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I smoked for a few years, but the day I coughed up lung-butter was the day I decided to quit...and that was about 5 years ago now. The hardest part about quitting was that most of my friends smoke; now I have no interest unless I'm extremely stressed out about something.

Really, my only vice I have now is my alcohol consumption. I've caught myself going through a fifth of rum on a satuday night more than once....But how many 23/24 year old single males aren't borderline alcoholics? Especially that I live in a nice, surburban college town?

My maternal grandfather was an alcoholic (no knowledge of paternal grandfather - all records of his and previous generations destroyed during WW2).
My dad was one (died of emphy and complications due to chemo for lung cancer - a legacy of a lifetime's work as an electroplater). My little brother IS one.

So it would seem that IF there is a genetic component to addiction, I might be "screwed". I drink alcohol yet do not have a compulsion to drink to excess. I do have rather strong willpower and self-discipline, though - which given the family history, is probably a good thing.

It's also a good thing that I'm not also an "addictive" personality type. Those people who will get sucked into ANYTHING and tend to have an all-or-nothing attitude to it (rather common in gaming circles, apparently)

Da Boss wrote:
And btw, when I say disallowing people healthcare, I mean, quite specifically, healthcare for conditions that are directly attributable to their substance abuse. So lung cancer for smokers, liver failure or alcohol OD for drinkers, and various ODs for drug users.

My experience of drug users has left me feeling that pity doesn't get you anywhere.

You can overdose on alcohol without being an alcoholic and it would be basically impossible to tell if someone who overdosed was an alcoholic or not.

I'm also wondering how we contend with a person who stopped drinking, but already had liver damage. Do we not treat him?

I have a somewhat addictive personality, so generally try to avoid things that I know will trigger it.

That means:
No smoking
No drugs
No Alcohol
No CCGs
No WOW
etc.

Despite all my precations, I'm pretty sure I am addicted to sugar. I can;t go a day without feelinga craving to eat some. It is especially tough as my wife is a baker and has Juvenile Diabetes.

dogma wrote:

Da Boss wrote:
And btw, when I say disallowing people healthcare, I mean, quite specifically, healthcare for conditions that are directly attributable to their substance abuse. So lung cancer for smokers, liver failure or alcohol OD for drinkers, and various ODs for drug users.

My experience of drug users has left me feeling that pity doesn't get you anywhere.

You can overdose on alcohol without being an alcoholic and it would be basically impossible to tell if someone who overdosed was an alcoholic or not.

I'm also wondering how we contend with a person who stopped drinking, but already had liver damage. Do we not treat him?

Good points! I hadn't considered either in my grouching. I say, overdosed on alcohol, it's your own look out unless you're a minor, no free treatment. So, someone comes in off their face, needs their stomach pumped. They get charged. Someone comes in off their face, turns out they were drugged with a date rape drug, no charge. It wouldn't be so hard to do.

Someone who has drunk enough to get liver damage and then stopped drinking is a toughy, all right. I'd probably make them pay for treatment.

You can't always tell when someone has been spiked or not. In all the instances I have dealt with people claiming to be spiked, I can say only seen it once.

Easy E wrote:
Despite all my precations, I'm pretty sure I am addicted to sugar. I can;t go a day without feelinga craving to eat some. It is especially tough as my wife is a baker and has Juvenile Diabetes.

Just what is "Juvenile Diabetes" ?? My younger brother had diabetes, and never once have I heard anything called Juvenile Diabetes.

Ensis Ferrae wrote:

Easy E wrote:
Despite all my precations, I'm pretty sure I am addicted to sugar. I can;t go a day without feelinga craving to eat some. It is especially tough as my wife is a baker and has Juvenile Diabetes.

Just what is "Juvenile Diabetes" ?? My younger brother had diabetes, and never once have I heard anything called Juvenile Diabetes.

It is the type of diabetes that likes to pull silly pranks on people, tell bad jokes, and cuss a lot, while not getting its homework done. Or, more accurately, it is another name for Type 1 Diabetes. I'm not sure where the moniker originates, but that is what it is.

Ahtman wrote:

It is the type of diabetes that likes to pull silly pranks on people, tell bad jokes, and cuss a lot, while not getting its homework done. Or, more accurately, it is another name for Type 1 Diabetes. I'm not sure where the moniker originates, but that is what it is.

I would suppose that its become more of a PC term over the years, what with ignorant people who hear "Diabetes" and automatically assume that the person who has it is a fat, enormous blob that ate their way sick... My younger brother had Type 1, but this is honestly the first time I've ever heard of the term.

Orlanth wrote:
How about you?
Do you avoid smoking, drugs or booze because you dont want to get on the hook?
Is there some truth behind 'plastic crack'?

I don't avoid it. I drink, smoke and sometimes I light up a spliff.

Best way to lose an addiction?

Lets' say you don't want to get addicted to beer in the future. Drink can after can of beer. Until you're so sick you have to puke all of it out.

It worked for me. Not that I was addicted to it, but when I drank too much vodka once, I had to vomit it all out again. I was sick for a week. That was almost a year ago, and I haven't touched a single drop of Vodka ever since.

...

I just went straight back to beer.

And that is why I can't stomach tequila...

That was a wild night.

Corpsesarefun wrote:And that is why I can't stomach tequila...

That was a wild night.

I once played circle of death (a beer drinking game) with tequila...and I haven't touched the stuff since. I made some poor decisions that night...they seemed like a good idea at the time, however

Ensis Ferrae wrote:

Ahtman wrote:

It is the type of diabetes that likes to pull silly pranks on people, tell bad jokes, and cuss a lot, while not getting its homework done. Or, more accurately, it is another name for Type 1 Diabetes. I'm not sure where the moniker originates, but that is what it is.

I would suppose that its become more of a PC term over the years, what with ignorant people who hear "Diabetes" and automatically assume that the person who has it is a fat, enormous blob that ate their way sick... My younger brother had Type 1, but this is honestly the first time I've ever heard of the term.

That's basically why I used the term "Juvenile" because most people don;t know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2. They hear diabetes and get all sorts of negative stereotypes in their heads.

Typically, Type 1 occurs early in life due to immune system deficincies that cause your pancreas to stop working. My wife got it when she was 4, and I honestly don't expect her to live to see Social Security retirement age, with her health getting progressively worse along the way.