If you’re not obsessed with something in America, you’re in the minority. Sex, money, religion, food, drugs, selfies, politics, porn, guns. You name it. America is obsessed.
You’ve seen the news lately. The Las Vegas shooter and Harvey Weinstein are two stories that come to mind. It’s not good.
Dr. Drew and I recently talked with some victims of Las Vegas on This Life Podcast. Their story is harrowing. The man, a former soldier, and his wife, a former single mother, told us how they just kept running to get away from the gunfire. Listen to it here.
Then there’s the Harvey Weinstein story, proving once again that addiction is addiction. I’ve never met a sex addict who didn’t have a history of addiction in their family. I tend to believe that a majority of Americans have a genetic predisposition to addiction. I’ll talk about it in a future blog, but we are not an emotionally resilient society. We don’t make good decisions in times of crisis.
America is also so fascinated with finding out why. Why did he do it? The truth is we really don’t need to know why. Are they bad people or sick people? Was he a good guy with an addiction problem? What made him snap?
We talk about these stories for a news cycle and then they just go away. But addiction doesn’t just go away after a quick stent in rehab. A childhood of trauma requires years of therapy to correct. Harvey Weinstein (and all other addicts) need more than just 30 days of treatment. The trauma they faced – the neglect, the abuse – needs to be brought into light and then processed.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Addiction is profound. It’s not something you solve in 30 days. That’s a lie, and we need to tell people the truth. ” quote=”Addiction really is a profound concept. And then some asshole came along and decided you could solve the whole thing in 30 days. That’s just a lie, and we need to start telling people the truth. “]
It took me 4 and a half years in and out of rehab to simply realize that something was wrong with me. I knew the steps and processes, but it took a long, long time to come to the realization that I was so wrong in how I saw the world and how I dealt with people. No wonder I took drugs – you would have to take drugs if you had the perspective and vantage point that I had. My default setting was so warped. I was so unenlightened about what an asshole I was.
My point is that is takes years to overcome addiction. And we even treat addiction with other compulsive behaviors. If you’re an alcoholic, you can’t have alcohol, but you can have X. And then you overconsume X and it becomes an addiction, an obsession.
Addiction really is a profound concept. And then some asshole came along and decided you could solve the whole thing in 30 days. That’s just a lie, and we need to start telling people the truth. It’s pretty basic. Recovery is possible, but it takes a lot of time and commitment.
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