Addictions - which ones do we cater to if any?

Question

Someone posted about alcohol being left as a gift at an AiRBnB and a few people commented about how it can be viewed as “triggering” for those with substance abuse addiction.  Which I am not disputing. However, my question is, how do we remove some of the other more “silent / acceptable?” addictions that are plaguing our culture and society? For example: phone addictions, we make it so easy with charging stations, and wifi everywhere, but phone addictions are real and they destroy relationships, and families, should we start removing these temptations? Sex addictions - should we remove all sexual adverts and risky commercials? If your a gaming addict (or recovering) do you ask your friends to hide their consoles when you go over? How far do we go to make it comfortable for those vulnerable in our society with some of these sicknesses? Do we do anything?

Accepted Answer

People with addictions are responsible for controlling them and avoiding triggers
Nobody around them is responsible for not triggering their addictions unless it’s like their spouse or immediate family maybe.

Answer

I commented on the other post but will here also. I am a recovering alcoholic. I have been sober 8 yrs now but will always be recovering. It is my responsibility to stay sober. It is my fault It I relapse. When I stopped drinking and did rehab and therapy I made sure ai was always in situations I could control my environment so I wasn't tempted but I had to learn to live with alcohol around because it is. Restaurants, sports events, bday bbqs, work functions,  hell wedding dress shopping trips or hair appts have wine and champagne. I stopped drinking in my mid 30s...I can't spend the rest of my life isolating so I need to be able to did ways to cope and ways to handle it. I also don't fit what most people stereotype addicts as. I am a very successful highly educated scientist...I actually was a functional alcoholic though my 2nd PhD and a masters program. I came from a great loving perfect home. My husband is my middle school sweetheart and the most amazing supportive loving human I have ever met. Nobody assumes I am or was an addict. But I was and needed help so I got help. My husband supports me and helps me when I need but in the end I solely am responsible and I solely am at fault if I was to relapse. There are millions of triggers and we can't protect everyone from all of them so the person who has the issue needs to take control of their life and advocate for themselves. The question this is piggybacked off of was the champagne in an airBNB. Anytime I needed to travel the 1st year or so I was getting sober I called the place I was staying and asked if there was alcohol in the rooms, if there was for it to be removed, and if there was cocktail hour so I could avoid it. It wasn't the hotels job to protect me...I protected me. If an addiction is something out in everyday life you have to learn to handle it eventually because it is up to me at the end of the day. An addict who can't learn to cope in some way is an addict who relapses. I will always want a drink...there is no cure for addiction...but I can't hide so it is me who protects me. And treating us like a separate class of society and thinking we need kid gloves is just demeaning and a bit dehumanizing. I hate when people do that. I am a person just like Sally at work or Mike next door...I just have something I have to work on daily.

Answer

I think there is a difference between catering to all addictions and being sensitive to issues you know about or someone identifies to you. For example, my husband and I keep wine in the house and usually have a glass of something red with dinner. A few years ago, we had some friends over for dinner and had wine on the table. The wife of one of the couples declined, saying that if she had one glass, she would be at the bottom of the bottle in next to no time. We had no idea that she was a recovering alcoholic and immediately apologized and moved to remove the bottle so as not to create an unnecessary problem for her. She thanked us, but said it was fine to leave it, she just wouldn't have any. From that point on, we deliberately opted not to put out wine when that couple was over. From a Christian perspective, it was our responsibility to do so. Romans 14 talks about not doing anything that may cause someone else to stumble. For us, wine us fine; we can take it or leave it. For this friend of ours, it was/is a stumbling block. Now that we know about it, it is our duty to do what we can to support her. In other words, we deny ourselves to ensure that she is not unnecessarily tempted. 
That would be my personal approach for any addiction someone told me about or that I already knew about. Me being fine with something doesn't mean I don't have some level.of responsibility to others who may not be so fine. Societally speaking, I don't think everything can or even should be accommodated. Personal responsibility is a thing and people do need to learn how to navigate the world and all.of it's many temptations. However, I do think it is important to support people individually when you know what it is they may be struggling with.

Answer

Excellent question. 
I dont think anyone should be expected to do anything to cater to addicts. BUT, if you have somebody close to you that you know is struggling with addiction of any kind, it would be courteous to put away anything that they are having trouble with. 
I think if somebody is struggling with something and they know being around it would be triggering, they should take the extra steps to make sure where they're going does not have it. Call ahead. Make it known in advance. Let somebody close to you know so you cam lean on them for support if needed. Or have a sponsor to help you through it.

Answer

People are responsible for their own addictions and should anticipate triggers where ever they go. That unfortunately is the cost of their addiction. It makes zero sense to exclude the majority of people who would partake in, for example, the drinking, for the sake of the minority who don't. A kind gesture has been completely ripped apart and isn't seen for what it is. Hotels leave alcohol in the rooms all the time, do they get blasted? No. Do promotional companies get blasted for having test tastes for wines and whatnot at stores where alcohol gets sold? No.
People are responsible for their own actions. Whenever someone posts here that their partner is threatening suicide if they leave, we don't tell them to stay because their wanting to leave is triggering their partners mental health. No, we tell them their partner is responsible for their own actions and whatever they do, is on them. This is the same thing. Triggers are everywhere, an alcoholic needs to learn to cope.

Answer

People can be responsible for themselves while also asking for reasonable accommodations around that. So emailing a hotel and asking that the mini bar be removed. Asking a dr not to weigh you or to not announce it. Asking family not to drink while in your home. Asking your friends not to invite you to bars. Asking people not to smoke around you.

Answer

Like any illness, addiction is not created in a self contained bubble.  And while the mass bulk of the work relies on individual responsibility and work, recovery also does not occur in a self contained bubble.
I will keep saying, there is a lot of room in between taking responsibility for someone else suffering from addiction and just pretending it doesn’t exist.  A lot of that “room” between is awareness.  With awareness we can make better choices.  We as a society can do better with things like: empathy, understanding, abolishing the shame, the stigma, and demanding resources are easily available (for not only the person suffering from addiction, but also those impacted by it).

Answer

society (as it currently stands) would never attempt to properly accommodate addicts bc people with addictions are viewed as morally compromised, their illness isn’t actually recognised as an illness, and their struggles are consistently mocked.

Answer

There is no way to establish a safe and addiction free environment for everyone. 
I am an addict 
It's been 6yrs since I've had a cigarette
Its been 7yrs since I've had a drink
It's been 8yrs since I put the meth down BUT
-i never step away from my phone. EVER and it's a problem I'm working on
-i smoke weed on my weekends and at night when I get off work it helps me relax and calms my insomnia at night .... But without it I have trouble eating and sleeping and it's a problem I'm working on
It is completely ME. I am responsible for my choices to do or not do things. Now if my brother who's been around since day 1 and KNOWS my story came and came out with a bottle of booze and a pipe of meth waving it in my face ....... It's still on me to be strong enough to say no but it'd be a dick move on his part right?? 
So I guess you don't need to worry about others and their response to certain possibly triggering things because it's their own choice but just don't purposely be a dick 🤷

Answer

I don't think society caters to any addictions. There are so many people in the world that need help but don't have the resources or know how to ask for help. Many who struggle with mental health self medicate to cope. This turns into a dual diagnosis situation. We need to find the root of the issues and start there. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides they want to be addict. Nobody wants their life to be controlled that way.

Addictions - which ones do we cater to if any?

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