Good news, ADDICTION IS NOT A DISEASE!
Alcoholism and addictions are NOT DISEASES. There is no such thing as a "disease of addiction". Diseases are biological in nature. Cancer, HIV, Diabetes, tuberculosis, a hundred other things. These are diseases. Addiction (and for brevity, alcoholism is an addiction) is a HABIT and a COMPULSION. I think people dismiss habits as trivial which is very untrue. Habits are very difficult to break. Not all habits are bad. But our habits control our behavior.
People are addicted to drugs and alcohol because it makes them feel good and as an escape mechanism. Most people who become addicted to drugs and alcohol do so because of something else in their lives, trauma, depression, sexual abuse, a real mental disorder or disease such as bipolar disorder or something else. Addiction is merely a symptom of the real problem not the problem itself. If someone gets help for their psychological or emotional problems, then the addiction would probably dissipate. Telling people the lie that they have a disease does nothing but makes the person sick and vulnerable, and also more dangerously not accountable for their actions. The legal system does not remotely consider the disease of addiction to be an affirmative defense for a criminal action. People in active addiction uses the "disease" excuse to ironically drink and use drugs! Instead of telling people honestly and lovingly that they are the way they are by their choices. Powerlessness is also bullsh.t. I have the power to drink or use drugs or anything else. The drink doesn't jump in my mouth involuntarily, the cigarette, the dope pipe doesn't either. A heroin needle doesn't jump on me and stab me in the arm. These are all choices. Yes, people become addicted to this crap and it is difficult to overcome. But people do overcome.
Addiction is not genetic. This is 110 percent bullsh.t. This show and others claim that there is somehow some genetic component to this. It's again, bullsh.t. When people go to "treatment", they ask the patient for a family history, and look at the history and go "Ah-ha! This person in your family tree was an addict, this is why you became one." The problem and fallacy of this is that everyone has an addicted family member. Everyone. I like using the Presidents of the USA as an example. Trump's brother died of alcoholism. Obama's father died of alcoholism. Clinton's half brother is a drug addict, many members of the Bush family. Reagan's father was an alcoholic. Jimmy Carter's parent's were not but his brother was. Betty Ford. Lyndon Johnson's brother. The Kennedys. Then there are the rock bands, for example, Aerosmith, where all five members of that group have identified with being addicts. Pretty incredible odds that five unrelated people would have this "genetic disease". Or the countless other musicians, actors and performers who were alcoholics and addicts, a list honestly too long to list here.
People get sober by learning new habits and behaviors. It is not hard but it is difficult. People in 12 step groups with years of sobriety didn't get sober by 12 step malarkey, but by retraining their bodies and minds through new habits and behaviors. Really. They can believe the lie of the "addiction disease" by staying away from whatever they were addicted too. Also, people are addicted to many things, booze, narcotics, speed, gambling, food, cigarettes, shopping, work, sex. Are all these "diseases", or just a cover of deep psychological issues and trauma?
Lastly, Ken Seeley, you are full of sh.t. You really are. I single you out because you are the truest believer in this disease concept nonsense, and you told your last clients on the show of the unscientific genetic factor. This doesn't exist and the lie makes vulnerable people more sick! Prove that addiction is a disease, and prove that genetics has anything to do with it. If I were wealthy, I would have a $1,000,000 prize for anyone who can show with concrete proof that this is true, sort of like James Randi has debunking charlatans. Because these treatment centers are a bunch of charlatans who forward this garbage to keep themselves rich and people dependent. It's wrong and it needs to stop.
Thank you.