What’s to praise about not developing a disease?
The disease is preventable by choice.
Forewarned preachy, holier than thou self-righteous life lesson to follow:
When I was in my late teens my best friend and my brother got me a birthday 'gift.' It was a very addictive hardcore street drug. They went to purchase a different drug but the dealer didn't have what we usually did instead the dealer had a different form of the same drug.
When they came back and showed me what they got I was pretty shocked. My brother told me "it's ok if we only do it this one time." C'mon, it's your birthday bro!
But then next week....we did it again. I remember forcing my brother and friend to make a pact that once anyone of us started liking it too much then we would all agree to stop.
Then next weekend. My brother said 'it's ok if we only do it on the weekends.' Then it began on Friday's immediately afterwork. Then it began on Friday's and didn't end til Sunday night. Then it started on Thursday's and started missing work on Mondays. This went on for 5 or 6 months.
I watched them one night when we all went to a nightclub with a bunch of girls we met. They couldn't wait to go score more dope. Stepping outside every half hour or so getting high until they wanted to leave the club to go get more. I watched them hording it, taking turns. Each one trying to use more during their turn.
I said remember the pact we made? About quitting if we started to do it too much? Ha! Their reaction was immediate: simultaneously they both looked at each other then looked at me and said in unison "What! I dont have a problem I can stop whenever I want!" I just laughed. I said "well ok. I definitely like this way too much so I'm out. There's a bar full of women waiting on us and you guys want to go to the hood and get high."
I don't know but I had to prove to myself that this wasn't going to be a problem for me. So the next weekend I went with them everywhere and watched them get high. I just needed to show myself that I wasn't going to give in to temptation and start fucking up my life. I just watched, rode with them til about 4:30 in the morning. The more I saw how hooked they were the less I wanted anything to do with it.
That decision changed their lives completely. My brother struggled for years, it cost him his professional career, license, house, girlfriend, car everything before he quit but he wasted the best years of his life and still never got his life back on track. And my best friend struggled even moreso with arrests and severe addiction , overdoses and though it took awhile,about 17 years, he ended up dying of an overdose.
My best friend would usually get to a point where he bottomed out (no homo) run out of money, run out of friends, run out of dope and come back apologizing to everybody in his life. Promising to never do it again but he'd alway get high again as soon as he had any money. A few years before he died he fucked over some people because he was getting high and I questioned him about it. His response was not apologetic, it was indignant: "What?! I have an illness. A disease! They should be apologizing to me. If they try to take my money, ill sue etc..etc.. etc.. I said man, you're really losing it. And he finally lost it for good.
