Addiction

Addiction is pain management.
Whether it’s addiction to drugs, pills, alcohol
gambling, sex, eating, working or lying,
addiction is self-medication in an effort
to dull the pain of loneliness, depression,
shame, guilt or low-self-esteem.

Some people can have a major hospital operation
including pain management with opiates without
becoming addicted and some people cannot.
It may be that some peoples’ brains interact differently
with opiates or that emotional pain is more difficult
to manage than physical pain for some people.

The solution is not to criminalize those
people who become addicted to opiates but learn
how to help them recover their lives and become
productive citizens again.