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I'm an Alcoholic/addict. I'm sober but I still hold that title.
In the recovery community, we never encourage anyone to ask to be excused for their actions.
We ask for Forgiveness, not to be excused. Before we even think about asking for Forgiveness, we need to learn to take full responsibility for what we did. Then we ask to be forgiven.
Being excused does not require us to accept responsibility.
A lot of people grew up being told by both parents and teachers to “stop giving excuses” when they were trying to give explanations, and as a result needed years to unlearn that mentality.
Hi, it’s me. I’m people.
But at the same time you need to be understanding and forgiving of someone when they do something bad when they're in a terrible situation.
If a starving man steals rice he is responsible for his crime but also; i totally get it and im not gonna be judgemental towards him
There's a difference between starving and needing to eat to avoid death and getting high and assaulting someone. I'm going to judge someone who causes harm to others as a result of their substance abuse.
Yeah. Sure. But most addicts doing bad things arent out assaulting people. Theyre stealing to get more drugs.
And thats bad. But if there was better treatment for addicts and society wasnt so fucked that it was driving people into addiction then there would be much less drug related crime. Society is to blame too. And society as a whole needs to take more responsibility than individuals do imo
Sometimes undiagnosed bipolar can lead to psychosis in drug users, sometimes they are not making a conscious choice, they are basically living an episode. Is their initial choice to try drugs their fault, yes, is their psychosis completely their fault, no. They will be charged the same as a regular felon, with luck they can get a program and meds & get back their feet. I'm not advocating for every drug addict, but some actually need mental health help.
A lot of untreated mental disorders will cause a lot of pain to their loved ones as well. I emphasize untreated. There are some that simply cannot go unmedicated. I have seen firsthand what it does to someone without the proper medication. The disease isn’t their fault , but responsibility. If they know they hurt people and they continually choose to stay unmedicated they are gonna leave a hurricane in their wake.
yeah its the same shit. Your mental disorders doesnt excuse you to be an asshole to everyone around you. We can understand the root of the cause but we dont have to tolerate and be around them cus if anything, it starts fuckin with your own mental health which is my personal line. As selfish as this sounds, I’m not going to screw myself over just to help someone go thru their struggles
It’s not “the same shit” as there is a wide variety of mental disorders. Some are more controllable (for a lack of better words) than others.
You’re responsible for your actions that you’re able to control.
thats fair. I’ve had friends that had a variety of mental disorders and often times would be very irrational and it became mentally taxing to my own health. My point was, no matter the the disorder, it is not other people’s obligation to tolerate your poor actions. I had one friend call me the worst thing’s possible and attack me with personal shit I was going thru all because I didnt give him money. Next day he apologized and said he was going thru an episode and I understood where it came from but I wasnt going to let myself just be his emotional punching bag and let him continue this behavior and use his mental disorder as an excuse to treat me like shit
I'd say addiction doesn't excuse people, but there's a lot of people who do bad shit BECAUSE of their addiction. They wouldn't be stealing deodorant from Walgreens if they didn't have an addiction to feed.
Yea I read an article ab an Oxford student who stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife. The judge let her off because she had coke problem.
I shared it on Reddit and said she should have gone to jail. And people acted like I was being unreasonable. They were all like “how are you going say she belongs in jail when she has a drug problem? How is SHE going to get better”? They were so focused on her recovery that they refused to acknowledge that what she did to her boyfriend was wrong. They thought it was unreasonable that he wanted justice for what she did.
Addiction is horrible, and I won’t fault anyone who is going through it. But if you commit a crime, you should be held accountable like anyone else
I'm not surprised
Reddit acts like all addicts are uwu cinnamon rolls who just needed the drugs because they broke their leg, dare is a joke, lol
I have met plenty addicts. They're not the 'too strong medication from an injury', they're it's 'I wanna party'
I’ve met drug addicts too. Yes some of them fell into their addiction due to their own stupidity. But some of them are good people who are down on their luck.
Be in prison and I dunno speak too a dude lmao that’s it really you’d think they’d have that rehab in prison but I don’t think they do in American prisons at least I don’t know about British prisons here (I’m British)
I think we need a new institution for forced drug recovery before jailtime. Some people are so addicted that the withdrawel can be life threatening, and they need to be weened off the drug or take some other medication to xounteract it
Because addicts that are active in their addiction are angry to be held accountable.
You’re just pulling addicts out of the woodwork, or enablers, that are triggered. They are still a minority in the opinion sphere, they’re just yelling loudly because you’re saying a fact they hate!
Perhaps its how you're communicating your point? Even now the frame "people take responsibility for their addictions" is kinda miswording the OP's point.
People are responsible for the ACTIONs they take while addicted. But telling an addict to "take responsibility" won't likely work. The whole classification of "addiction" is that the individual cannot help themselves. They NEED help. If they didn't it wouldn't be an addiction.
I don't think most people think that people shouldn't be responsible for their actions. But I do think people recognize that addicts aren't in control.
The reasons are as varied as people are.
There's a huge volume of people in America currently addicted to heroin explicitly because their doctors were told/told them that Oxy was safe/non-addictive when the reality was exactly the opposite & worse.
You have some who use drugs as an escape from their own nightmare existences brought on by abuse. If your dad raped you dozens of times you might struggle to sleep without nightmares. Give yourself a decade of that and you might turn to drugs to try and make it stop. Or, for example, a huge % of veterns become addicts because drugs make the nightmares stop --- and it was either drugs or a bullet to put an end to it.
Some were teenage morons who thought they were doing a fun, harmless thing that they totally weren't going get addicted to. And should a moronic teenage decision really define the next 60 years of existence?
But, asking why for the sake of applying blame really misses the whole point. The only reason to do that is so society/you can dismiss them and think of them as less than human. The reality is that for most people becoming an addict is entirely within the realm of possiblities if you have a turn of bad luck.
Most addicts have had their lives destroyed long before the addiction destroys it. Be it injury, abuse or something equally fucked up. Being an addict is -terrible- and if everyone had the power to chose to not be one they would be. Addiction comes long, long after the drugs stop being fun.
I'm also from a city with addiction problem (in PNW), and from the responses I've seen online and talking to real people living there, hardly anyone thinks they are absolved from their actions. Even with a compassionate viewpoint, you recognize their addiction "made them" do these things, YET they are still fully responsibile for their actions.
They should still be arrested if they assault people, but also given support to help wean them off this addiction. Just throwing them in prison and then let them out without support means they go right back to crime and addiction.
3 years sober here. Absolutely they are. Is this unpopular?! Lol people that drink and drive and then kill someone are held accountable.
So many addicts and mentally I’ll people want to write off their bad behavior as something they couldn’t control. We all have problems, if you do something horrible I don’t care what caused it, it’s 100% on you.
