Who is Responsible?

Folks over the years ~

The good, the bad and sometimes the very ugly

have come to Detox and Addiction treatment doors.

Fortunately, good has far outweighed bad and ugly.

Active addiction fostered, enhanced or created

unacceptable behaviour and unsavoury circumstances

unreliable qualities and for some - criminal activity - petty to unspeakable.

Some are just flat scary or maybe only unlikable.

In community, keeping a healthy distance may be warranted.

In a health care setting, it is not ours to turn away

or snub our noses at them.

(An aside:  There are many with those same traits that may never have touched a drop or a drug.)

And are those, whether active in addiction or recovery,

responsible for any wrongs they may have wrought?

Definitely and of course.

But, what does it truly take?

to care for those seeking sobriety

to keep a community safe from 

the behaviours of active addiction.

Such a complex problem ~

There is no one ‘type’ of person that has 

heart disease or cancer

diabetes or lung disease

addiction or alcoholism

There may be some sort of similar genetic make up

(five genes are involved in the disease of addiction)

creating similarities and propensities,

but who is really responsible?

Of course, there is the oft heard excuse:

I’m an alcoholic - that’s why I _________

I’m an addict - that’s why I ________

So who is responsible and when does that responsibility start?

Behaviours and attitudes gleaned from 

infant to child, 

teen to adult

culminate in the belief that “It’s just the way I am”  

Aha!  our parents are responsible..........no?

Our characters may have been influenced by our upbringing and 

how we thought about responsibility, 

but in the long run, individually, 

we are each responsible 

for the development of our attitudes and our behaviour.

“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for 

our actions,everything we have done, and have not done.”

~ Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream