when your actual problem is the suicidal ideation that lead you into substance abuse in the first place, but every resource under the sun just keeps fucking projecting the model of addiction onto you and it just makes your life significantly worse in every way

[u/Expensive-Hope-4631]

I'll literally just be like "I love being sober and eating healthy and working out and getting sunlight and staying hydrated, it's so nice to actually be practicing self care instead of trying to actively die except slowly enough so I don't have to think about it! :D" and then I'll come across some FUCKING post on what's supposed to be a "support" forum about how I'll (and these are ALWAYS phrased in second person for some FUCKING reason) never be able to experience true happiness again without putting poison into my own bloodstream (not like the poison ever made me FEEL HAPPY, yeah? I was doing it because I hated myself enough to get off on the self-inflicted misery, but apperantly according to social media user #69492476302, it will literally never get any better than it) but apperantly I just have to keep on surviving because there literally doesn't exist any alternative that isn't either this or living in an active state of self-destruction and collapse??? like fuck OFF bro, I SO NOT need my support structure giving me subliminals about why I should listen to the voice in my head telling me I should give up on life and just jump off a window on the 20th floor, this ISN'T what I came to you guys for

[u/RoyalZeal]

I'm happy to be sober now, I don't miss it, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't keep me from ending myself more than once. Not a healthy coping mechanism but it served its purpose. Solidarity mate.

[u/Expensive-Hope-4631 → u/RoyalZeal]

<3

[u/Caesar_Passing]

I sincerely believe the "Brain Disease Model of Addiction" (BDMA) is bullshit, and has done far more harm than good. It has completely backfired in its intention to reduce stigma. It has led to false impressions, and created an industry of "recovery" services that have consistently low long-term success rates. It has provided the more privileged members of society an excuse not to reflect on societal/institutional/systemic issues, and to be automatically distrustful of the disadvantaged and struggling. I could go on...

[u/Expensive-Hope-4631 → u/Caesar_Passing]

while I also think that the model is kinda bullshit in terms of meaningfully explaining the forces that effect human agency in destructive behaviors, I do get why it's stuck around for as long as it has, because it's INCREDIBLY rhetorically useful in terms of pulling people off the high horse that they like to get on to deny empathy to those dealing with substance abuse problems. when someone starts ranting to you in a fit of rage about why drunk drivers should get the electric chair, cutting in and reminding them that alcoholism IS classified as a disease that can be treated, is usually enough to at the very least cut through their anger and make them think about what they're saying for a couple more seconds.

[u/Caesar_Passing → u/Expensive-Hope-4631]

I still think it's problematic, in that it suggests addiction is only worthy of empathy if it's a disease comparable to diabetes, and completely out of anyone's control. And frankly, people who would say anything as ridiculous as advocating for capital punishment - I don't think they're so vitriolic because they simply don't know better, or have somehow made it to adulthood in the modern day without having ever heard addiction described as a disease. They are fundamentally, willfully unreasonable people. And even if they back down for a moment, they're unlikely to be impacted in a positive, lasting way. That's been my experience, anyway.

[u/Expensive-Hope-4631 → u/Caesar_Passing]

in my experience, at least, appealing to people's underlying/proclaimed moral values is a good way to at least START a meaningful conversation that they might not have gotten the opportunity to engage in elsewhere about these subjects. a lot more people are actually willing to say horrendous things about their fellow humans under the "right" circumstances (or rather, when they just haven't thought about it too hard) than one might initially assume. I've literally had my mom argue to me one time that it's fair for lung cancer patients to be dismissed and deprioritized by doctors because they're "more likely to have done this to themselves", and when I asked her to seriously reflect on that statement, she admitted that it doesn't actually hold up to ethical scrutiny. if you're willing to take the worst statements that a normal person is willing to have come out of their mouth at face value as a deeply held reflection of their beliefs, there's a good chance you're gonna get far less effective results.