Sequelae

While you’ve been lumbering along for centuries trying to overcome your divisions, I have loved you without regard to race, economic status, religion, sex, or gender orientation. I love you if you’re smart or not so much, famous or anonymous, young or old. Ah sweet youth! I especially covet you, your tender spirit and mind so pliable. I have a soft spot for the broken, the wounded, any who need my solace.

I have known your family for many generations. I was quite close to your father, and knew your grandmother, your uncle, too, and your cousin John. There were many others. They were all so excited when you came along, had such hopes and dreams, but so did I. I couldn’t wait for you to get older to get to know you better.

I wooed you like a lover on a springtime’s eve making you blush and giggle. Your eyes twinkled as I released your inhibitions. It wasn’t too long before we became inseparable. I went with you to all your parties and events—showing up at holiday dinners, birthday celebrations, weddings, graduations, anniversaries, intimate trysts, ballgames and barbecues. I was the life of every party.

And I am there now when you are alone, crying into the night fearful, sad and worried. I am there to keep you company while you binge-watch late night television, surf the internet for hours on end. I help you write witty or nasty comments on Facebook. Oh, how I love when we tweet.

When you wake up sick and tired from too much of me and vowing you will never go out with me again, casting your eyes away, I cringe outwardly while I secretly smirk knowing we will probably meet up again before the day is over. This will go on for days and weeks, months and years while you live two lives. You love me. You hate me. I adore you. I am devoted to you.

I become possessive and enslave you in your very own body, your mind and soul my favorite playgrounds. I transform you into my own version of you. Your goals lose their luster, your dreams remain in the land of sleep. You begin to almost lose sight of yourself. You think about me all day long. When you go a day without me, you decide maybe this isn’t the right time to break up after all. I couldn’t be happier.

Alas, I see you are weary of our relationship, for real. You truly seem unhappy. You are not as enamored with me, which only makes me cling tighter. You decide we should break it off, but I won’t allow it. We’ve all but stopped seeing your friends and family. We’ve made scenes and are no longer welcome. You are ashamed, but I don’t care. Besides, they are too critical, always so worried. Why can’t you quit our dysfunctional relationship? Where is your willpower? Your sense of self-worth? Where is the you they love? How can you be so selfish?

They don’t understand that you have no control, and it’s not your fault. If I have it my way, we will stay together ‘til death do us part. And it will. I am hard on all your organs, on every system in your body, top to bottom, but if I can’t have you, nobody will.

What is that you say? You are walking away for good? Really? You think you’re better off without me? You say you are forever changed by me, made humble, returned to yourself? Well, all right then for you. I can find another to love in the blink of an eye, the birth of a babe. Look around you. I can own this nation, maybe the world.

A Few Statistics from the World Health Organization

• On average every person in the world aged 15 years or older drinks 6.2 litres of pure alcohol per year.
• Less than half the population (38.3%) actually drinks alcohol, this means that those who do drink consume on average 17 litres of pure alcohol annually.
• Some 31 million persons have drug use disorders.
• Almost 11 million people inject drugs, of which 1.3 million are living with HIV, 5.5 million with hepatitis C, and 1 million with both HIV and hepatitis C.
• In 2012, 3.3 million deaths, or 5.9 percent of all global deaths (7.6 percent for men and 4.1 percent for women), were attributable to alcohol consumption.
• In 2014, alcohol contributed to more than 200 diseases and injury-related health conditions, most notably DSM–IV alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis, cancers, and injuries.
• In 2012, 5.1 percent of the burden of disease and injury worldwide (139 million disability-adjusted life-years) was attributable to alcohol consumption.
• Globally, alcohol misuse was the fifth leading risk factor for premature death and disability in 2010. Among people between the ages of 15 and 49, it is the first. In the age group 20–39 years, approximately 25 percent of the total deaths are alcohol attributable.

There are many evolving statistics on addiction, few on recovery. One study (An eight-year perspective on the relationship between the duration of abstinence and other aspects of recovery. Dennis, Foss MA, Scott CK.) suggests the longer the abstinence, the lower the relapse rate:

• Only about a third of people who are abstinent less than a year will remain abstinent.
• For those who achieve a year of sobriety, less than half will relapse.
• If you can make it to 5 years of sobriety, your chance of relapse is less than 15 percent.

Partial list of addictions other than drugs and alcohol:

• Eating Disorders
• Exercise
• Food
• Gambling
• Porn
• Sex
• Shopping
• Smoking
• Technology
• Work