health
14 | T h u r s d a y , J a n u a r y 3 1 , 2 0 1 9
97/16
Addiction is a disease Dear Ann: Why do people blame the addict for their disease while not blaming people with other visible diseases? The World Health Organization and the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons deem addiction a disease. This fact is not in dispute. People tend to think addiction is a personal choice. Addiction is horrible and hellish. It is not something anyone chooses. Picking up the first drink or drug may have been deliberate but when true addiction kicks in, choice is no longer an option. Addicted brains are hijacked and no amount of personal resolve can overcome this powerful biological drive. Imagine trying to stop breathing; it will never happen on will power alone. The difference between addiction and other visible diseases is that addiction has observable actions which tend to hurt surrounding people. If I have diabetes, you don’t see my high blood sugar hurting others. I don’t cheat, lie, steal or sell my body if I have diabetes. I do not conduct crime or break into houses. The behaviour of addicts/alcoholics hurts other people – mothers, fathers, children and sisters; even strangers are impacted by drunk driving. These observable actions are why people blame addicts. When you pick up a cup of tea, I tend to think this a personal choice. When you pick up a drink, we tend to think this is
Ask an Addict
also a personal choice. People hurt by addicts direct their anger and pain onto to the person causing this. Many say “if you loved me enough, you would just quit.” Unfortunately addiction isn’t about loving or not loving another. If love could cure illness, there would be no diabetes, no cancer and no addiction. Addicts hurt people. Hurt people hurt people. When hurt, people lash out at addicts and call them weak willed and immoral. Unfortunately the lying, cheating and manipulative actions are indicative of the substance being used, not about the person themselves. People tend to confuse alcoholic rage as being the alcoholic. It is actually the alcohol, the drug which causes the behaviour. Society confounds the two and tends not to separate the person from the substance. When a young child acts out, we are taught to separate the behaviour from the person. We tell them, “I love you but not your behaviour.” This should be true with addiction: “I love you but not your disease” (including addictive behaviours) but sadly it is not.
97/16 news service photo by Bebeto Matthews
An addict prepares heroin, placing a fentanyl test strip into the mixing container to check for contamination last August in New York. If the strip registers a pinkish to red marker then the heroin is positive for contaminants. What addicts need most is less stigmatization. People do not seek help when judgment prevails. This is why it is important to be aware of the facts: addiction is not a lifestyle choice. Addicts who are actively ill already hate themselves enough without having more judgment from you. As a closing thought, consider your
child falling on the floor with a seizure— urinating and defecating on themself. Consider your mother having had a stroke with verbal profanity now coming out. These two conditions would be not be met with judgment or anger, nor would they be considered a personal choice. Sadly, addiction is.
TV show helps man use CPR on woman 97/16 wire service
When it came time to save a life, the mechanic turned to the lessons of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute. Cross Scott, a tire shop technician, was test driving a customer’s vehicle on Jan. 11 when he saw a peculiar thing: a sedan pulled over, its hazard lights blinking, according to the Arizona Daily Star. He got out to inspect the vehicle. There was a woman inside who appeared unconscious as the car crept forward, he told the newspaper. He stuck a rock under the wheel and used another to smash a window, and two women who pulled over dialed 911. He checked for a pulse. Nothing. Help could be minutes away. He had to act. But there was one problem. “I’ve never prepared myself for CPR in my life,” Scott told the Star. “I had no idea what I was doing.” Well, that’s not entirely true. He had seen Season 5, episode 14 of The Office. In a classic scene from the TV series, Dunder Mifflin regional manager Michael Scott acknowledges his leadership style may have led to a heart attack, and, fearing future emergencies, he organizes CPR training for his employees. When he thrusts too fast on the practice dummy, the instructor tells him to sync his rhythm with a well-known disco hit. “A good trick is to pump to the tune of Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees,” she explains, because at around 100 beats a minute, it matches the recommended tempo to perform chest compression on a patient. The memory was seared into Scott’s memory. He crawled onto the woman
and began compressions while singing the song aloud, he told the Star, thinking of Steve Carell’s character hunched over the dummy and belting “Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.” The woman, later identified as Clare, awoke after a minute and threw up, according to the Star. She was then taken to a hospital. Scott, recalling the words of a paramedic from the Tucson Fire Department, told the newspaper her fate could have been much different had he never intervened. Of course, experts do not expect a passerby to shuffle their Spotify playlist to find the perfect beat while someone is in cardiac arrest but rather suggest songs many people know by, well, heart. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital crafted a list of popular songs that fit the criteria: Just Dance by Lady Gaga, Rock This Town by Stray Cats or Crazy in Love by Beyoncé. Scott appears to have done the right thing despite a lack of training, said Jonathan Epstein, the senior director of science at the American Red Cross training services. The organization encourages people to take one-hour CPR courses to familiarize themselves with the process, which has proved to increase someone’s willingness to help out in an emergency, he told 97/16 news service. But failing that? “Chest compressions alone are a benefit to the patient,” he said. “You can’t hurt them if they’re not breathing, so all you can do is make them better.” Stayin’ Alive, with 106 beats per minute, is a pretty good candidate for getting in the 100 to 120 sweet spot.