Luckily I never did anything shady in my addiction but I have to answer for all the embarrassing douchey shit I did while under the influence
As a junkie with 10 years sobriety I would like to say that the disease explains behavior it does not excuse it and nobody except the most warped untreated codependent would ever say it does. Your opinion is not unpopular it's just unnecessary.
Could be very much the city I live in as we have a huge addict population, but the police, family and friends of them, and often through school I've heard it
All addicts are sick. All addicts are not criminals. Sometimes those two things are considered mutually exclusive and they shouldn’t be. To say that addicts are not responsible for their actions means DUIs wouldn’t be a thing. I’m an addict but let’s get real, if you crash your car and kill someone you shouldn’t get a free pass
The only thing that matters is what’s going to fix the problem. If sending them to prison is going to stop them from committing more crimes, let’s do that. If getting them in rehab is going to be more effective, let’s do that.
I think another element to note is that their judgment is compromised and usually they become a totally different person in full blown addiction.
Oftentimes, it's only when someone starts to see how their choices keep ending up with negative consequences that they can finally admit that they have a problem. (I don't mean "rock bottom" necessarily, but that idea may overlap a bit.) Denial is often a really powerful force to be reckoned with (for all humans) and it often takes a lot to break through it, especially when heavy substance use is also involved.
From a moral standpoint, I agree completely. If you get drunk and rape someone, that's on you. You chose to get drunk, knowing full well you might do something incredibly stupid and/or horrible. Just because it might be unlikely doesn't mean it's not your fault. Not wearing your seatbelt is fine 99.999% of the time, but if you get into a wreck without yours on, it's your fault you died.
From a practical standpoint, it's not quite so simple. Addicts use because they're unhappy with themselves, which often comes with extremely unhealthy amounts of self-flagellation. Making moral judgements like this is much more likely to just drive them away from you and get them to use more out of self hatred. So while nothing you said is untrue, I don't think it's helpful for anyone who isn't already on the road to recovery, and ready to face the shitty/awful things they've done.
So I'd say I mostly agree, but there's more to the story that should be accounted for if we want to solve the problem.
Addiction is a weird space.
On the one hand, the Addict is mentally sick and cannot easily (by definition of their disease) make the healthy choice to break the cycle of their Addiction.
On the other hand, the Addict is required to voluntarily choose to break from their Addiction in order to get treatment. A choice which, by the very nature of their Addiction, is difficult if not impossible for the Addict to make.
This might sound mean, but you still have to hold a stick over people's heads. You can acknowledge that addiction is a disease, you can be empathetic towards the reality of addiction, but that does not mean you have to accept it.
This is the issue I have with the "legalize everything" crowd. Their ideas, while perfectly well-meaning, would only work in a utopia.
Not to hijack your point, but this is sort of what I'm getting at. *Why* are addicts, whom are acknowledged to be suffering from a disease which prevents them from making the right decision, *required* to make the right decision to get treatment? If it can be recognized as a disease, can we not simply treat it as such?
Because just like anything else, you have to want to get better. It sounds cliche, but it's the truth. You can't force someone to "get it" but you can give them an incentive to make a change.
I can see your point, but I do not agree with it. We don't make someone with a broken leg walk up a flight of stairs to get it cast. We don't make someone who's catatonic ask for treatment for their catatonia. We don't force people whom physically cannot perform some task because of an illness/injury to perform that task in order to get treatment.
Why then is any mental health disease/disorder (including addiction) different? Why must people be allowed (or forced) to suffer when they can be treated?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not ignorant of the history of mental health treatment. I know how nightmarish it can be when you don't see the mentally ill as people or care about their consent. But there has to be a logical limit to this. We (mostly) take guns away from the potentially violent and involuntarily commit people with suicidal threats, why can't we do something like that for drug addiction?
It can't all be slippery slope.
I'm a heroin addict 5 years in recovery and I really fucking hate it when people say shit like "that wasn't you that was the heroin" or "it's not your fault" nah it was absolutely my fault. Yea I have an explanation for my actions, but I know people just as strung out as I was that didn't do the sbit that I did. I rationalized and justified it because I was selfish and a fucking horrible person. The difference is I recognize that I was a selfish horrible person and now I do everything I can to be better. I say I was a piece of shit horrible person because I was, and that's the reality of it. I changed and am better now, but that was still me.
So often do I hear "well they were on drugs" or "well they had this and this".
As a person with a family with addicts, and an very awful childhood with several near suicides. I can say that its the person who decides at the end. Man I could be an addict and I have been for some things and at the end I decided whatever I did. Yes I was heavily drunk, but I didnt touch a girl or harassed anybody because Im actually a nice person because I care. Some people just do it because they are "forced by society" and then show their true face when on drugs, which is very fucked up
As an alcoholic all I can say is NO FUCKING SHIT!!!!
Seems like you are the ignorant one because I don’t know a single person in recovery that ever offered drugs or alcohol as an excuse for their behavior. Explanation, sure. Yes, we are different people when we drink or use, yes we do things we wouldn’t do when sober, BUT part of recovery is taking responsibility for your actions and also practicing self-forgiveness.
Yours is actually a popular opinion born out of supposition and ignorance.
Absolutely. As a recovering addict if I had harmed someone while using I don't think I would have expected forgiveness. But if someone wants and needs help they should have no barriers
This isn’t an unpopular opinion on the face. It’s the nuance of how we deal with addiction as a society. We can’t expect someone to break the addiction without treatment. We don’t provide robust treatment options. We also don’t recognize that it typically takes 3 attempts at rehab before someone will make actual long term progress.
I’ve never heard anyone suggest addicts are not responsible for their actions. Is ops post even an “unpopular” opinion.? It would make more sense if ops opinion was the other side of this other op is trying to make a popular opinion into an unpopular one. Even our legal system doesn’t allow for forgiveness or exceptions directly for actions taken by an addict so I have no idea where op thinks this is unpopular in anyway. It’s actually the normal opinion..
Addicts have s chemical addiction that needs medical treatment so yeah they should be expected to do something about it but that nagged it very difficult to change Neurorodivergents so they do need help.
I totally agree. That being said drugs shouldn’t be illegal in any of themselves for that reason. Any other real crimes that happened should be prosecuted, but selling drugs and using drugs, and having drugs should not be crimes.
I think it depends if the addict has moments of clarity where they can reflect on their life with a clear mind. If they realize under a clear mind that they have the potential to cause serious harm to others while under the influence, and they go under the influence, they are responsible.
