Treating Addiction Like Cancer – Guest Author Diane Mintz
Treating addiction like cancer – why don’t we? Why don’t we given there are 23 million Americans living their lives in recovery from addiction as compared to 14.5 million Americans living their lives with a history of cancer (as of 1/1/14)? For readers of my work, you know how passionate I am about this difference NOT because survival from cancer is any less important than survival from addiction, but because of the stigma, misinformation and shame that makes the survival of 23 million Americans from addiction such a secret and another alarming statistic true. That statistic? Over 23 million Americans struggle with addiction, but only 10 percent get the help they need. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to share today’s guest post by Diane Mintz.
Author Diane Mintz shares her thoughts on what it would be like if we treated addiction like cancer.
Diane Mintz is a business owner, author, speaker and mental health advocate. Her book, In Sickness and in Mental Health – Living with and Loving Someone with Mental Illness, gives a candid look at how she and her husband battled and had victory over mental disorders and addictions despite the barriers stigma imposed. For more about Diane and her work, please visit her website, www.dianemintzauthor.com.
IF WE TREATED ADDICTION DISORDERS LIKE WE DO CANCER by Diane Mintz
Imagine a world without stigma where treatment for the mind was as common as treatment for the body. Many deaths that are attributed to physical ailments actually stem from untreated mental illness – especially addiction. Why haven’t we given proper attention to the root cause?
What if we screened and treated the warning signs of mental illness like we do for cancer and offered complete treatment along with substance abuse treatment – without shaming the person? Substance abuse and mental illness frequently go together, but it takes time to uncover both issues because the symptoms often mask and mimic each other. How many tragedies could be avoided if the early detection of mental illness and addiction were commonplace?
What if we viewed the killer disease of addiction more compassionately? Don’t just walk a mile in my shoes, drink for a week with my brain, and you will experience the phenomenon of craving. You will realize that the stop mechanism in my brain doesn’t work.
I have not had a drink since 1991, but if I took a drink today, the cycle of craving would begin. Does that make me bad or weak willed? If society stopped viewing alcoholism as a moral weakness, perhaps it would free alcoholics to talk about the very real struggle to control the uncontrollable. Perhaps others wouldn’t judge.
Unfortunately, people tend to shame their loved one when they relapse because it is so disappointing. It is also heartbreaking when cancer comes back, but people respond very differently. People see cancer as out of a person’s control, but I dare anyone to take on the two no-fault illnesses of addiction and mental illness and overcome them with their upstanding moral character.
In a world without stigma, maybe medical professionals wouldn’t wait to recommend treatment for substance abuse until the late stages of the disease, when physical health is severely affected. Maybe people wouldn’t resist treatment until it was court ordered due to trouble with the law. In both scenarios, there is already so much damage to repair that the chances of recovery are slim. People feel utterly hopeless.
Instead, imagine a paradigm shift in society’s view of mental illness and the disease of addiction, where early treatment was expected and applauded. It would result in a dramatic improvement in both mental and physical illnesses, saving millions of dollars in health care costs and restoring families for generations to come.
Guest Author
Latest posts by Guest Author (see all)
- Children of Alcoholics | Guest Author Darlene Lancer - July 5, 2021
- Parental Alcohol Use Disorder Causes Trauma - May 12, 2021
- Opioid Overdose Prevention Tips & Resources - April 26, 2021
Thank you Diane. My husband is a alcoholic/cocaine user. I agree with what you say however my husband committed adultery on/off for 24 years, i read this could be due to depression in the addict. I now know addiction is a mental illness and I know it hurts the addict possibly worse than the family/spouse, however the actions and behaviours of addicts are way way hurtful. I think this is why people don’t understand and sympathise more with a cancer patient.
I am so sorry Tracy. You are correct – when untreated, addicts/alcoholics can hurt people very badly and that is very different from cancer. I am grateful that my husband and I got sober before we were married or the risk of infidelity would increase and our marriage may not be repaired.
