Addiction Myths Reported
I came across a good article in Monday's Charlotte Observer online. It listed five common myths about addiction. Here are a couple of them:

• Myth 2: Drug addiction is a character flaw.

Drug addiction is a brain disease. Every type of drug -- from alcohol to heroin -- has its own mechanism for changing how the brain functions. Effects range from changes in the molecules and cells that make up the brain to mood and memory processes -- even on motor skills such as walking and talking.

• Myth 3: You can't force someone into treatment.

Treatment does not have to be voluntary. Those coerced into treatment by the legal system can be just as successful as those who enter treatment voluntarily.

Actually there are a lot of myths about alcoholism and addiction that pose as "truth" some of which are cultural, others are folktales, others may even reach into ideological or religious realms. I came across an interesting example in a Gallup Poll last week.

Among people who are family members of alcoholics or addicts, 75% believe that addiction/alcoholism is a disease and 80+% believe people can and do recover from it. Yet well over half of those same family members believe that the main problem is a lack of willpower. Less than a third of these same people believe that being in a family where drinking or drugs are available is a problem. (A disease of willpower or lack thereof? Hmmm.)

This is what we call our "belief systems." They control much of what we do and how we act. It is the starting point of the cycle of addiction. Myths - or popular misconceptions - like these only enhance the problem and help us live in our denial that there is anything wrong. It helps keep the addict/alcoholic in active use far longer than is healthy. Breaking through this denial based on incorrect information is essential.

The good news is, though, that there is a strong and growing awareness that there is hope. Recovery IS possible. No longer is it a death sentence or a sentence into insanity.