MACS wrote:Like feathers in the wind, brother... once words of gossip are released, no matter how true or untrue they are, cannot be collected back.
The ones who spread the lies can apologize and retract, but they can't undo the damage.
how true
Al - I still think addiction is not a 'disease', but a series of bad decisions that lead to mental instability. Most (not all) people who are drug or alcohol addicts have an underlying MH issue that they are self medicating with drugs/alcohol.
though it does happen the way you describe, I think it is very well documented that some people are just wired for, or have a genetic predisposition toward addiction...addictive personalities if you will. I think that can qualify as a disease or a syndrome...
I'd just quibble with your time line (which came first?), I think many addicts started with "mental instability" leading to the bad decision to self-medicate. Bipolar people, particularly when in the depressed state, are off the charts as personalities that self medicate, but the drug use decision doesn't cause that psychological condition/MH issue. It can cause job loss, alienation from family/support systems, divorce,homelessness...and those can certainly make a predisposition to depression worse.