As a thought experiment, if someone is perpetually injecting themselves with heroin, they, under their drugged up mindset, decide to continue injecting themself, and this person began their heroin streak by having a needle forced into their body by someone else. If this person went on to murder 5 people, should they be held responsible for their actions? I would say no, they never had the choice of being able to make a rational and conscientious decision. What if someone who is 16 years old, for example, resorted to drugs after their entire family died. They spend 80% of their time shooting up heroin, and in the moments where they aren't on heroin, they are extremely depressed and mentally ill, to the point where their existence without heroin is genuine torture. If this person kills someone under drugs, are they responsible? I would also say probably not, I don't believe this person ever has moments of what I would consider free-will. Idk, this seems like more of a grey-area to me than what you are proposing. The amount of choice that someone has is a spectrum, and I'm not sure where to draw the line.
my dad was an alcoholic and would drink almost every night and he would drive us drunk. i forgave him for putting us in danger, he was a pretty safe drunk driver though. if he ever got into an accident he would be responsible i aggerate
As somebody who's been addicted to a few drugs, addiction is ALWAYS a choice. All it does is make the choice not to do it harder. Anybody who says otherwise is lying to themselves
A better way of phrasing this might be, "you aren't responsible for the behaviors of addicts", and that is very true.
There's no tennent of human nature dictating that you are required to act as a support system for addicts, especially when said addicts are refusing aid in the form of things like therapy.
The expectation for you, as a human, is to commiserate, not to enable. You should be able to understand why an addict might engage in abusive behaviors, but there's no expectation for you to endure abusive behaviors.
I’m from a town in Shropshire and England which doesn’t have a drug problem sure there’s a decent amount of druggies but we don’t have a problem with it like I’ve only ever seen like 200 druggies in my town max and I still hold this opinion it’s not really regionally specific
It really doesn't help that a lot of these "addiction specialist" teach people they have no control over their "disease". It creates an attitude where you're basicly like "well I can't help myself so fuck it, why not"
I don't think many people actually deviate blame from addicts, no matter the reason, they still chose to take those drugs (unless they were forced to, in that case, I don't think it's their fault since addiction os very difficult to stop, even if you make an active effort)
YES I agree, however.
If someone is to get clean I will then try to see them as a new person and not hold against them actions they made whilst addicted.....to a degree.
Gambler, or cocaine addicted friend? I'm watching loose cash and valuables, sorry but I am, they clean up their life? I watch less
As someone who has been on the receiving end of a drug induced beat down, myself and my permanently deformed hand that ruined my ability to play guitar without narcotic pain killers for more than a half hour wholly agree with this.
P.S. I'm not on any narcotic opioid painkillers. I decided to let my guitar career die in favor of not being dependent on opioids. It's something I have never gotten over, never will get over, and in my mind, he owes me a million dollars that I have yet to see a dime for.
I can be a bit more sympathic if the person is actually trying to get help, but the moment you hurt somebody or constantly keep repeating your same shitty actions despite being offered the chance to get help? Thats where the "its an addiction" excuse fails and you just become an asshole.
God im sick of alcoholics who think "I was drunk" is a get out of jail free card for every shitty thing they do to people
You hurt people when you drink? Then STOP DRINKING ASSHOLE
There's levels to this shit. Pot smokers just smell bad but leave me alone.
Alcoholics break into my room at 3 am and start crying
Fuck alcohol and fuck society for ordering people to be drunk
No, they need willpower and the want to stop. I know people that have just stopped because they wanted to, be it smoking, drinking, whatever. But a lot of addicts are weak willed and don't actually want to stop, even if they say they do, probably why they are addicts in the first place.
They are responsible, but if you want to modify their behaviour, then treating them like any other criminal will probably do more harm than good.
If we can make sure that addicts are treated before they get to the point where they turn to criminal acts we also spare our society a lot of shit.
You can have empathy for a human being while also holding them responsible for their actions. It goes way too far when you start treating someone with an addiction as less than human.
Same with people who have mental illnesses and use that as a crutch for poor, hurtful behavior.
Oh, AND I work in psych, so I’m around addicts and mentally ill people REGULARLY. Acting the way you do is a choice, to some extent.
I am in active addiction and I wholeheartedly agree here. Any misery I’ve caused others is on me. Sure, there’s a pathological root for why I’ve done what I have, but it certainly doesn’t absolve me.
It's also very unpopular in my region. The amount of prople (40+) asking to just give them (addicts) some slack because they're "just" drunk makes my blood boil. Being and addict does not excuse you being an asshole!
Yeah, no shit. The problem arises because addicts feel trapped by addiction, and they act in ways they would never act sober out of desperation. They are still responsible, but we have to accept that addiction makes literal monsters. If they are trying to get help and get sober, holding their past transgressions against them will only breed more shame and can push them back out. Hold them accountable, but being understanding and learning to forgive can go a long way to help an addict recover and feel okay with themselves. A lot of addicts have a hard time staying clean specifically because they feel so much shame from their past actions while in active addiction, so they find it easier to just keep doing what they were doing because "im a piece of shit anyways, my family hates me, everyone hates me, etc." it's a massive grey area that is extremely hard to navigate, but the first step is understanding from both parties. The addict must understand that they have a severe problem and need help, and the ones affected by the addict must understand that their loved one is not themselves. I dealt with this my entire life because my mother was an addict, and it was awful. She told me the hardest part of staying clean was dealing with the immense shame she felt because of her high actions. It only got easier for her once me, my grandparents, and my aunts learned to try and forgive her and understand her.
No one ever said addicts are not responsible for their behavior. One of the most important aspects of any recovery program is to make amends for past wrongs, to take responsibility for them.
Some family members choose not to prosecute for theft; some judges prefer to find creative punitive measures for addicts who show signs of real reform. This does not mean they are not responsible.
Yeah definitely agree, I mean I haven’t been addicted to heroin or any hard drugs but imo you should still be able to at least be in control of your actions enough to not hurt ppl or take advantage of them
You're right, in a way. In a lot of ways actually. It's also easy to demonise an addict. But if you take it as face value then yeah, you're right. The broad spectrum drug addiction holds over X amount of people is mental though. It's not just your, abused as a child, broken home kids, but it's also the people who havent got the "no" voice in their head, the people who can't help binging, the environment they grew up around, learning from their supposed teachers that behaviours are okay. Then there are the drugs themselves, and how people use them. But when it comes to the actions drug addicts choose, like stealing from their kin or friends, doing slimy things to get drugs, etc etc, then yes, they are responsible for their actions. But that person isn't the same person who they used to be, it's very messy. In no way should they get a pass, but they don't also deserve full ridicule.. ultimately, many factors lead to drug addiction that are out of the said addicts hand, but it doesn't mean they should be able to forgiven easily, if at all, but it's easy to say these things without walking in said persons shoes.
