ADDICTS NEED TO COME OUT FROM THE SHADOWS

"Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its
own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to
disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it,
or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to
cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it."

- - Shakti Gawain

Confession time.

I'm addicted to cigarettes. There, I said it out loud and everything.
(Not that it's a huge secret or anything, but still it's not as easy
to admit as you think.)

I hate the fact that I smoke.

I actually quit for an entire year and a half while I was pregnant
and nursing my son. And like an idiot, I started again. It started as
one cigarette a day, like somehow that would be enough. Well, the
joke's on me, because of course it wasn't.

So, here I am a full-fledged addicted smoker.

Honestly, though, for as bad as it is, and as much as I want to quit
(and I swear I will one day), I count myself lucky because it's just
cigarettes.

Yes, yes, I know that's a horrible thing to say - "just" cigarettes.
But for all the commercials you see about how bad smoking is and all
the money that is poured into anti-smoking campaigns, there are a lot
of things a whole lot worse.

Addiction is a horrific thing to suffer from. But being addicted to
cigarettes, while terrible in its own way, just doesn't hold a candle
to addictions to alcohol, gambling, illegal drugs.

These things literally destroy lives, families, whole communities.

I have known personally a number of people who suffer from each of
those addictions. To watch them struggle is heart-breaking.

And for those of you who read this and have no empathy, those of you
who say "just get over it," I dare you to spend some time learning
about these addictions.

When a person suffers from addiction, their brains actually are wired
differently than those who don't. It isn't as simple as saying "just
stop gambling" or "just have one drink and not 10" or simply "don't
buy another bag of cocaine."

It doesn't work that way.

I don't have any fancy stats to back me up on this, but I do believe,
in my heart of hearts, that addiction is the No. 1 health problem
facing this country.

Here's why. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, all the things
you hear so much about, well, you hear so much about them. But how
often do you hear, I mean really hear, about addiction?

You don't. It's an embarrassment to families. It is so misunderstood
that people will suffer for their entire lives, ruin themselves and
their families, rather than talk about it.

How many people have you met who will be more than happy to tell you
about their health problems - their high blood pressure, the growth
the doctor found, even their blood-sugar levels?

How many people have you met tell you about their addiction? I'm
going to guess very few.

The media rarely gets the story truly right because so few people are
willing to openly talk about their struggles.

In today's Daily World, you'll find a man who was willing. He's not
local, but we wanted to include his story because it's universal and
because we hope by hearing what others go through, maybe, just maybe,
one person, one family will be willing to open up enough to talk
about it - even amongst themselves.

That's the first step. When we, as a society, shame the addicted
person into believing he or she simply lacks willpower, we turn our
eyes from the truth and force even more darkness into an already dim world.

We must be able to talk about it. We must be able to say, honestly,
here I am and I'm an addict.

That's why I get disturbed by all the "Anonymous" programs out there.
I understand why they do it and I know it's kind of the chicken and
the egg thing, but I worry that by labeling everyone with first names
only, we perpetuate misunderstanding and a further hiding from the truth.

Why should an addict be more ashamed than someone suffering from any
other medical condition?

There was a Gannett-owned newspaper in South Dakota, a few years
back, that won a Pulitzer prize for a year-long series on alcoholism
in their community.

I've been researching how they did it and what it meant to the people
there. Hundreds of people wrote letters during the year thanking the
newspaper for shedding light where there is so much darkness.

I know it wasn't easy, but I look at what they did and I am reminded
that simply, it is the only way.