Did you know that addiction is classified in the DSM-5? It’s a mental illness that lives in the brain stem: the same brain stem that serves a critical role in regulating certain involuntary actions of the body, including heartbeat and breathing. Addicts feel that they need their drug of choice (DOC) the same way they feel they need to breathe.

Did you know that our society treats addiction as a moral issue and pawns it off on law enforcement to “control”? The average stay in jail being 365 days or less. Where addicts are left to detox alone ?

Did you know the detox process can be violent and result in death if not monitored by medical professionals?

Did you know the addict is many times released, and at that time, their serotonin levels are at their lowest, leading to a high crime rate and a higher chance in relapse. It’s a pun to say that this is criminal but that’s exactly what this really is ….criminal.

It takes an average of 14-16 months of sobriety for an addict’s brain to balance serotonin levels to that of a neuro-typical brain. Did you know that?

Did you know that most insurances will only pay for 30 days of treatment for an addict? Please get mad about that. I’m begging you …get mad about that.

Did you know that 136 people die everyday from opioid overdose? That’s one person every 10.58 minutes. By the time you’re done reading and processing this post, someone will have died from an opioid overdose.
Someone’s child.
Someone’s spouse.
Someone’s parent.
Someone’s brother/sister.
Someone’s friend.
Someone’s aunt/uncle.

Let that sink in.

Did you know that the two biggest factors that “make” an addict are
(1) Genetic Predisposition and (2) Childhood trauma. There’s not that “one hit” or that “one decision” that will make an addict. You never really know who is or is not an addict before they ever even pick up. It’s NOT a moral problem. I repeat, addiction is NOT A MORAL PROBLEM.

Just for a minute let’s take this in a little bit of a different direction. Did you know that the BRCA gene for breast cancer has a 5-10% genetic predisposition rate? People every day undergo testing and life changing surgeries to avoid it but addiction genetic predisposition is over 50%.
O V E R 5 0 %. Let that sink in.
You still think addiction is a moral problem? A parenting problem?
Too bad there isn’t a surgery to remove addiction huh ?

If there’s one thing an addict would say….it’s that they’re still in there. (I know because I’ve asked.) The person that you knew and loved is still in there.

They are not their disease.

THEY ARE NOT THEIR DISEASE.

Addiction is a disease. Much like diabetes. It has to be monitored everyday. For the rest of their lives. And it’s HARD. It takes support and unrelenting diligence. Like cancer in that it can always reoccur.

The blaming needs to stop. We need to do better.
The paradigm needs to change.
Insurance benefits needs to change.
Public awareness needs to change.

Period.

The next time you hear someone say “ they have a choice “ or you hear others refer to addicts as “ a junkie“ start by educating them because that really is how this works.

You can make a difference you can change things. It starts with educating yourself and then spreading that knowledge one person at a time. Please I beg you join me in this.

Copied and pasted. Please do the same…
Be a part of the change! 💜💜

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By Daniel J Leach

Anti New World Order Party — Freedom and Liberty

We are beginning to see the great Silent Majority begin to awaken to the Global Agenda of the New World Order! From the Tea Party to the Occupy Movement the seeds of Liberty are beginning to take root and grow a great Liberty Tree. “In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot” (Mark Twain).

As a Truth Seeker, Patriot and Political activist in this modern-day internet social networking arena, I find myself relating to the greatest of Patriots and Freedom fighters the world has ever known! Our world’s history is full of people who stood up for the Truth: “If you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth” (Gandhi), and were rejected for going against society’s norms or so-called “truths” of that time in which they lived! Even the Lord Jesus Christ, God of the Universe, was rejected by his own! “And they were offended in Him. But Jesus said unto them, “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house” (Jesus Christ, http://bible.cc/matthew/13-57.htm).

The Battle that we fight for as Truth-Tellers or Patriots is for the Minds and Hearts of Men, for the masses, for those who are blinded by the lies, “The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response, and we will continue to provoke until they respond or change the law. They are not in control; we are” (Gandhi). “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Bible). Truth cannot be won with a sword or by a bomb, But with the Education and Knowledge comes Freedom and Liberty! There are those who will curse you and call you all kinds of names because you want to speak the Truth! “In a time of universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, italics added).

They the uninformed masses of people ignorant and starving for the truth will call you Crazy or a Conspiracy Theorist, not really understanding that they themselves are truly under Mind Control or NLP (Nero Linguistic Programming). They will defend the lies even unto death, slaves to the lie suffering from a form of Mass-Stockholm syndrome The Syndrome has also been explained in evolutionary terms by a phenomenon sometimes referred to as Capture-bonding.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (King James Bible).

Even Einstein was called Crazy “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance. (Albert Einstein). “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win” (Mahatma Gandhi). “Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.” (Gandhi).

I find it encouraging that others have come before me to lay the seeds of Truth that enable Justice, Liberty and Freedom for all! “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Thomas Jefferson).

I am reminded of a quote from the speech “Citizenship in a Republic” Theodore Roosevelt delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910 called,

THE MAN IN THE ARENA

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Download PDF of complete speech

As I learn more about the great men in our world’s history who stood against injustice and for the Truth and Justice for all men great and small, rich and poor! I find a inner strength to face those who would carry out such atrocities and to be bold even unto death!