Addiction is a disease.
Mental illness is a disease.
And what makes the struggle real is mental illnesses are the root of so many addictions.
Mental illness is a chemical imbalance in the brain that leads to depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, and many other mental illnesses.
They certainly don’t just happen overnight. People are born with them, but they don’t take full effect until something triggers the mental illness.
For me, my trigger was abuse.
I developed an eating disorder and bipolar disorder. I have had those diseases all my life because they run in my family.
I didn't choose to have an eating disorder. I didn't wake up one day and decide I was going to struggle through my life and future, and that is the same for drug addicts.
Drug addicts don't choose to ruin their lives by becoming hooked on heroin, meth, and cocaine.
Mental illnesses take control of the human brain. There is no thinking clearly until you choose to get help.
I fully believe you have the power to choose to get help even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Getting help means going to therapy, taking antidepressants or mood stabilizers, and doing what is prescribed by the professionals.
I believe that no one can help you on the journey to recovery but yourself. No one can force you to go through recovery.
You can go through the motions, but it’s never going to take full effect unless you devote yourself to it.
My heart goes out to those who are still struggling with addiction and their mental illness.
Part of me wishes that the ignorant people who don’t believe addiction is a disease would go through it themselves, so they can fully understand how life ruining it is.
The other part of me wishes addiction didn’t exist, so we didn’t have ignorant people who shouldn’t be giving their opinion about something they’ve never been through.
Some people don't understand that mental illnesses, diseases, and addiction are real and life threatening.
If we had more people who took the time to educate themselves and listened to the doctors and scientists, then I believe we could be more open to recovery.
Those who struggle shouldn't be ashamed to admit their problem or ask for help.
Instead of jailing addicts, why don’t we try to help them?
Why don’t we have the doctors who studied psychiatry help those people in a rehab facility?
Why don’t we make health care more affordable, so more victims have the option to get the help they deserve?
Instead of shaming addicts and mental illnesses, let’s all take the time to understand what they’re going through, what lead them to addiction, and solve the problem.
Instead of waiting for someone to commit suicide or overdose, we need to help them before it gets to that point.
I believe one day our society will stop being ignorant towards disease and mental illness, and they will realize this is an epidemic that needs to end.