Today in my morning news, I read of the death of a gunman after a 14-hour standoff with officials at a pharmacy in Alliance, Nebraska. Then I found out that in March of this year, there had been another police standoff at a pharmacy in Oakland, California.
It might be slightly understandable that the city of Oakland would have unusual criminal activity—after all, it’s a city of nearly 400,000 residents, but Alliance, Nebraska? That’s a small city—their last census numbers reported fewer than 10,000 residents.
And why all this drama about pharmacies? Don’t people normally hold up banks? Could it be, that both of these masked intruders wanted something just as meaningful or meaningful to them as money? I don’t know whether either one or both of them were addicted to medications, but it would not be a far-fetched conclusion.
Where Our Addiction Disease Can Take Us: Criminal Activities and Death
Addiction kills—absolutely. It kills those we love and it might even kill ourselves. I’m sure this man in Nebraska didn’t wake up yesterday thinking he was going to be dead at the end of the day—but he was. And it’s quite possible he was in the pharmacy because he needed a fix.
Addiction is a disease that has to be treated. Once the addictive part of our brains has been triggered, the body’s physiological responses kick-in. Without treatment, there’s no telling what people in their disease are capable of.
Where Treatment for Our Addiction Disease Can Take Us: Finding Ourselves and a New Life
Few addicts can combat the physiological responses of addiction successfully themselves. But the good news is that those who pursue assistance and commit themselves to a road of recovery find that the disease of addiction doesn’t have to end in death—it can end in a new life. Duffy’s understands and recognizes that addicts and alcoholics are amazing people who are carrying this huge burden of addiction. Once this burden is lifted, these people seem to find themselves again and have the opportunity to build a new life.
Take for example, Nick. Nick admits in this video that he didn’t even really know himself during his disease of addiction—that it took him 52 years to find the person [himself] who had been following him around for years.
Addiction is a disease. But treatment can save a life. Don’t let your disease make you end up in the newspaper or on a cold slab of stone–join the thousands of people who have successfully fought and recovered from their disease.