The idea of what a disease can be is something that usually leaves its host helpless and often without choice. But with choice, we have the privilege of choosing the effect we want something or someone to have on us. When it comes to addictions, I believe it can be both a disease and a choice. I can understand that sometimes we are plagued with some addictions that we have little or no time to process, but then, even as we are plagued with that addiction, we can overcome it when we seek help. But in the case of addiction being a choice, we don’t seek help because it feels right and just what we want.
So for the last edition of the Hive Learners topic discussion, we are asked to talk about CHOICE OR DISEASE. Most times, we tend to see addiction as something that is always negative, but the truth is addiction also has its positive side, though most times we don’t see that side of addictions. I believe addiction at first is more of a choice than it is a disease. But as time goes on, if the choice we have made to be addicted to something or someone isn’t the right choice, that addiction turns into a disease because it starts taking control of us rather than us remaining in control of it.
Addiction happens when we consistently choose to do a particular thing or when we can’t seem to stop doing something or feel helpless doing a particular thing regardless of the effect it has on us. When addiction gets to the point where we have little or no control over it, this now makes it a disease because at this point we see little or nothing wrong with whatever we do. Even when we see something wrong with it, we see it as us being in charge, but that’s not true at all. We just think that way just to feel less guilty; besides, “it’s my life,” as we most times say.
When addiction is treated as a disease, it is easy to know we have to seek help, but when it is treated as a choice, whether it is okay or not, we don’t see the need for seeking help. It is something we’ve made up our minds to do and we will do it anyway regardless of what anyone may think. It is okay to choose to be addicted to something as long as we are sure that something or someone is adding something positive to our lives, but if we choose the wrong addiction, we might have to suffer for it for a really long time because we will hardly ever listen to anyone’s advice or opinions about such things.
When we hold on to addictions that are doing more harm than good, we will definitely know as long as we listen to our heart and body. It’s fine to make wrong choices, but settling for such choices even after realization is completely unacceptable.
Thank you for reading through. 💜