to avoid triggers and treat their disorder for the rest of their lives is
harming them and invoking a message that their issues are too large to
overcome and that most people move on from substance use and “get
over it.” He bases his findings from his own experience of being able to
overcome addiction, but not everyone overcomes addiction by just
“getting over it,” either. Substance use disorder is not black and white or
a one-size-fits-all. There are many varying degrees of the disease along
with how to treat it, just like any other disorder or disease.
I can tell you from personal experience that there was a time I thought
my son’s substance use was a “choice.” My son is twenty-seven years
old and has suffered from drug addiction for almost half his life. There
was a time I would get so angry with him, especially in the early years
of his disease, for his “choice” in using drugs and all the things that
happened to him because of it, but my thinking changed right along with
the progression of his disease. Over and over, I could see him trying to
overcome his addictions and failing again and again. He has been in and
out of treatment, had periods of recovery (abstinence), and relapsed
multiple times over the last fourteen years. I’ll never forget that “light
bulb” moment for me when what I felt was a “choice” changed to
realizing his substance use had progressed into a full-blown disease. It
was several years ago, when he relapsed after a long period of sobriety
he had at the time. He left his Oxford House (sober living housing
community), going on a four-day binge of meth and heroin. About day