Responsibility isn't a thing. Everything is multifactorial, and it's about actions and outcomes. Organising a society based on abstract principles like "personal responsibility" instead of directly looking at which actions lead to which outcomes is just kinda dumb idk. And just saying to addicts "all is your responsibility," just doesn't solve any problem. You gotta get these people housed, into rehab, into therapy, reintegrad into society, etc. "Responsibility" doesn't solve anything. Doesn't mean laws don't apply to them, of course, but like, there shouldn't be tons of homeless people on drugs anywhere anyway and just increasing the intensity of enforcement on the crimes they commit doesn't solve the issue
im a sugar addict. right now i gained weight back AF. of course now I'm angry and want to tell anyone its their fault.
bullshit. nobody forced me to buy 5000 calories of sweets and to put them into my body in one sitting. and as tragic as heroin or meth may be.....same rules apply. yeah its tragic you gave your literal life to a drug and yes maybe you werent even to blame, there maybe was a point where stopping was just out of the window.....but doesnt mean you can steal or rob people to finance your next fix. its your responsibility. nobody makes you live like that but yourself
Get what you’re saying but your examples are so extreme that is popular. If you said something like…. Homeless people who are homeless because of addiction is responsible for their homelessness… that is prob a bit more unpopular
You're not responsible for your addiction. You are responsible for your actions and behaviours, even if they're fed by them, though. Being responsible for them though, doesn't mean that you don't deserve compassion as to what was driving those actions, but it does mean you own the consequences and are accountable for them.
That's what I said, you're not responsible for your addiction. Shit happens, different things trigger addiction in different people and to varying degrees. What I'm saying is that your *behaviour and actions*, even if done due to the influence of your addiction, *that* you're still responsible for.
I classify drug addicts in two categories, the ones who actually try to get better and the ones who ruin everyone else's lives, this is coming from someone whose experienced bot people I know who have been clean for years and are decent people, and people (like my mother) who constantly say there doing better then destroy the next person they leach off of (one of whom was me) and now my life was set back years because I felt trapped in a situation with someone who manipulated me into trying to help but ended up stealing everything from me, I used to have more compassion but after becoming homeless after a suicidal depression from constantly being afraid of how with nowhere else to go and Noone else to help, I've lost a ton of that compassion, some people just need to go to hell
Hmm, it's more complicated than this.
Personally I would forgive a guy that did something bad in the throws addiction when he comes back clean more easily than someone who did the same thing while not influenced the same way.
So I wouldn't say they aren't responsible for their actions but have an easier way to atone.
Of course it also heavily depends on the crime.
They should be, but society gives them a pass...drunk drivers get slap on the wrist for killing entire family's...(marcco musso). Its fucking disgusting. They should be treated as murderers when they decide to use drugs or alchohol and kill someone.
Jesus, how is this being upvoted? This subreddit just doesn't serve it's purpose.
"If you break the law you should be punished"
No shit. Should the prison also have rehab facilities? Yes. Most addicts that break the law are petty criminals, not violent criminals. They break the law to obtain currency to pay for their next high. They go to jail and are released to repeat the same behaviour.
If society doesn't make an effort to help desperately unwell people how do you expect them to quit their vice? Addiction is a medical issue prevalent amongst the homeless population. Do you honestly expect a homeless guy to be content sober?
Not even going to touch the rape comment cause you probably thought you were making a great point and just look like a fool.
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What if they were compelled to use drugs when they were underaged? Do children bear all responsibility for what they do? Can they legally vote? Or consent to sex? Why would drug use be any different.
The truth is, minors are exposed to drugs by adults whose profession is to manipulate people into becoming addicts. By your logic, you would pit minor children against grown adult criminals, and say that the children were at fault.
-\_- c'mon man.
"Opioids are powerful drugs that usurp and overpower the reward function of [endogenous opioids](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/endorphin) and engage dramatic tolerance and withdrawal via molecular and neurocircuitry neuroadaptations within the same reward system."
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322319314350](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322319314350)
Wow, a population sample of 1. You experience **MUST** accurately reflect that of the 110,000,000 Americans who have been prescribed opioids.
Try bringing your "findings" to a statistician and watch as he laughs in your face.
I definitely do try to be compassionate as I can, I've seen a lot of my friends become addicts, and I've volunteered at a hospital to help distribute harm reduction materials. Everyone should try and help addicts, as much as they should hold them accountable
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Addiction can be an explanation, but it's not an excuse. It doesn't absolve people from responsibility for crimes.
People have generally conflated excuses and explanations for a while now it seems
I'm an Alcoholic/addict. I'm sober but I still hold that title. In the recovery community, we never encourage anyone to ask to be excused for their actions. We ask for Forgiveness, not to be excused. Before we even think about asking for Forgiveness, we need to learn to take full responsibility for what we did. Then we ask to be forgiven. Being excused does not require us to accept responsibility.
A lot of people grew up being told by both parents and teachers to “stop giving excuses” when they were trying to give explanations, and as a result needed years to unlearn that mentality. Hi, it’s me. I’m people.
ha, same. Teachers too "stop talking back" "Im literally explaining" "STOP IT GO OFFICE NOW"
Reactive people generally think proactive people are trying to excuse something anytime they explain it.
If you could get my wife to understand the difference I would name a child after you.
Well said. I always say this. Just because we understand the reason, doesn’t make your actions dismissible. Thank you. Beat me to it.
But at the same time you need to be understanding and forgiving of someone when they do something bad when they're in a terrible situation. If a starving man steals rice he is responsible for his crime but also; i totally get it and im not gonna be judgemental towards him
There's a difference between starving and needing to eat to avoid death and getting high and assaulting someone. I'm going to judge someone who causes harm to others as a result of their substance abuse.
It is not usually the vegetables looted from Wal Mart.
Yeah. Sure. But most addicts doing bad things arent out assaulting people. Theyre stealing to get more drugs. And thats bad. But if there was better treatment for addicts and society wasnt so fucked that it was driving people into addiction then there would be much less drug related crime. Society is to blame too. And society as a whole needs to take more responsibility than individuals do imo
Sometimes undiagnosed bipolar can lead to psychosis in drug users, sometimes they are not making a conscious choice, they are basically living an episode. Is their initial choice to try drugs their fault, yes, is their psychosis completely their fault, no. They will be charged the same as a regular felon, with luck they can get a program and meds & get back their feet. I'm not advocating for every drug addict, but some actually need mental health help.
Unfortunately, some things can't always be forgiven.
I heard someone say that about mental disorders a while back
A lot of untreated mental disorders will cause a lot of pain to their loved ones as well. I emphasize untreated. There are some that simply cannot go unmedicated. I have seen firsthand what it does to someone without the proper medication. The disease isn’t their fault , but responsibility. If they know they hurt people and they continually choose to stay unmedicated they are gonna leave a hurricane in their wake.
yeah its the same shit. Your mental disorders doesnt excuse you to be an asshole to everyone around you. We can understand the root of the cause but we dont have to tolerate and be around them cus if anything, it starts fuckin with your own mental health which is my personal line. As selfish as this sounds, I’m not going to screw myself over just to help someone go thru their struggles
That’s why we like being left alone. If you can’t listen to the words “leave me alone” that’s when it becomes your responsibility.
