I need to discuss the Casa Palmera ad that appeared on Newsblaze next to my story, “Brook Mueller Makes Wrong Decision with Hippie Drug Therapy.” Casa Palmera states in its ad that drug and alcohol addiction is a disease. “It’s not your fault.”
I am not going to do an exploratory analysis as to why Casa Palmera is not an effective drug rehabilitation institution. The very fact that they boldly state on their front page that drug addiction is not the addicts fault is enough to indicate to me that their entire approach is wrong.
To state that drug addiction is not the addicts fault, is akin to telling a child murderer that it is not their fault that they kill children. “Oh, you poor dear,” I can imagine a Casa Palmera psychiatrist stating, “You didn’t mean to kill little Jimmy, our evil society made you do it!” While socialization may take some blame for ones wrong behavior, the fact of the matter is, adults are responsible for their own actions, right or wrong.
Responsibility is what makes one an adult, and human. To take no responsibility for ones actions, means that one can kill, can rob, can live with no responsibility, and no accountability.
For Casa Palmera to suggest to the drug addict or alcoholic that it is not their fault that they are a drug addict or alcoholic, is foolish and wrong. Of course it is the addicts fault! One can blame mommy and daddy if one is under 18, and may have a good rationalization, but there has got to be a time when one becomes responsible for their own behavior and stops blaming their parents, their bad upbringing, their poverty, their neighborhood, and society or any god or devil. It is only when one take responsibility for right or wrong that one can be sane and can actually get better.
For to give power over our actions away to another force does not strengthen our will, it instead weakens us and makes us the blind effect of some outside circumstance or being. “Oh, he made me shoot up! He made me drink!” Spare me! While it is true that some are physically forced to do drugs, the vast majority of addicts are not forced. And while so called psychological pressure can exist (what some call peer pressure), a person needs to realize that if they are emotionally too weak to say no, it is their actions or lack thereof that got them there, not someone else’s.
One can start with blaming ones parents, babysitter, foster home, friends, government, or the like, but eventually, one has got to get a grip on their own life and admit – “Yes, this is my fault. I did it, and I can stop it.” Playing mind games with apologist doctors that attempt to feed an addict more meds or absolve them of all responsibility like Casa Palmera is not the answer.
Only honesty with one self and the world will lead to mastering one’s mind and therefore mastering ones actions that they which to adopt or to cease, thus ceasing to abuse themselves or others.