why addiction seems so scary to me because from what I have seen it looks uncontrollable. She wants to stop, but she apparently can’t. Addiction impairs the ability to make the right choice.
ReplyDeleteAddiction happens when you are dependent on something and have to have it or do it. An addiction can change your attitude and who you are. In my life, I see people who have very strong addiction to drugs and alcohol and those addictions drag people into the dark side of life. I think that everyone has an addiction; it can be very small. My addiction would be to shopping. Everytime I see something that I want, I have to have it. I will think about whether or not I can afford it, but that usually never stops me; the numbers on that tag are invisible. It is very hard for me to go into a store and come out empty handed, especially Lulu Lemon. The bright neon colors drag me in wanting to buy a overly priced headband but in the end I will come out with an even more over price bottom or top. I’m not sure why I feel the strong desire to have something that is not a necessity. I don’t want to be spoiled and I don’t want to be a brat but the addiction to shopping has the power to turn me into a person I never want to meet.
ReplyDeleteAddiction is snorting a line in the bathroom the day after having a heart attack. Addiction is buying that pair of Jimmy Choos despite credit card debt and an overflowing closet. Addiction is latching onto a heap of belongings that the majority of people would consider to be garbage. Addiction is different for everyone, and it can happen to anyone. It can begin slowly as a hobby or recreational activity. A few drinks after a family member's death escalates into a few tall glasses of vodka every day. Or one cigarette at a party becomes 1 pack of cigarettes before school every day. Years of addiction progress to decades of recovery. But as mentally and physically painful as addictions are for those addicted and those around them, addictions can be overcome. Months or years or decades of a treatment center, therapy, counseling or proper medication can lead a person on a path to recovery and a happy life. However, inability to begin driving on the path or veering off the path can cause major accidents and road blocks in the lives of the addicted and their loved ones; sometimes these accidents are fatal. Cigarette smoking becomes lung cancer, bulimia becomes cardiac arrest, shopping becomes credit card fraud, hoarding becomes isolating, and use of an illegal drug becomes an overdose. So it is important to identify whether a friend, family member or acquaintance is developing an addiction, has developed an addiction or is having serious medical complications resulting from an addiction. Talk to them, a professional, or someone who is very close to them. Help steer them away from the addictive activity they are engaging in. No one has to die or eternally suffer from an addiction.
ReplyDeleteAddictions come in various forms however the endpoint of addiction without help looks identical to the next person struggling with substance abuse. Addiction is not always easily spotted, there are many people today who I would consider functioning alcoholics, they live their lives avoiding their issue with alcohol and never address the problem head on. Alcohol and substance abuse look different from every angle, it can be as obvious as a group of college kids doing shots to a unhappily married women who turns to the liquor cabinet to escape her own life.
ReplyDeleteWhen the word addiction comes up in conversation, it is assumed it is substance abuse. However, addiction can be anything you want it to be. Addiction to me is having nowhere to turn so you turn to self destruction. Any sort of abuse onto oneself, to purposely and repeatedly hurt yourself, is addiction. It is like the world is handing you mental pain on a silver platter and you have no control over it. The only way to gain control is to inflict your own pain on yourself. This could be alcohol, drugs and even self harm. The problem with addiction is, since you were the only person who got to the point of ‘addict,’ you are the only person who can pull yourself out.
ReplyDeleteAddiction is the sound of liquid against glass, lapping gently back and forth to the rhythm of nothing. The soft sound of pill capsules against plastic jars. The sound of crunching paper, or the grumble of a stomach. The sound of pain and conflict. It looks like the bags under your eyes, the run to your nose, and the red dots up and down your arms. Back alleyway, shopping centers, and homes. Addiction is not limited to a specific pastime. It's the inability to stop an activity, thing, or substance from progressing. To stop won't come easy, but not much comes easy as it is. Knowing you need to stop, but reaching for the bottle, pills, or credit card anyways.
ReplyDeleteAddiction isn't pretty. I believe it's an escape that one turns to when they want to numb away their pain or forget reality. It's a tedious, redundant and painful cycle for both the person with the addiction and their loved ones. One never knows what to expect when dealing with addiction and what may come during their journey. It very unhealthy, whether it's a drug addiction or a shopping addiction. Addiction takes over one's mind and can invades one's life by crowding their mind with obsessiveness over what they need. It usually isn't resolved until one goes and receives help because denial is the common trait that trails addiction. It's an impulsive and uncontrollable feeling that one feels they must satsify at that instant, similar to the feeling I feel when I get a mosquito bite in the summer and can't resist itching it. I know it's not good for me to itch and have it scar my skin, but in the moment it'd be so satisfying and I'd feel really good. There's a realization that it currently may feel good but in the long run detrimental. Addiction makes, breaks and tests relationships amongst loved ones.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind addiction is scary. I see people who are struggling with drugs and alcohol. People who are harming themselves in a way that makes them satisfied, but only for a while. Addiction makes me depressed. I hate thinking about people who are struggling with an addiction that is doing more harm than good. Shopping or coffee addictions can harm people to a certain extent, but not the same ways drugs and alcohol can. I hate addictions. My biggest fear is addiction. I would feel like I was losing a part of myself in my addiction and thats what happens. Most addicts end up doing things they normally wouldn’t do just to get a quick fix. I can’t imagine that. I wouldn’t want to hurt the people I love for a few pills. I guess addiction is more than just the drugs or the drinks. Certain types of addictions have deep psychological pieces that grow over time until someone just wants to escape. Addiction slowly grows over time and takes over a person completely. I hate addictions.
ReplyDeleteAddiction can be seen as a problem or something good. A person can be addicted to drugs, shopping, reading, sports, television, alcohol, sexual pleasures and the list goes on. I believe that an addiction is something a person has been exposed to so much that they crave and need it to feel “happy” “relaxed”. With young teenagers like us, we see a lot of addiction to video games, weed, alcohol, and social media networks. I personally have an addiction to watching and playing sports as well as buying/collecting sneakers. Its fair to say its a healthy addiction but it does have negative effects. An addiction becomes extremely serious when all that person can do is think about pleasing themselves. Across the nation we see people go through rehab to withdraw from addiction to drugs. Addiction to drugs is a very serious epidemic in the real world mainly because to cure it is extremely hard physically and mentally.
ReplyDelete