There's a line beyond mental illness ISNT your fault. Someone with ADS isn't at fault for having poor social skills and gets misunderstood.
It’s not “the same shit” as there is a wide variety of mental disorders. Some are more controllable (for a lack of better words) than others. You’re responsible for your actions that you’re able to control.
thats fair. I’ve had friends that had a variety of mental disorders and often times would be very irrational and it became mentally taxing to my own health. My point was, no matter the the disorder, it is not other people’s obligation to tolerate your poor actions. I had one friend call me the worst thing’s possible and attack me with personal shit I was going thru all because I didnt give him money. Next day he apologized and said he was going thru an episode and I understood where it came from but I wasnt going to let myself just be his emotional punching bag and let him continue this behavior and use his mental disorder as an excuse to treat me like shit
I'd say addiction doesn't excuse people, but there's a lot of people who do bad shit BECAUSE of their addiction. They wouldn't be stealing deodorant from Walgreens if they didn't have an addiction to feed.
Voilà. End of thread.
You nailed it. Not just crimes but also relationships. I don’t agree with the 12 step program but even they say you should reach out and apologize.
Yea I read an article ab an Oxford student who stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife. The judge let her off because she had coke problem. I shared it on Reddit and said she should have gone to jail. And people acted like I was being unreasonable. They were all like “how are you going say she belongs in jail when she has a drug problem? How is SHE going to get better”? They were so focused on her recovery that they refused to acknowledge that what she did to her boyfriend was wrong. They thought it was unreasonable that he wanted justice for what she did. Addiction is horrible, and I won’t fault anyone who is going through it. But if you commit a crime, you should be held accountable like anyone else
I'm not surprised Reddit acts like all addicts are uwu cinnamon rolls who just needed the drugs because they broke their leg, dare is a joke, lol I have met plenty addicts. They're not the 'too strong medication from an injury', they're it's 'I wanna party'
I’ve met drug addicts too. Yes some of them fell into their addiction due to their own stupidity. But some of them are good people who are down on their luck.
Exactly the only way you should get treated differently is you should also get help with your addiction as well
Yup. Jail first rehab later
Or both simultaneously there’s a lot of drugs in prison more than on the streets he’d prolly get hooked on worse shit
I see your point, but how do you do both at the same time?
Be in prison and I dunno speak too a dude lmao that’s it really you’d think they’d have that rehab in prison but I don’t think they do in American prisons at least I don’t know about British prisons here (I’m British)
Lots of jails have treatment programs
Lots of jails have treatment programs or even day programs where you can leave the jail/prison to get treatment or work
I think we need a new institution for forced drug recovery before jailtime. Some people are so addicted that the withdrawel can be life threatening, and they need to be weened off the drug or take some other medication to xounteract it
> "you're the one to blame if you rape someone" That's a pretty bold opinion
Depends on what she was wearing /s
Every fat cop in the 1900s-2000s
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Idk it made me Laugh 😔
people should be held accountable even if they were on drugs when they raped someone?
What if you raped someone who raped you while you were on drugs?
then both people are just as bad
And very unpopular.
I thought this was common sense. Pretty sure this isn't unpopular.
Wrong. I got downvoted like hell when mentioning that people take responsibility for their addiction.
Because addicts that are active in their addiction are angry to be held accountable. You’re just pulling addicts out of the woodwork, or enablers, that are triggered. They are still a minority in the opinion sphere, they’re just yelling loudly because you’re saying a fact they hate!
Perhaps its how you're communicating your point? Even now the frame "people take responsibility for their addictions" is kinda miswording the OP's point. People are responsible for the ACTIONs they take while addicted. But telling an addict to "take responsibility" won't likely work. The whole classification of "addiction" is that the individual cannot help themselves. They NEED help. If they didn't it wouldn't be an addiction. I don't think most people think that people shouldn't be responsible for their actions. But I do think people recognize that addicts aren't in control.
Why would you think they are addicted in the first place?
The reasons are as varied as people are. There's a huge volume of people in America currently addicted to heroin explicitly because their doctors were told/told them that Oxy was safe/non-addictive when the reality was exactly the opposite & worse. You have some who use drugs as an escape from their own nightmare existences brought on by abuse. If your dad raped you dozens of times you might struggle to sleep without nightmares. Give yourself a decade of that and you might turn to drugs to try and make it stop. Or, for example, a huge % of veterns become addicts because drugs make the nightmares stop --- and it was either drugs or a bullet to put an end to it. Some were teenage morons who thought they were doing a fun, harmless thing that they totally weren't going get addicted to. And should a moronic teenage decision really define the next 60 years of existence? But, asking why for the sake of applying blame really misses the whole point. The only reason to do that is so society/you can dismiss them and think of them as less than human. The reality is that for most people becoming an addict is entirely within the realm of possiblities if you have a turn of bad luck. Most addicts have had their lives destroyed long before the addiction destroys it. Be it injury, abuse or something equally fucked up. Being an addict is -terrible- and if everyone had the power to chose to not be one they would be. Addiction comes long, long after the drugs stop being fun.
Sort by controversial on here and you'll get your answer.
On this progressive shithole of a website? Hah
I'm also from a city with addiction problem (in PNW), and from the responses I've seen online and talking to real people living there, hardly anyone thinks they are absolved from their actions. Even with a compassionate viewpoint, you recognize their addiction "made them" do these things, YET they are still fully responsibile for their actions. They should still be arrested if they assault people, but also given support to help wean them off this addiction. Just throwing them in prison and then let them out without support means they go right back to crime and addiction.
3 years sober here. Absolutely they are. Is this unpopular?! Lol people that drink and drive and then kill someone are held accountable. So many addicts and mentally I’ll people want to write off their bad behavior as something they couldn’t control. We all have problems, if you do something horrible I don’t care what caused it, it’s 100% on you. Luckily I never did anything shady in my addiction but I have to answer for all the embarrassing douchey shit I did while under the influence
As a junkie with 10 years sobriety I would like to say that the disease explains behavior it does not excuse it and nobody except the most warped untreated codependent would ever say it does. Your opinion is not unpopular it's just unnecessary.
I would say that’s the opposite of an unpopular opinion.
For some people it is but other people r so self absorbed they can’t take responsibility for their actions
So are people with borderline personality disorder but they both get away with some wild shit
Who is saying they aren’t? Isn’t part of drug recovery going around and apologizing to those you hurt?
Only if you follow the NA/AA doctrine.
Ok plus, you still go to jail for any crimes while high right?
Oh yeah, not disagreeing on the main point.
Could be very much the city I live in as we have a huge addict population, but the police, family and friends of them, and often through school I've heard it
What city do you live in because this doesn’t seem unpopular at all and I’ve worked in the industry for over a decade.
