You hear it both ways. The alcoholic tells people to mind their own business because he is only hurting himself. Joe Normal says it doesn’t bother him if someone wants to drink themself to death. Families and friends on the firing line know all too well the collateral damage caused by addiction, but most of the general public feels relatively untouched… they should check their wallets.
So I didn’t have to click on the link to know that the headline Report: 9 People Visited ER 2,678 Times in 6 Years would prominently mention substance abuse. Turns out that 8 out of the 9 mentioned here that ran up over a $3 million on the tax payers’ tab had substance abuse issues.
Neglect, lost work, poverty, and crime; it manifests in many ways, but when it comes to addiction everybody pays.
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A concern I have about the way such information is given, is that it promotes hate and hostility towards people with addictions, rather than compassion and rationality which would lead to really being able to help. This fact should, in a sane world, bring about a huge flood of funding for addiction treatment and support for the people affected by it. It would be the right loving thing to do, and of course would save money! Sadly, it will probably just be water cooler talk about those ******** who mess it up for the rest of us. And even some of those who join in on the gossip are active addicts in denial, who have somehow so far escaped the ER; given time they may end up there as well, or in a doctor’s office with liver failure. Bottom line, it is not you and me; it is us,we are interconnected rather we like it or not.