Just reading more on Matthew Perry and heard him interviewed on NPR and he says he was a colicky baby and his parents gave him barbituates on a doctor's suggestion when Matthew was a newborn. Is this where it all started for Matthew's life?

I can remember how parents would rub baby's gums with liquor to ease the pain when they were cutting teeth. And if the babies are born with the addiction genes, it was all escalated...

Some food for thought This may be one piece of the puzzle, there is a lot to addictions.

I had a nasty drug addiction in the 1990’s to a common street drug for about eight years. I was very dependent and addicted to this substance and thankfully I have not done it since 2001.

I went to three “rehabs” places that people go to try to stop their addictions. Unfortunately all three of them were 12 Step based. I was also told that I had a “disease” which caused me to do what I did and what fueled my addiction. I remember the counselor telling me about the “disease” that it is genetic and will have it the rest of my life.

This is complete nonsense. There is no such thing as a “disease of alcoholism/addiction.” There is nothing genetic about it. Everyone, at least in western nations has an addicted family member. It could be someone in your nuclear family or a relative like a cousin, a grandparent, a niece or a nephew. Not getting into specifics, but every President from Gerald Ford to Joe Biden has an addicted family member. The Kennedys and the Bush families. My paternal family has (or had) several addicted family members. I have a friend since childhood who has a sister and a brother who are both basically drug addicts and alcoholics. The “disease” people says it “runs in families”, well maybe, because it runs in every family.

Alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine, opiates, these things are in and of themselves addictive. It is not just someone who has this phantom “disease”. 99.999 percent of people who do heroin will become addicted to it. Fentanyl is running rife in the United States because again, of its addictive properties. The disease nonsense does not figure into it whatsoever.

It is not the addiction, it is what is behind the addiction. Why is someone addicted? It can be depression, trauma or a phychological disorder such as bipolar disorder. To “treat” addiction is to see what is behind the addiction, why does the person engage in this behavior. Many people can stop these drugs, but if the mental and emotional problems are not met, that person is going to slide right back into what they are doing. From what I have read about Matthew Perry, after “Friends” he had trouble getting into another successful show. Several of his shows were cancelled and cancelled quickly (two I know of immediately). Being rejected takes a toll on a person. Am I not good enough? Why am I being rejected? A lot of anger and resentment comes up but instead of lashing out, the person seeks solace within, and even subliminally is punishing themselves. These are the root causes of addiction and none of the else so called “rehabs” address this, while spouting the “disease” nonsense.

I get very angry about the “disease” nonsense because people will fall back into active addiction and blame the “disease”. “I have a disease”, I can’t help myself!” Many die because of this. Yes, the so called American Medical Association” calls addiction a “disease”. They are wrong, and why they are exposing this nonsense is beyond me. Medical science is at best guess work. About 200 years ago doctors used to treat fevers by putting leeches on people. Idiotic and didn’t work but did it anyway. If anyone went to them and go “I don’t think leeches does anything for the patient” the doctors will shoot back “Are you a doctor? Did you do to school? How can you question me?” It’s the same absolute arrogance now.

The first step to solving addiction is to throw the “disease” nonsense in the dustbin. It makes me so angry everytime I watch quacks like Drew Pinsky or “experts” on Intervention say the word “disease”. It has entered the lexicon of the language and everyone believes it. Absolute nonsense, and what come out the tail end of a bull.

Yes Carole its very sad..............

Vaping Crisis in Santa Monica High School

The above is a bad bad deadly element that goes into the schools and attacks the young children.
Vaping, the use of non cigarette nicotine devices, has become a crisis among youth and a growing challenge for users of all ages. While government efforts have been focused on preventing the sale of these addictive products, a new Santa Monica company is working to help those already hooked quit.

Jones is an anti-vaping network which combines Nicotine replacement therapy, behavioral support, and a judgment-free “quitters” community to help those looking to quit or reduce their vaping. Founded by Santa Monica natives, Hilary Dubin and Caroline Vasquez Huber, this initiative aims to destigmatize quitting, and expand access to the unknown resources available to cease the habit.

“We were always jonesing for for a vape so now we’re, we’re the same way that we’ve kind of repurposed the word quitter in a lot of our marketing, it’s like for ‘quitters’ ‘join the quitting movement’, this idea of quitting being something positive. I think also Jones similar they can be you know, jonesing for a stroll outside with some friends jonesing for something positive. I think we can really use these words to inspire something positive,” said Huber.

Founders and friends, Dubin and Vasquez Huber attribute their close relationship and success to their upbringing in Santa Monica including their first meeting on the Blue Lightning AYSO soccer team.

“Santa Monica High School was really an amazing breeding ground for hustlers. I can say that there was a lot of ingenuity that came out of that place. Going to high school there and really the collaborations that Hillary and I had in school in sports and extracurricular activities more broadly, really did play a role and kind of our lifelong desire at this point to start something we really believe in together,” said Huber.

No one understands the addiction of vaping better than Dubin and Huber, who each struggled with the habit until they quit over a year ago.

https://smdp.com/2023/11/13/samohi-alumni-tackling-the-vaping-crisis/?utm_medium=email

Today's generations have so many options for addiction thrown at them and thinking about my days, it was alcohol and hence came AA.