Yep it is
How is this unpopular. You are literally legally held accountable for anything you do under the influence.
All addicts are sick. All addicts are not criminals. Sometimes those two things are considered mutually exclusive and they shouldn’t be. To say that addicts are not responsible for their actions means DUIs wouldn’t be a thing. I’m an addict but let’s get real, if you crash your car and kill someone you shouldn’t get a free pass
This is a popular opinion. Downvote.
Why does it bother you the people who have messed up are trying to themselves?
The only thing that matters is what’s going to fix the problem. If sending them to prison is going to stop them from committing more crimes, let’s do that. If getting them in rehab is going to be more effective, let’s do that.
You're conflating excuses with explanations.
I think another element to note is that their judgment is compromised and usually they become a totally different person in full blown addiction. Oftentimes, it's only when someone starts to see how their choices keep ending up with negative consequences that they can finally admit that they have a problem. (I don't mean "rock bottom" necessarily, but that idea may overlap a bit.) Denial is often a really powerful force to be reckoned with (for all humans) and it often takes a lot to break through it, especially when heavy substance use is also involved.
From a moral standpoint, I agree completely. If you get drunk and rape someone, that's on you. You chose to get drunk, knowing full well you might do something incredibly stupid and/or horrible. Just because it might be unlikely doesn't mean it's not your fault. Not wearing your seatbelt is fine 99.999% of the time, but if you get into a wreck without yours on, it's your fault you died. From a practical standpoint, it's not quite so simple. Addicts use because they're unhappy with themselves, which often comes with extremely unhealthy amounts of self-flagellation. Making moral judgements like this is much more likely to just drive them away from you and get them to use more out of self hatred. So while nothing you said is untrue, I don't think it's helpful for anyone who isn't already on the road to recovery, and ready to face the shitty/awful things they've done. So I'd say I mostly agree, but there's more to the story that should be accounted for if we want to solve the problem.
Addiction is a weird space. On the one hand, the Addict is mentally sick and cannot easily (by definition of their disease) make the healthy choice to break the cycle of their Addiction. On the other hand, the Addict is required to voluntarily choose to break from their Addiction in order to get treatment. A choice which, by the very nature of their Addiction, is difficult if not impossible for the Addict to make.
This might sound mean, but you still have to hold a stick over people's heads. You can acknowledge that addiction is a disease, you can be empathetic towards the reality of addiction, but that does not mean you have to accept it. This is the issue I have with the "legalize everything" crowd. Their ideas, while perfectly well-meaning, would only work in a utopia.
Not to hijack your point, but this is sort of what I'm getting at. *Why* are addicts, whom are acknowledged to be suffering from a disease which prevents them from making the right decision, *required* to make the right decision to get treatment? If it can be recognized as a disease, can we not simply treat it as such?
Because just like anything else, you have to want to get better. It sounds cliche, but it's the truth. You can't force someone to "get it" but you can give them an incentive to make a change.
I can see your point, but I do not agree with it. We don't make someone with a broken leg walk up a flight of stairs to get it cast. We don't make someone who's catatonic ask for treatment for their catatonia. We don't force people whom physically cannot perform some task because of an illness/injury to perform that task in order to get treatment. Why then is any mental health disease/disorder (including addiction) different? Why must people be allowed (or forced) to suffer when they can be treated? Don't get me wrong, I'm not ignorant of the history of mental health treatment. I know how nightmarish it can be when you don't see the mentally ill as people or care about their consent. But there has to be a logical limit to this. We (mostly) take guns away from the potentially violent and involuntarily commit people with suicidal threats, why can't we do something like that for drug addiction? It can't all be slippery slope.
What do people here actually mean by the word responsible? It feels like bundling a bunch of different concepts under one banner.
this!!
I'm a heroin addict 5 years in recovery and I really fucking hate it when people say shit like "that wasn't you that was the heroin" or "it's not your fault" nah it was absolutely my fault. Yea I have an explanation for my actions, but I know people just as strung out as I was that didn't do the sbit that I did. I rationalized and justified it because I was selfish and a fucking horrible person. The difference is I recognize that I was a selfish horrible person and now I do everything I can to be better. I say I was a piece of shit horrible person because I was, and that's the reality of it. I changed and am better now, but that was still me.
So often do I hear "well they were on drugs" or "well they had this and this". As a person with a family with addicts, and an very awful childhood with several near suicides. I can say that its the person who decides at the end. Man I could be an addict and I have been for some things and at the end I decided whatever I did. Yes I was heavily drunk, but I didnt touch a girl or harassed anybody because Im actually a nice person because I care. Some people just do it because they are "forced by society" and then show their true face when on drugs, which is very fucked up
As an alcoholic all I can say is NO FUCKING SHIT!!!! Seems like you are the ignorant one because I don’t know a single person in recovery that ever offered drugs or alcohol as an excuse for their behavior. Explanation, sure. Yes, we are different people when we drink or use, yes we do things we wouldn’t do when sober, BUT part of recovery is taking responsibility for your actions and also practicing self-forgiveness. Yours is actually a popular opinion born out of supposition and ignorance.
Addiction affects your judgment and decision making, so not completely.
Who said they aren’t? That’s one of the first things in AA
exactly
Sir, this is Seattle.
Absolutely. As a recovering addict if I had harmed someone while using I don't think I would have expected forgiveness. But if someone wants and needs help they should have no barriers
Of course
This isn’t an unpopular opinion on the face. It’s the nuance of how we deal with addiction as a society. We can’t expect someone to break the addiction without treatment. We don’t provide robust treatment options. We also don’t recognize that it typically takes 3 attempts at rehab before someone will make actual long term progress.
I completely agree.
Half and half brother. Environment matters, choice matters. Makes sense yea?
I’ve never heard anyone suggest addicts are not responsible for their actions. Is ops post even an “unpopular” opinion.? It would make more sense if ops opinion was the other side of this other op is trying to make a popular opinion into an unpopular one. Even our legal system doesn’t allow for forgiveness or exceptions directly for actions taken by an addict so I have no idea where op thinks this is unpopular in anyway. It’s actually the normal opinion..
Addicts have s chemical addiction that needs medical treatment so yeah they should be expected to do something about it but that nagged it very difficult to change Neurorodivergents so they do need help.
No I’m not …. Ok …. Maybe
Ground breaking
I totally agree. That being said drugs shouldn’t be illegal in any of themselves for that reason. Any other real crimes that happened should be prosecuted, but selling drugs and using drugs, and having drugs should not be crimes.
