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I do realize that. I didn't say it hasn't been done before. There's nothing stopping me from writing another one, though, since the disease model is still very much alive.
I've read a couple of Stanton Peele books and I absolutely agree with him. He says that studies show that most people, over time, just grow out of their addictions. The rehabs will never tell you that.
Of course, Charlie Sheen is not the average person. He's 45 but celebs have issues with growing up. They create and live in fantasy land.
I do realize that. I didn't say it hasn't been done before. There's nothing stopping me from writing another one, though, since the disease model is still very much alive.
I've read a couple of Stanton Peele books and I absolutely agree with him. He says that studies show that most people, over time, just grow out of their addictions. The rehabs will never tell you that.
Of course, Charlie Sheen is not the average person. He's 45 but celebs have issues with growing up. They create and live in fantasy land.
He does seem to be the quintessential adolescent. I'm certain there are endless psychiatric labels that are also appropriate--Dr. Drew says he is manic, for example--but he basically seems to live as a teenager.
I would think he pretty much had anything and everything that he wanted throughout his life and is rather cynical and shallow. What the cure for that might be I don't know.
I didn't realize you weren't looking for aconversation and to get educated on the subject. I understand that you want to have a rant, so rant on. My father suffers from pancreatic cancer but it does not blind me to the similarities of this disease with Charlie's. I watched a friend of the family leave her sons at 40 because of lung cancer. And I was a drug abuse counselor.
I know this is your 'moment' but you would have been better off being honest about your intentions. When I got pissed about my Dad's illness, I put up a straight forward rant thread and didn't lure people in to bash them under false pretenses. Wish you'd done the same.
You are free to think as you like. And it's pretty arrogant of you to think it's (me) who needs the education on this subject. We just disagree. We are worlds apart on this.
Renaming this a disease is just one more way that this mamby pamby generation of ours escapes RESPONSIBILTY for our actions! Period! Because diseases...REAL DISEASES.....ofttimes come upon us. We are victims of them. We don't choose them. They choose us!
So, if I name my addiction to sex and drugs a disease , I'm now a victim. I take no blame for indulging in this mess in the first place.
I don't think that drug, alcohol or cigarette addiction is a disease. You can stop if you truly want to. How do you do that? By quitting. Not easy but it can be done.
I find rehab and 12-step programs to be traps that enable the addict and ultimately send them into a catch-22 that they can't escape. The system is set up to be self-perpetuating.
Tell the addict he has a disease and you have to "keep coming back" or they'll die or go to jail becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Set an addict in a room for one hour, one, two or three times a day and talk about their drug of choice while surrounded by other addicts...yeah, really great idea. Oh, count the days from the last time they had a drug, too. Really romanticize the whole thing. Encourage the addict to talk about when they used. Over and over again. Give out little reward coins for every day, month, year, so it seems like the addict is just hanging on.
And tell them they have a disease for which there is no cure but going to these meetings for the rest of their life.
Or the addict can get away from other addicts, get a job, get a hobby, get a life, grow up and move on.
The hardest thing to quit is cigarettes. That's a bear. But even that is doable. It truly is mind over matter but until we move away from the disease model we are just spinning our wheels.
I've been told I should write a book about this and I probably should.
LOL--Riiight..judging from the wealth of misinformation and inaccuracies in your post, you writing a book about the perils of AA or the 12-Step model would make about as much sense as Paris Hilton penning a book about astrophysics.
12-Step programs do not "enable" the addict; in fact, one such program is Al-Anon, whose sole purpose is to teach significant others of addicts how not to be enablers.
Also, AA and NA in no way "romanticize" the addiction; the vast majority of the stories told in those meetings describe the agony and suffering cause by addiction. In fact, if someone speaking at a meeting does begin to stray into doing this, they are usually called on it.
AA also doesn't tell the addict that he will die if he doesn not continue to attend meetings. The "keep coming back" refrain is merely an exhortation to continue to work the program that has helped so many people recover.
So, what's this disease that so many are defending? Alcoholism? Drug abuse? Power and justification of a lifestyle that exceeds it's worth?
Charlie is a clown, a byproduct of the breakfast club or a rat-pack of others who rode in on the family name, crapped on it, and now stand upon a
reputation that is entirely self made. Isn't it within the realm of cop-outs, to foist your problems off on booze or drugs or whatever the prevalent
over indulgence is? A.A is about people who care about life, those who truly seek to turn it around. Charlie has yet to come to the understand that
only a power who is higher and greater than he is, can help him to find that measure of sanity that he can't seem to find by himself. He needs to
surrender to conquer, lose his battle with substances in order to win his war with the misguided spirit that will surely prevail, until he finally understands
that life is not a game.. Charlie is so wrapped up in himself that he can't see a higher power than himself. His success up until this point keeps getting in
his way, causing him to believe that the world around him revolves around him. Some can handle success, they wear it well. Others let it overcome them
with the slanted deception of self-worth, that is grossly out of proportion with their true personal worth, their own jilted assessment of personally perceived
value to others.
If I would harbor a measure of animosity, it would be for the fact that as the world around us crumbles, there are little people of little substance who
keep on clogging up the news of the day with their money, their importance, their status among us. As long as we've become a dog-eat-dog society, each,
clawing our way to the top of the heap or just fighting hard for a meal and a place to rest our heads, that these abhorant bastards, the self indulgent swine
who entertain us with their cavalier attitudes and continue to display a total lack of values, almost an utter disdain for us, the common folk. The only thing
that works in Charlies favor, is our capacity to forgive and forget. We're so caught up in sensationalism that it wouldn't surprise me if I was to hear that Col.
Ghadafy is being hosted as the newest addition to Saturday Night Live or the Letterman show. Yes, the name of the game here in America is the free-pass,
the "get out of jail free" card. Rush Limbaugh can have a heftybag full of Oxycodone, Elliott Spitzer can bunk with a few more hookers, George Bush can have his
state library, Madoff will probably be pardoned and honored by the banking industry for his skill at beating the system. you may be down today but tomorrow is
another day. Ted Williams (the other one), found his way back to stardom with his golden voice. Sure, he'd lied his ass off but what the hell, we are so hungry
to see a local boy make good, that we root for the underdog. Our priorities are all askew, we settle for the reality that we are nothing, and we find a champion
to surrogately "win" for us. Therein lies the story of underdog. And, as for Charie Sheen, he's rapidly becoming a bad memory.
Last edited by LongIslandEddie; 02-27-2011 at 05:15 PM..
Charlie Sheen has acted like this for a LOOOONG time and a lot of people have supported it by watching his shows etc. They've married him despite a long history of drug use, hiring porn stars etc.
Once he rehabs and does some PR he will be back and the same people will welcome him back.
So frankly, I don't think the Sheen family is the stupid one at this point they've merely learned that they can get away with anything over and over and over.
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