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Sustained Remission
Sustained Remission
FROM Troutnut 1. (4 years ago circa 2015)
Its not really a "slip". Its a drug addicts relapse. This is the gold standard to help you decide...
Let's take the colorful sugar coating off this thing. Addiction is a disease fully recognized as such by the entire medical and psychiatric world. And smoking fully qualifies for recognition as the disease of addiction (now more affectionately called "substance use disorder" by the American Psychiatric Association in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In fact, smokers usually score higher than other types of drug addicts. This is a serious and life threatening condition. I think a lot of smokers underestimate the gravity of their condition. It is fatal for the majority.
This is a link to the latest Diagnostic Manual on addictions for those that want to learn more about their disease:
http://addictions.about.com/od/aboutaddiction/a/Dsm-5-Criteria-For-Substance-Use-Disorders.htm
What this means is simple. According to everything known in the medical and psychiatric world we have:
1. The disease and mental disorder of addiction.
2. It is not a sin, moral issue, or character flaw.
3. Addiction to nicotine by smoking is a chronic, progressive, and terminal disease.
Chronic means "incurable". Once the disease of addiction has taken hold of us, there is no such thing as a cure. Once an addict, always an addict. So I will never again in my life be not addicted to the drug nicotine. Progressive means it gets worse over time. We end up smoking more. And terminal of course means it kills nice people. Although I can't be cured, I can choose to live in what is called "sustained remission". Or I can relapse and let the disease have its way with me.
I love living in sustained remission and not letting my disease kill me! But make no mistake. As addicts of the drug nicotine, we have a serious, incurable, life threatening disease that WILL kill us unless we do something about it, or something else just happens to kill us first. I'm still here because I want to make sure my disease doesn't kill me.
The only way to beat this disease is to stop putting nicotine into our bodies, one day at a time. Please join me. Individual sticks can be broken by a child. But sticks in a bundle are extremely strong.
Your friend in Montana
Troutnut1 (dennis)
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