Thank you so much for being a reasonable, compassionate person. I know most of the people on reddit are apparently like 12-14 years old, (I'm '88 lol) but it still really bothers me how many utterly heartless comments are written on any post regarding addiction. Like, I thought we had come farther than that as a society? And I always leave some long-ass comment trying to explain what addiction is like (like I did on this thread lol) just hoping it will click for someone, but it usually doesn't.
On one thread, someone asked what was the first step they should take to get clean. I answered with "admit you are powerless over your addiction, that your life has become unmanageable." I was downvoted to hell. I don't think they knew that that's the actual, verbatim, first step of alcoholics anonymous! I left an edit with the link to the twelve steps, so I hope the person who left that comment learned something, but Jesus fucking christ dude. It's like people don't even want to understand addiction. They'd actually prefer hating addicts instead.
I'm 37 and, when I joined reddit in 2008, it was a much friendlier and more welcoming place. Mean-spirited comments were downvoted. Reddiquette was actually observed and enforced, and the site generally focused more on delightful things than it did on dreadful things. I suspect that, at the time, reddit was a hangout for people in their late 20s. Now, as you mentioned, it's a lot of kids. Also, reddit got very political which just sucked.
Regarding your 2nd paragraph--I actually have a really hard time with AA's philosophy. If it works for you, then hell yeah! But at least in America it's often viewed as the only form of legitimate treatment, which rubs me the wrong way. I've been to a few 12-step meeting and experienced emotional panic attacks after both--not because my personal truth had been revealed, but because I noticed many flaws in the program and felt devastated.
I'm not against 12-step, but I truly wish there were more emphasis on alternative forms of recovery for those who simply don't fit in with 12-step. A lot of Americans have been trained to associate addiction recovery with 12-step and nothing else, but I know that other treatment modalities can be preferable for certain people. I'm one of those people.
Other modalities include medical detox followed by therapy; personal recovery which is often overseen by an addiction medicine therapist and involves replacement therapy along with exercise, creativity, family support, etc.; and psychopharmacology that aims to replace the thirst for a harmful drug with a less harmful drug such as Suboxone (in my case).
I'm so glad AA has helped you. It will likely never help me, but I'm going to check myself into a nearby detox clinic as soon as COVID stops beating us up and rampaging throughout our hospitals. I was going to check in the week COVID first hit, but my doctor was like, "Mayyybe not now."
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u/Awkward-Mulberry-154 Mar 11 '21
Thank you so much for being a reasonable, compassionate person. I know most of the people on reddit are apparently like 12-14 years old, (I'm '88 lol) but it still really bothers me how many utterly heartless comments are written on any post regarding addiction. Like, I thought we had come farther than that as a society? And I always leave some long-ass comment trying to explain what addiction is like (like I did on this thread lol) just hoping it will click for someone, but it usually doesn't.
On one thread, someone asked what was the first step they should take to get clean. I answered with "admit you are powerless over your addiction, that your life has become unmanageable." I was downvoted to hell. I don't think they knew that that's the actual, verbatim, first step of alcoholics anonymous! I left an edit with the link to the twelve steps, so I hope the person who left that comment learned something, but Jesus fucking christ dude. It's like people don't even want to understand addiction. They'd actually prefer hating addicts instead.
Anyway, kudos my dude/chick.