My parents were generous in offering grace but they also allowed me to pay the consequences for my behavior. This was very significant for my recovery and for their own sanity, because even though I was powerless over the addiction and over my illness; I was still responsible for my actions. Powerlessness doesn’t mean non-responsibility.
Tuberculosis is a no-fault disease, but who would knowingly allow someone with TB to cough on them? Our loved ones need to have firm boundaries. It is not easy and we need to better equip people since so many are affected.
It is my hope that if we had an overhaul of how we see the disease from the onset, there could be a better chance of recovery early on and therefore we could reduce the damage it causes.
Great article. Excellent points.
I seem to be out of step or (depending how you look at it) way ahead of the crowd, but I’m convinced the solution is to expose the most common destructive behaviors for what they really are = addictions to money, belief systems, and especially Abraham Maslow’s psychological deficiency needs (for safety/power, acceptance/approval/attention, esteem/status).
There is only one addiction and it’s to dopamine. The primary difference between seemingly different addicts is how the powerful neurotransmitter is triggered.
It’s absurd how addicts who use drugs to trigger dopamine are stigmatized by much more destructive money/power/esteem addicts who get away with destroying environments, economies, and innocent lives while flaunting their addictions and pretending their pathological (and illogical) behaviors are normal, acceptable, and even admirable.
The worst of the worst are addiction deniers who insist that addiction is a choice. Often because they believe they’ve beaten their drug addiction(s) when they’ve simply replaced one addiction with an addiction to esteem that causes them to trigger dopamine squirts by looking down on others to artificially inflate weak egos.
Charles Lyell
DopamineProject.org
I Agree Charles – my husband and I both noticed how we went from one addiction to the next. In fact the most obvious was when I first got sober and hit the sugar hard. I gained 50 pounds. I had to abstain from sugar for 5 years to re-calibrate. You make me glad that I am still addicted to coffee, because I don’t want the addiction to esteem at all!
I’m reading “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us“ by Michael Moss. The author goes into great detail about how thorough the money addicts in the junk food industry are when it comes to using scientists and marketers to help them seduce and addict children to sugar.
No politician would allow South American drug lords to use Madison Avenue to hook children on hard drugs, yet we have a congress filled with money/power/esteem addicts taking bribes (they call contributions) from the junk food dealers responsible for a growing obesity epidemic.
60 Minutes just did a report on how much money the government spent to track down and arrest one drug lord (who was replaced the next day by ten wannabees). Meanwhile, the junk food lords spreading diabetes and heart disease are free to corrupt legislators and are treated like respected members of the community.
Sugar certainly is hard to avoid – it is in everything. Our kids are set up for addiction from an early age.
It’s frightening to think that the most destructive “gateway drug” might be sugar. And that the money addicts running the junk food industry have been using sugar to fatten bottom lines while seducing and addicting children to products that are not only responsible for the growing the growing obesity and diabetes epidemics, they’re “educating” and graduating future generations of alcoholics.
Cradle to the grave addictions.
It is true. As for what people are ready to deal with at this point… Jack Nicholson said it best, “You can’t handle the truth!”
As someone in recovery and living with a husband in recovery I know the importance of recognizing the triggers to relapse. Your idea of prevention before it gets to the point of crisis makes so much sense, but until addiction is recognized as an illness this is never going to happen. Thank you for being the voice of reason!
Thank you Carolyn. I can relate to your 5 lessons article completely.
Problem they have to be willing
Differnce is one chooses the other doesn’t we feel the drug addict has a choice.
If people really took the genetic component to addiction seriously, I wonder if it would make a difference in the choices they make. It’s like playing Russian Roulette to take a chance with a substance when addiction runs deep in a family history.
We thought we educated our kids all their lives, but sadly our son believed the lies that “it’s only pot”. He avoided alcohol and other drugs but still quickly got addicted to pot. It doesn’t effect everyone the way it did our son, but it had him hooked for five years. Thank God he is finally in recovery now. So just like cancer runs in families and people take precautions because they know the predisposition – we need to treat addiction the same way.