quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
A guy could buy a blowjob in I'd guess any city in the world if he knows where and how to look.

$20 is $20!

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I know there is no easy answer but people make a choice. Doesn't matter if it is alcohol, pot, meth, heroin...tobacco or Big Macs....

Again, if you’re an alcoholic, once you ingest alcohol, all choice is gone. It’s a biological reaction akin to breathing - your body simply tells you with all the reward chemicals it can produce that you need more of this to survive, you need all you can get. You simply cannot feel the absolute euphoria I and many millions feel when we drink because you and I are wired differently on a genetic level. It sounds like nonsense unless you’re an alcoholic, but I swear to you and the whole forum it’s true. It’s like color blindness, addiction is not a choice. If you don’t believe it, it’s because you don’t understand it. Nobody makes the choice to become a degenerate drunk, and promise you this as well, if one could simple choose to not be one anymore, then the world wouldn’t be filled with them.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
$20 is $20!

HRK knows how to party.

part of me gets that Smudge.... my wife being a therapist for 45 years I understand a bit about how our brains can be messed up.

I for years said I did not have an addictive nature and this is why I was not addicted to things.... then one December I realized I had spent over $5,000 in the last three months on guns....... and I am far from wealthy..... it is easy to fall down the rabbit hole....

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:

I for years said I did not have an addictive nature and this is why I was not addicted to things.... then one December I realized I had spent over $5,000 in the last three months on guns....... and I am far from wealthy..... it is easy to fall down the rabbit hole....

That's not addiction.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
it is easy to fall down the rabbit hole....

I get that you're trying to relate from your own perspective, but I promise you that an isolated spending spree is nothing at all like any phase of chemical dependency. It is probably better to simply realize it's not a mindset you can understand. I'd go one further than the colorblindness analogy and say it's like trying to explain colors to someone who was born blind - you have no frame of reference and you never will. It's a good thing. However, when people like yourself try to compare it to your own struggles here and there, it does trivialize the horrible shit addiction does to both the addict and everyone around them. Trust and believe that.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I know there is no easy answer but people make a choice .

Again, if you’re an alcoholic, once you ingest alcohol, all choice is gone .
It’s a biological reaction a

I think the key question is "if you are an alcoholic", then how did you get there?
I know Smudge you have some real-time experiences there, so I don't discount your sincerity.

Choices are key unless you subscribe to the "born that way" theory.
Not sure I completely subscribe to that theory, but I imagine this could be debated.
The reason doesn't ultimately matter except to say there is no excuse to get to that point and then the only thing that matters is to solve the problem.

The same biological urge happens I would think to those who get hooked on prescription pills unwittingly.
I would also imagine most all of them never intended to be dependent.

However, once you get in that state, it is not a stretch to say making the right decision to abstain is difficult for some.