Willpower Is Not Enough by Arnold M. Washton

Author:Arnold M. Washton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

WE ARE ALL VULNERABLE

What is most striking about these true—and increasingly typical—stories is that few bear out the stereotype we once held of the addict. The addict used to be some other guy, that poor unfortunate, a derelict, the product of an impoverished upbringing or someone obviously mentally disturbed. The addict was not someone like me, not someone who functioned, for the most part, “normally” in society. No, the addict was not me—not my brother, my parent, my wife, my neighbor, or my child.

But we can no longer maintain this denial about who is vulnerable to addiction. This epidemic of compulsive behaviors is not just happening in urban ghettos, or to poor people, the uneducated, or to one particular race. It’s happening in every small town and big city in America; behind the doors of sprawling mansions, suburban tract houses, and high-rise apartments alike; among the highly educated as well as those barely out of grade school; among people of all colors and all classes. We don’t have to look any farther than our own hometown, our own block, and often even our own family to find stories of addiction and the pain it carves into people’s lives.

In fact, the addictive personality exists on a continuum. As we have all grown up in an addictive society amidst conditions that, as we shall see, generate addictive vulnerability, most of us exist somewhere on the continuum. We are vulnerable to different degrees based on who we are inside—not where we live, how much money we make, or the color of our skin. What we get addicted to may be influenced by some of those factors, but not whether we get addicted.

Differences between the “faces” of our addictions—how the disease expresses itself—do exist. Some addictions are obviously more overtly destructive than others. Few would dispute, for instance, that addiction to freebasing cocaine has more serious ramifications than workaholism or that the sexual addict who molests children is more destructive and dangerous than the compulsive shopper. Differences—in the severity and effects—of different addictions are enormous.

But when we allow ourselves to take seriously even the “non-serious” addictions like workaholism, stock-market gambling, shopping, or exercise, we find people who are not only failing to reach their potential, they are suffering greatly. But because their drug is socially acceptable, there is little pressure to get help.

Let’s look now at some of the many expressions of addictive behavior prevalent in our society today.

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