Getting treated like an addict gets me down..

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When asking for help or catching up with friends,
people assume that because I don't have a wife and a lot of money, and I sometimes have sleep problems,
I am an addict when in truth I am just trying to work through trauma and communication problems.

It is really hard to maintain self-esteem when treated like this
even by healthcare professionals.
It is very stressful.

Last edited by __Elijahahahaho on 15 Feb 2025, 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Addicted to what?

This is the fault of healthcare systems and health professionals who wrongly assume, wrongly identify, and wrongly target individuals for one reason or another. There is a recent movie that highlights the bias of people even within their own family and community circles. The film shows a talented chef vomiting in a public bathroom. When the assistant chef finds her there with a bloody nose, hugging the toilet, she immediately flies into a rage and accuses her of being a drug addict. The ill woman shakes her head before eventually telling her that she has Stage 3 cancer.

Diabetic people are sometimes accused of being an alcoholic because their breath smells like alcohol when blood sugar drops.

Mental health diagnosis can be subjective to whim and bias too, without genuinely knowing the person or circumstances.

I worked very briefly at a place that had strange qualifications for employment there. I think they were only hiring people who fit a certain demographic. As I was cleaning out the cigarette bins one day I heard another employee say to management, “But she doesn’t even smoke.”

I don’t smoke or drink alcohol. I’m not addicted to anything that harms me. My only vices are coffee and the occasional escapism found in a book, a tabletop puzzle, or a friendly fantasy game.

Like you, trauma issues prevent me from mingling with people. If the environment doesn’t feel safe, I simply walk the other way. Not an addict, just self preservation.

They ask about everything.
They always assume I am lying because addicts lie.

Nothing I can say changes their mind because I get more and more stressed,
and that just makes them suspicious.

Never happened to me, but I can believe that kind of judgementalism happens. I guess all you can do is ask them how they come to their bizarre conclusions. For some reason a lot of people are in a tearing hurry these days, and they don't always think very carefully. But when it's a matter of weighing up another person, it would help if they slowed down a bit and used the brains they were born with. I won't stoop to their level and suggest that they're overdoing the stimulants.

I've been thought to be a stoner at least a few times because I have a slow mental processing speed, seem aloof, & have a stupid sense of humor & find some stoner comedy movies very funny. I never tried smoking anything ever & I tried a pot brownie one time. The brownie was given to me & didn't affect me except for making me tired. Perhaps being on an antipsychotic counteracts being high. The only controlled substances I occasionally use is the benzo Klonopin which I have a prescription for & Sudafed for allergies & sinus problems.

They ask about everything.
They always assume I am lying because addicts lie.

Humans were intended to interact with each other relationally such as with families and neighbors.

Modern life is based on bureaucracies, organizational systems, and corporations. When you deal with a collective, you are component to be processed.

Historically both the Nazis and the Communists offered the collective state as the wave of the future and it was Capitalism that finally did it. In the US we use the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) as a stereotype of the worst of bureaucracy. It is something we all go through and hate it. However, it is only required once every few years.

Those who work in a collective are often harmed by it to the point you have observed in their treatment of you. There is little hope that you can help or correct them. As a result, you can only try to keep your contact with them infrequent and brief.

For actual relational contact you might have to explore the fringe of society. People like artists, musicians, literary people or even a small church group might offer an opportunity to interact with you as an actual person.

Haha!
And you know what? One of the guys who recently accused me is on SOO many medications. Stimulants for Adhd, AND
some weird s**t for anxiety (which he cannot stop) AND he's a chain smoker.

It's weird how when people say addict they mean illegal drugs. He is obviously an addict, and would be better off
addicted to some illegal drugs like weed which isn't really addictive and probably a lot less toxic than whatever
coctail he's on. He can't sleep more than 3 hours a night!

Good point!

I forgot to mention that when medical professions suspect patients of being an addict, the medical professions are capable of asking the patients to take a drug test or having patients get blood work done & testing for drugs along with the other analysis. My current GP had me take a drug test once when he was giving me a new prescription for Klonopin because insurance sometimes wants patients to get drug tested when controlled substances have been getting prescribed for a long time. My insurance didn't state that I needed to be drug tested but my doc was wanting to be a step ahead. If a medical professional was acting like they believed I was an addict, I would tell them to drug test me so they would move on from that possibility.
My girlfriend has chronic pain & some medical professions have acted like she was drug seeking & Cass was never seeking narcotics & she was wanting better long-term treatment. Her case is probably related to the government overly regulating narcotics these days in an attempt to crack down after docs have been overly prescribing them for many years partly because docs were getting kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies. Cass only got 5 narcotic pills when she went home after having her gallbladder removed. Her sister had her gallbladder removed a couple years later & her sis was sent home with 30 pills. Me & Cass also suspect some mistakes were made when the surgery was performed but that's another story.

Hah!
That makes sense. Challenge them to test you and they move on.

That alone would explain his hallucinations. I hope he doesn't drive.

Addiction isn't about what you're taking, it's about engaging in risk taking to do so.
Addiction is defined as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you.

My nickname was Stoner when I was in high school.