Official 2011-2012 Texas Rangers' Offseason Thread

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

Do you mean to say that the ability to willing stay sober is sometimes outside a person's control?

Well let's define what we're talking about, first. People that abuse drugs and/or alcohol, become chemically dependent on them. They have very real and very difficult physical and emotional issues when they try to stop their habit. Some things are powerful enough that it doesn't even take abuse to create a dependency. I've walked alongside someone who had to wean off of a year of Oxicodone use (not abuse, used as prescribed) and it was horrific.

So telling someone that is chemically dependent to use their self control is of course possible, but it's somewhat akin to telling someone that is clinically depressed to "just be happy".

As for someone that has broken the dependency and is in recovery, it is certainly within their control, but let's not be like Murph and act like it's akin not having your morning coffee. If you want to get technical (which is what you want to do, being the board contrarian), then you are correct. But there was a context surrounding that term that was too dismissive, imo.