I have been wondering if drugs, cigarettes, food, sex and other things people overdue to the extreme making them sick is some form of mental illiness. They released Lindsey Lohan from jail and took her straight to a mental facility with NO drug rehab center in it whatsoever. She will just be getting mental help only.
I think it's a mental thing because she for instance has been in actual rehab seven times with little to no results, the same with Charlie Sheen and countless others.

These people know they could die from what they are doing and still continue to do it. I am no better at times, eating foods not good for diabetics or weight loss. It's like playing Russian Roulette in the mind, with our very lives.

You bet the drugs are what's causing their problems. Alcohol is
a drug, too and Charlie from 2 and 1/2 Men gets into that
with gusto!

IMO life is difficult enough, without blowing your mental processes into distortion. The world can be scary without any
outside help!

I definitely think there is such a thing as an addictive personality. We know that babies born to an addicted mother are born with that addiction (alcohol fetal syndrome, heroin, etc) so we know that some of it is passed genetically. I don't have stats, but know first-hand many alcoholics who had alcoholic parents.

I also believe that eventually the drug takes over and takes control, whether it be hard drugs, alcohol or nicotine (or caffeine or even the adrenaline rush of gambling) so that when you're trying to deal with the person inside, you can't really reach them until the drug is out of their system. Until then, you're just talking to the drug, which won't be reasoned with because all it knows is that it wants more.

From what I have learned and experienced there is definitely an addictive 'personality' although these days many professionals call it an addictive gene. They know that if a parent is an addict the offspring are 4 times more likely to be one also, even if raised by someone else in a household where no drug/alcohol abuse is present. I found out late in life that my father was an alcoholic, he died from it when I was too young to realize what was going on.
Also, in the field they talk about 'cross-addiction', giving up one addiction for another. An addict is an addict no matter what their current addiction is. At least that is what we were taught in rehab. It was certainly true with me. I didn't run into trouble with alcohol until I had gastric bypass surgery and couldn't eat - but I could sip wine all day. Fear of cross-addiction is why I never let a Doctor prescribe any type narcotic for me. I've never, ever abused them but my experience in going from food to alcohol makes me extremely cautious about ANY mood-altering substance.
EagleHeart you are so right about it taking over. When someone is actively using you are talking to the drug, not the person. And the drug is only concerned with being sure there is more on the way! The person is only concerned with finding more and not interrupting the supply chain!

Food for thought re. addictive personality.
Think of an inventor or a scientist keeping looking for a solution..that too is his/her personality..do we only see the personality type as harmful when it does ourselves harm?
also a compulsive cleaner...taken too far she/he may have ocd..all things is moderation may be a state to aim for.

I was in a ward when an alcoholic was admitted..he could not tell the medics what he had injested just that he had pain....valuable time was spent waiting till he sobered up..it saddened me that some Mothers son was in such a state..
educating people to what is too much may be an answer..

*
the man had a burst ulcer..had not been eating well and took longer to recover..The medics saw his alcohol issue as an illness and so do I.They are the loser if they could only see this.

If anyone had addictive parents, I can put up my hand. My mom
drank booze and smoked while carrying me. After she screwed me
up, then she left me to fend for myself. From age 25 months,
I've been fighting an uphill battle. But I won't give up.
I will succeed. I will be happy. And the devil can go to...you
know where!!!!

You have succeeded. You are happy. You are a fighter. You beat your mother a long time ago, jabber. You are a winner if I have ever seen one.

Wow, Anno. That made my eyes tear up. What a sweet thing to say.
I'm feeling lower than a frogs tummy, lately. So your words
touched my heart. Prayers and blessings,

I only speak the truth!!

Thumbs up to Jabber!!

Thank you, greene!

All I can say is, may the Good Lord bless the babies born addicted to drugs. There seems to be a lot of injustice in
the world. On the other hand, we're surrounded with blessings, too.

Don't get me started on the crap that parents impose on their unborn children! I have never understood why someone who wants to waste away their life thinks it is okay to bring a child into their mess.

I can't think of much worse that you can do to a child.