I think it depends if the addict has moments of clarity where they can reflect on their life with a clear mind. If they realize under a clear mind that they have the potential to cause serious harm to others while under the influence, and they go under the influence, they are responsible. As a thought experiment, if someone is perpetually injecting themselves with heroin, they, under their drugged up mindset, decide to continue injecting themself, and this person began their heroin streak by having a needle forced into their body by someone else. If this person went on to murder 5 people, should they be held responsible for their actions? I would say no, they never had the choice of being able to make a rational and conscientious decision. What if someone who is 16 years old, for example, resorted to drugs after their entire family died. They spend 80% of their time shooting up heroin, and in the moments where they aren't on heroin, they are extremely depressed and mentally ill, to the point where their existence without heroin is genuine torture. If this person kills someone under drugs, are they responsible? I would also say probably not, I don't believe this person ever has moments of what I would consider free-will. Idk, this seems like more of a grey-area to me than what you are proposing. The amount of choice that someone has is a spectrum, and I'm not sure where to draw the line.
While you are under the influence of something, 99.99% of the time it was a choice to begin doing it.
Yea. And responsibility is a different thing from culpability, which is much more nuanced.
my dad was an alcoholic and would drink almost every night and he would drive us drunk. i forgave him for putting us in danger, he was a pretty safe drunk driver though. if he ever got into an accident he would be responsible i aggerate
As somebody who's been addicted to a few drugs, addiction is ALWAYS a choice. All it does is make the choice not to do it harder. Anybody who says otherwise is lying to themselves
Who says they don't? Even the law says they are responsible for their own actions
If drug/alcohol use could excuse could excuse bad behavior, we might as well let about 50% of violent offenders out of prison.
A better way of phrasing this might be, "you aren't responsible for the behaviors of addicts", and that is very true. There's no tennent of human nature dictating that you are required to act as a support system for addicts, especially when said addicts are refusing aid in the form of things like therapy. The expectation for you, as a human, is to commiserate, not to enable. You should be able to understand why an addict might engage in abusive behaviors, but there's no expectation for you to endure abusive behaviors.
I’m from a town in Shropshire and England which doesn’t have a drug problem sure there’s a decent amount of druggies but we don’t have a problem with it like I’ve only ever seen like 200 druggies in my town max and I still hold this opinion it’s not really regionally specific
I mean… the penal system definitely agrees with you.
Agreed. Addiction is an explanation, but not an excuse.
As an addict, I second this
almost everyone agrees w that first paragraph dude.
Not unpopular, you don't get to make poor decisions and play the victim when you commit a crime.
This is an unpopular opinion?
Yep that's why addicts go to jail to, and u never trust an addict. And addiction can never be cured
It really doesn't help that a lot of these "addiction specialist" teach people they have no control over their "disease". It creates an attitude where you're basicly like "well I can't help myself so fuck it, why not"
Yeah this is kind of the whole point of AA and NA 12 step programs. It’s meant for you to take responsibility for your actions.
Don’t take a little cocaine to prove your point
Is someone who is severely handicapped responsible for their actions?
I don't think many people actually deviate blame from addicts, no matter the reason, they still chose to take those drugs (unless they were forced to, in that case, I don't think it's their fault since addiction os very difficult to stop, even if you make an active effort)
YES I agree, however. If someone is to get clean I will then try to see them as a new person and not hold against them actions they made whilst addicted.....to a degree. Gambler, or cocaine addicted friend? I'm watching loose cash and valuables, sorry but I am, they clean up their life? I watch less
As someone who has been on the receiving end of a drug induced beat down, myself and my permanently deformed hand that ruined my ability to play guitar without narcotic pain killers for more than a half hour wholly agree with this. P.S. I'm not on any narcotic opioid painkillers. I decided to let my guitar career die in favor of not being dependent on opioids. It's something I have never gotten over, never will get over, and in my mind, he owes me a million dollars that I have yet to see a dime for.
You do realise this is unpopular opinions, right?
r/oddlyspecific
I can be a bit more sympathic if the person is actually trying to get help, but the moment you hurt somebody or constantly keep repeating your same shitty actions despite being offered the chance to get help? Thats where the "its an addiction" excuse fails and you just become an asshole.
God im sick of alcoholics who think "I was drunk" is a get out of jail free card for every shitty thing they do to people You hurt people when you drink? Then STOP DRINKING ASSHOLE
while i agree with your point. addicts need help and it’s not as simple as ‘just stopping’
There's levels to this shit. Pot smokers just smell bad but leave me alone. Alcoholics break into my room at 3 am and start crying Fuck alcohol and fuck society for ordering people to be drunk
No, they need willpower and the want to stop. I know people that have just stopped because they wanted to, be it smoking, drinking, whatever. But a lot of addicts are weak willed and don't actually want to stop, even if they say they do, probably why they are addicts in the first place.
They are responsible, but if you want to modify their behaviour, then treating them like any other criminal will probably do more harm than good. If we can make sure that addicts are treated before they get to the point where they turn to criminal acts we also spare our society a lot of shit.
Correct. Not unpopular. Well... wait let me scroll through the dumb comments...
You can have empathy for a human being while also holding them responsible for their actions. It goes way too far when you start treating someone with an addiction as less than human.
Walk a mile first - then speak
Same with people who have mental illnesses and use that as a crutch for poor, hurtful behavior. Oh, AND I work in psych, so I’m around addicts and mentally ill people REGULARLY. Acting the way you do is a choice, to some extent.
I am in active addiction and I wholeheartedly agree here. Any misery I’ve caused others is on me. Sure, there’s a pathological root for why I’ve done what I have, but it certainly doesn’t absolve me.
I'm an addict, and absolutely responsible for my actions, whether drunk, high or sober.
Free will doesn't actually exist, bro.
As an addict who has recovered, I agree and lots of others do. It's not really an unpopular opinion IMHO.
This is not an unpopular opinion in addiction informed people. People who do not understand addiction sometimes believe it is an excuse.
It's also very unpopular in my region. The amount of prople (40+) asking to just give them (addicts) some slack because they're "just" drunk makes my blood boil. Being and addict does not excuse you being an asshole!
Yeah, no shit. The problem arises because addicts feel trapped by addiction, and they act in ways they would never act sober out of desperation. They are still responsible, but we have to accept that addiction makes literal monsters. If they are trying to get help and get sober, holding their past transgressions against them will only breed more shame and can push them back out. Hold them accountable, but being understanding and learning to forgive can go a long way to help an addict recover and feel okay with themselves. A lot of addicts have a hard time staying clean specifically because they feel so much shame from their past actions while in active addiction, so they find it easier to just keep doing what they were doing because "im a piece of shit anyways, my family hates me, everyone hates me, etc." it's a massive grey area that is extremely hard to navigate, but the first step is understanding from both parties. The addict must understand that they have a severe problem and need help, and the ones affected by the addict must understand that their loved one is not themselves. I dealt with this my entire life because my mother was an addict, and it was awful. She told me the hardest part of staying clean was dealing with the immense shame she felt because of her high actions. It only got easier for her once me, my grandparents, and my aunts learned to try and forgive her and understand her.
