Blaming the Drug Addict
An article in the UK Guardian, in 2010, deals with the issue of blaming the drug addict for his addiction and its consequences, and asks the question how can we deal with the stigma that is attached to drug use and addiction in our society.
The article acknowledges drug use as a compulsive type of behavioral problem over which the addicted person has little control, that drug users ideally would like to become free of their addiction, and that only negative consequences arise as a result of the stigmatization of addiction.
The UK Drug Commission that is investigating drug policies in the UK, and which is expected to make a full report of its findings in the year 2012, is including in its study the problem of the stigma attached to illicit drug use – in the community, in families, for drug users and as presented by the media.
Drug addiction is stigmatized because it is essentially a self-harming and destructive way of life, the negativity tending to have a flow-on effect into the lives of people associated with the addict. Drug use is associated with failure and rejection of community standards and values, with dirt, lack of personal hygiene, and lack of respect for property.
Most drugs are obtained by illicit means, and so drug use is tainted with criminality. Robbery and violence is associated with drug addicts in need of their drugs. Drug users in the home are a disruptive influence, and will often steal from family and friends to maintain their habit – drug users cannot be trusted.
In the past people have avoided all responsibility for the root causes of addiction by calling it a disease. The stigma of having the disease of addiction is in practical terms little better than wearing the stigma of addiction as a mortal sin and moral failure. A genetic basis for drug addiction only tends to spread the blame, without acceptance of fault, to an entire family structure.
The tendency has been for people and families with addictions to feel abject shame, and to hide their problem as much as possible from the outside world, even to the extent of refusing treatment for fear of public exposure.
Recent research into drug use and addiction has increasingly found that drug addiction and substance abuse is related to an early traumatic environment, developmental failures and lack of self esteem in the drug user.
A lack of “fit” as between a person and the wider community might be related to a home environment where a lack of parenting skills fails to prepare the child adequately to meet the demands of school and the social environment.
Children burdened with problems at home might exhibit problem behaviors and so experience social difficulties.
Children who feel oppressed and inadequate, unsupported are at risk of substance abuse, and look to substance abusing peers to provide the approval, acceptance and relationship that is otherwise lacking in their life.
People are beginning to accept a position in which the drug user comes to be seen as more sinned against than sinning, a victim of early trauma, and misfortune in life. Society however still takes the view that we are ultimately responsible for our own condition – that there is nothing in life that we can’t overcome with some grit and determination.
Therefore people who struggle with drug addiction, without adequate support, who use a maintenance program, who go to self help courses still carry with them the tag of not being totally in control of their lives, of somehow being “weak”.
The closer that we come to allocating blame or responsibility for drug addiction to environmental causes, not within the control of the addict, the closer we come to blaming someone other than the addict for his misfortune. If addicts are victims of abuse then someone must be their abuser, and of one thing in life we are perfectly sure – their abuser was not us.
Against feelings of shame, and humiliation, people who have abused another typically tend to follow a pattern of blaming the victim. In the mind of the abuser, it is the abused person who has caused or contributed to their predicament. The drug user will be considered as having always been a difficult and rebellious child, or perhaps a model student until they got in with a “bad crowd”.
The reality is that for an addict to completely recover, he must put away the issue of blame against self and other people, and look towards treatment methods that are able to remedy the damage done and rebuild a life based on optimism and confidence.
Comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction recovery centers focus on effective drug rehabilitation. The best way for any addict to overcome the stigma of addiction is for them to be able to say that they are now completely recovered.
Comprehensive programs have the expertise to help people to heal the problems in life that lead to substance abuse, put the past behind them and move on to a successful new life.
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