What a topic for me to tune into upon my return to BWS. Nearly every name on this thread knows that I am an advocate for victims of domestic violence and child abuse. Let me mention something often over-looked in the Lindsey Lohan saga. She was sexually abused as a child/teen. I do not know the perpetrator and I don't have time or inclination to research her particular history. I do know that she is estranged from her father (is that a clue as to the perp, I don't know... I do know he exploited her). This history with Lindsey came out when she did "Georgia Rule" with Jane Fonda. To see Lindsey's history, see that movie, in which she was a victim of child sexual abuse. Abuse leads to addiction, alcoholism, suicide attempts, self-injury, and an entire catalogue of self-destructive behavior. To go to a mental health facility may mean that she is being treated for depress/anxiety/suicidal ideation, all ramifications of abuse. Top the history of abuse off with a genetic predisposition toward addiction or mental illness, and you've got a train wreck. Lindsey represents hundreds of thousands of adults who were victimized as children, except that Lindsey has to live it out in public. May she be helped before she drives herself into a tree, or kills an innocent bystander.

It's a fact that unemployed drug-dependent women get pregnant on purpose to receive more funds from state for each child she has, money that is used for more drugs. Also, it is like Eagle said about talking to the drugs/alcohol, and not the person. With Lindsey Lohan, we have witnessed her as unreachable because she is either under-the-influence, or not yet thinking clearly with sobriety. How can a mental health facility not have adjunct services/therapy for detox/rehab?

PL,
I agree, Perhaps all the drug abusers have been abused in one
form or another and that's why they used drugs, to dull the
pain. And I agree with Edelweiss that the worst thing anyone can
do is bring children into their mess. Been there. Done that.
And it isn't pretty!

I've always thought that all substance abuse programs should be dual-diagnosis programs. It would be interesting to know the percentage of addictsthat also have a mental health diagnosis.

GREENE,
I'm NO doctor, but I think the fact that people abuse drugs,
would automatically screw up the brain; therefore, they couldn't help but have some form of mental health problems!!!

Right! Or, they had a mental health problem to begin with and started
"self-medicating" hoping to find some relief from whatever was going on in the first place. Either way, I think mental health issues and substance abuse (drugs, including alcohol) go hand in hand and I'm not sure you can fix one of them without addressing the other one also. Or the person is set up to relapse because the initial problem is still there.

This is probably one of those chicken and egg things as people with addictions do have changes in brain patterns as do those with mental health issues. But it isn't clear from the research whether the changes are a result or the cause of the problems. I know that research from the 70s or 80s showed that children of alcoholics had some of those same brain pattern changes.

Chicken or egg, nature versus nurture? If parent(s) are hard-wired toward addiction, due to genetics, mental illness, trauma, whatever, will their children be predisposed to be hard-wired toward addiction? It is a challenge to over-come an addiction without addressing the root cause(s).

I was taught that a child of an addict is 4 times more likely to be an addict even if put in a different home at birth. They said this was the basis of the believe that it is, in some cases, a genetically determined glitch. That is why children of alcoholics should avoid any alcohol..

Yes, Greene, there were studies on identical twins put into different homes, and the fact that the biological parent was an addict made the child more likely to also be an addict even if the adoptive parents didn't drink or weren't addicted. Children of addicts have a lot to overcome when it's genetic.

Interesting.

Life throws so many hardships at us, just in general; I can't
see doping yourself up and adding more problems atop of
problems. It just doesn't make any sense.

No one chooses to be an addict..is it not an attempt to escape the reality they are experiencing.
What starts as social drinking can grow for those with an addicive personality.

Life has shown me many ways to enhance my happiness whatever else is going on.For that I am grateful.

Well said, Ash. I even think it may go beyond 'addictive personality' to also include
a physical propensity to addiction. But you are right, no one chooses addiction. Believe me it is too painful when in the grips of active addiction.

Ash,
I don't think anyone chooses to be an addict, either. I do think people can be victimized to the point that they'll try anything to escape the pain. Then while they're blurring out the hurt, they're stacking problems higher and higher. I do, however, believe, we can choose to be happy and refuse to let the devil grab ahold of us. This is just the result of my own experiences, nothing more! And I don't pretend to know it all. I'm just coming from the root of "the Power of Positive Thinking," which I've been working at for years.

My brother has epilepsy and has grand maulo seizures frequently. He asked me on the phone last night how he looks when he has one and what does he do. My throat closed up and I didn't know how to answer him. A seizure such as his are awful to watch. I said, "you know how someone falls when being shot or hit on the head on TV, they go linmp and just fall. Well you do that and sometimes shake all over like your cold." He said he always wondered how he looked. He then asked me if I thought a person mentally ill knows they are? I told him NO! What would you tell him? Oh, and he is not mentally ill but had a friend that was.