Recently, I’ve identified a disheartening personality defect in people—the inability to empathize with someone who’s struggling with something they’ve never experienced. This is especially true of addiction, mental illness and even unemployment and poverty. The people I’ve met with this perspective, and I have been guilty of this inane thinking at certain times, belittle other people’s hardships like this:
Everyone has their ups and downs. I get excited and blue too, but I don’t let it get the best of me. I take walks and do yoga. Bipolar disorder is just something Big Pharma made up to make money.
I’ve never had a day of PMS. I don’t believe in that. It’s just an excuse to behave badly and feel sorry for yourself.
I was able to find a job in the dismal economy because I sent out tons of resumes. You can always find a job. You’re just not putting in enough effort.
I used to drink hard too, but I cut back because I grew up. So can you, if you really wanted to and learned some self-control.
It’s so easy for people who have never personally struggled with addiction, or those who don’t have loved ones who have struggled with addiction, to think addicts and alcoholics are moral failures and weak-willed human beings. That, or they’re just total loser fuck-ups who’d be better off dead.
No Sympathy for Junkies
Take the case of a New Hampshire addict who overdosed on heroin and was found slumped over behind the wheel of his parked car. It’s not clear whether he received Narcan, the antidote drug for heroin overdoses, but the paramedics got to him in time and he was subsequently arrested for heroin possession. His name, address and age were disclosed in an article in the Foster’s Daily Democrat.
Most of the reader comments condemned the addict, never considering that his addiction is a disease. Never considering that maybe, like Philip Seymour Hoffman and many other addicts and alcoholics, he tried to kick the habit, and simply couldn’t stop.
The comments include the following:
“Guy looks like a real winner…Keep dosing, [expletive deleted]. You’ll save all the taxpayers some hard earned dough, or cheese, or whatever you call it.”
“There’s only one way to stop a heroin epidemic: Stop administering Narcan.”
“It’s their choice to do the drugs. I don’t have any sympathy for junkies. Scumbags.”
“He’s not a scumbag. He’s less than that.”
Had these commenters struggled with heroin addiction, or had an addicted friend, brother, sister or child, chances are they wouldn’t have dismissed this gentleman as a “scumbag.”
Unwitting Addicts
As it happens, this gentleman had nearly lost his life in a terrible motorcycle accident a few years back that left him with a broken pelvis, two broken arms and a neck injury. While being treated with pain medication, he got addicted and moved on from pharmaceuticals to heroin.
So, this guy didn’t intentionally set out to destroy his life and turn into a junkie or mooch off the taxpayers’ dime through public assistance. There are countless stories of people who unwittingly get hooked on pain meds after long-term use or high dosage. Despite the medical necessity, it’s easy to become hooked when tolerance increases, which can lead to physical dependence. This happens to those who never wanted to become doped-up in the first place—they just wanted pain relief. But once an abuse cycle starts with the pain meds, there’s a chance that the abuser will move on to heroin.
No Pills for Trolls
Given both pain meds and heroin are extremely addictive, is it fair to fault this guy in New Hampshire? Of course not. And who knows if these mean-spirited commenters might find themselves in the same position if they sustained two broken arms, a broken pelvis and a busted neck?
Maybe these trolls should be banned from receiving pain pills ever, even if they’re in agony. They can just think their way out of it, or get hypnotized. After all, it’s just a case of mind over matter.
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