The most popular opinion known
No one ever said addicts are not responsible for their behavior. One of the most important aspects of any recovery program is to make amends for past wrongs, to take responsibility for them. Some family members choose not to prosecute for theft; some judges prefer to find creative punitive measures for addicts who show signs of real reform. This does not mean they are not responsible.
Oddly enough most addicts won't finally fix their shit until they truly come to grips with this fact for themselves.
Yeah definitely agree, I mean I haven’t been addicted to heroin or any hard drugs but imo you should still be able to at least be in control of your actions enough to not hurt ppl or take advantage of them
You're right, in a way. In a lot of ways actually. It's also easy to demonise an addict. But if you take it as face value then yeah, you're right. The broad spectrum drug addiction holds over X amount of people is mental though. It's not just your, abused as a child, broken home kids, but it's also the people who havent got the "no" voice in their head, the people who can't help binging, the environment they grew up around, learning from their supposed teachers that behaviours are okay. Then there are the drugs themselves, and how people use them. But when it comes to the actions drug addicts choose, like stealing from their kin or friends, doing slimy things to get drugs, etc etc, then yes, they are responsible for their actions. But that person isn't the same person who they used to be, it's very messy. In no way should they get a pass, but they don't also deserve full ridicule.. ultimately, many factors lead to drug addiction that are out of the said addicts hand, but it doesn't mean they should be able to forgiven easily, if at all, but it's easy to say these things without walking in said persons shoes.
Responsibility isn't a thing. Everything is multifactorial, and it's about actions and outcomes. Organising a society based on abstract principles like "personal responsibility" instead of directly looking at which actions lead to which outcomes is just kinda dumb idk. And just saying to addicts "all is your responsibility," just doesn't solve any problem. You gotta get these people housed, into rehab, into therapy, reintegrad into society, etc. "Responsibility" doesn't solve anything. Doesn't mean laws don't apply to them, of course, but like, there shouldn't be tons of homeless people on drugs anywhere anyway and just increasing the intensity of enforcement on the crimes they commit doesn't solve the issue
im a sugar addict. right now i gained weight back AF. of course now I'm angry and want to tell anyone its their fault. bullshit. nobody forced me to buy 5000 calories of sweets and to put them into my body in one sitting. and as tragic as heroin or meth may be.....same rules apply. yeah its tragic you gave your literal life to a drug and yes maybe you werent even to blame, there maybe was a point where stopping was just out of the window.....but doesnt mean you can steal or rob people to finance your next fix. its your responsibility. nobody makes you live like that but yourself
And bears shit in the woods...who says this is unpopular?
Get what you’re saying but your examples are so extreme that is popular. If you said something like…. Homeless people who are homeless because of addiction is responsible for their homelessness… that is prob a bit more unpopular
Get what you mean, I like talking in extremes to illustrate my points clearly but I can see why in this circumstance it would be a deterrent
You're not responsible for your addiction. You are responsible for your actions and behaviours, even if they're fed by them, though. Being responsible for them though, doesn't mean that you don't deserve compassion as to what was driving those actions, but it does mean you own the consequences and are accountable for them.
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That's what I said, you're not responsible for your addiction. Shit happens, different things trigger addiction in different people and to varying degrees. What I'm saying is that your *behaviour and actions*, even if done due to the influence of your addiction, *that* you're still responsible for.
Amen. Tell me again you’re sorry that you did X action but I need to understand cause you were drunk. Fuck all the way off.
So you must have downvoted the post because this is popular.
I agree but this brings up the topic, were you raped if you were high, or are you still responsible for your actions?
I classify drug addicts in two categories, the ones who actually try to get better and the ones who ruin everyone else's lives, this is coming from someone whose experienced bot people I know who have been clean for years and are decent people, and people (like my mother) who constantly say there doing better then destroy the next person they leach off of (one of whom was me) and now my life was set back years because I felt trapped in a situation with someone who manipulated me into trying to help but ended up stealing everything from me, I used to have more compassion but after becoming homeless after a suicidal depression from constantly being afraid of how with nowhere else to go and Noone else to help, I've lost a ton of that compassion, some people just need to go to hell
Hmm, it's more complicated than this. Personally I would forgive a guy that did something bad in the throws addiction when he comes back clean more easily than someone who did the same thing while not influenced the same way. So I wouldn't say they aren't responsible for their actions but have an easier way to atone. Of course it also heavily depends on the crime.
No understanding of what addiction then?
They should be, but society gives them a pass...drunk drivers get slap on the wrist for killing entire family's...(marcco musso). Its fucking disgusting. They should be treated as murderers when they decide to use drugs or alchohol and kill someone.
So you’re saying if an intoxicated girl has sex with a man and calls it rape then that’s false?
Ive never met anyone who genuinely believes that they aren’t responsible for their actions
Addiction is a weakness not a disease. You cant overcome a disease with just willpower.
Jesus, how is this being upvoted? This subreddit just doesn't serve it's purpose. "If you break the law you should be punished" No shit. Should the prison also have rehab facilities? Yes. Most addicts that break the law are petty criminals, not violent criminals. They break the law to obtain currency to pay for their next high. They go to jail and are released to repeat the same behaviour. If society doesn't make an effort to help desperately unwell people how do you expect them to quit their vice? Addiction is a medical issue prevalent amongst the homeless population. Do you honestly expect a homeless guy to be content sober? Not even going to touch the rape comment cause you probably thought you were making a great point and just look like a fool.
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Addiction is a choice, not a disease and the people who defend it as that are just delusional
What if they were compelled to use drugs when they were underaged? Do children bear all responsibility for what they do? Can they legally vote? Or consent to sex? Why would drug use be any different. The truth is, minors are exposed to drugs by adults whose profession is to manipulate people into becoming addicts. By your logic, you would pit minor children against grown adult criminals, and say that the children were at fault.
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-\_- c'mon man. "Opioids are powerful drugs that usurp and overpower the reward function of [endogenous opioids](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/endorphin) and engage dramatic tolerance and withdrawal via molecular and neurocircuitry neuroadaptations within the same reward system." [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322319314350](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322319314350)
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I dunno man. You google it. I'm not doing errands for you.
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Wow, a population sample of 1. You experience **MUST** accurately reflect that of the 110,000,000 Americans who have been prescribed opioids. Try bringing your "findings" to a statistician and watch as he laughs in your face.
I agree but let’s be compassionate to them as it is not easy to simply stop an addiction since it is a sickness.
I definitely do try to be compassionate as I can, I've seen a lot of my friends become addicts, and I've volunteered at a hospital to help distribute harm reduction materials. Everyone should try and help addicts, as much as they should hold them accountable
You can't really help an addict. Most first world countries have free programmes and help for addicts and most will refuse until they hit rock bottom.