re: What is the sales pitch for meth and heroine?

For me, the choice was gone once i realized how good alcohol and drugs made me numb to the shitty things i had going on around me. Did i have a choice to pick up the 1st time? Yes.. did i have much of a choice afterwards? Not really. Im not the smartest person alive, but im not an idiot and i couldnt fogure it out either. No matter how bad shite got around me, stopping using and drinking wasnt a logical thought to me. Its taken 15 months of studying my actions and my actions only in my life constantly for me to realize how and why i did things. Its really hard to understand for people who never felt the absolute necessity of getting loaded into oblivion a person can feel, and even as someone who has felt it it took me a long time to figure it out myself.

100% agree, Festus

Amphetamine and opioids don't need sales pitches.

Would you step in front of a bullet for your loved ones? You have a choice whether to do it or not, but you would still do it without thinking twice, right?

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but none of that data affirmatively states that such changes in the brain totally negates one's free will. It makes it more difficult, but doesn't completely eradicate it.

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Just think about what it says.

To dismiss the data and say that you always have free will is to say that all of our decisions are made by the frontal lobe and that's just not true. It's a scary thought, but humans are much more reptilian than we like to think. (Meaning that a lot of our desires are on an animalistic level. We are driven to frick. So much so that we go to war for territory. We kill for pussy) we have a choice not to but we do it anyway.

The brain is tricked and there is a short circuit between the reptile brain and the more developed brain. The brain doesn't work correctly. That's while chemical dependency is classified as a mental disorder.

You don't tell someone with voices in their head to "knock it off". If it were only so easy to fix mental disorders.

To accept that addicts are in control means you have to accept that they are mortally corrupt and their decisions are because they are evil. If that's the case then the answer if to kill them all. There is no hope.


The belief that there is free will goes in the face of every bit.of.evidence we have.

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Would you step in front of a bullet for your loved ones? You have a choice whether to do it or not, but you would still do it without thinking twice, right?

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Of course I would and I know what you are saying and have felt it BUT once you are high you can choose to go to rehab or to a doctor. It's when you aren't high that your brain takes over your free will in my experience.

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Then how do you explain recovery? There ARE people who successfully quit drugs and alcohol using nothing but will power.

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Those people have different brains, that's how you explain it. There is a neurotransmitter in the brain called neuropeptide Y that is present in higher quantities in people who are more resilient, for instance.

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Then how do you explain recovery? There ARE people who successfully quit drugs and alcohol using nothing but will power.

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I wouldnt exactly call these people addicts if all it took was just saying no.

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Those people have different brains, that's how you explain it. There is a neurotransmitter in the brain called neuropeptide Y that is present in higher quantities in people who are more resilient, for instance.

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So what you're saying is that the others are powerless, and have no ability to choose? Thus, are by definition victims of their addiction, with no culpability to change? I mean, they can't. They have no choice but to keep using.

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There ARE people who successfully quit drugs and alcohol using nothing but will power.

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The vast majority of addicts do not get clean by willpower. In fact, the 1st step in a 12 step program is to surrender the idea of will power. You are required to give up control. Your will power isn't enough.

Now, there are addicts that do get clean strictly by willpower but their numbers are extremely small. They quit cold turkey and never go back. It makes true addict wonder if those people ever were truly addicts or just the lucky ones that are genetically stronger when it comes to addiction.

It's like saying there are people in the world that can run a 40 yard dash sub 4.3 seconds so you can do it too! While that's a nice thought it's just a fool's errand to send a normal addict on a journey of recovery solely with will power.