The debate about whether addiction is a disease or a choice has completely stolen the light from the fact that it's still a toll on the family and loved ones. I don't care if someone made the decision or had a disease; I'll still love and miss them regardless.

Let's assume that both sides of the argument are, in fact, correct. Let's try to understand their way of thinking.

Scenario 1: Drug addiction is a choice.

This scenario generates the idea that whoever is choosing to use drugs is also choosing to forget their problems. Their emotions have them so distraught that they are willing to get high to forget everyone and everything.

Imagine living like that, though. I'm not saying you can do drugs, but doesn't not having to confront emotional stressors sound like a utopia? Doesn't avoiding all of your problems and only worrying about yourself sound stress-free and easy?

Of course, it does.

However, most people aren't willing to make that decision. They choose to not put themselves before their family. They choose to continue living in a peaceful world where they don't have to hide from anything.

When a person chooses to do drugs, they aren't choosing to ruin their life. They're choosing to free themselves from their own life for a little while.

Scenario 2: Drug addiction is a disease.

This type of scenario means that a person didn't decide to do drugs repeatedly. This person made a mistake and tried something one time, and then their body decided that it wanted to feel like that forever. This person had no free will in the drastic decisions that their body made for them.

In reality, it truly never mattered whether it was a choice or a disease. That is just one way people choose to rationalize the situation they've been put in. It all boils down to the fact that it hurts the same, no matter the reasoning. Drugs ruin lives of the user, the family, and the friends connected.

It doesn't matter whether they chose this path or their disease chose it for them because it all hurts the same. This debate just helps people to rationalize their experiences.

At the end of the day, if blaming the choice or blaming the disease makes you feel better, then you can do that. But it won't make you feel better. Either way, the pain won't go away until you face the real issue at hand, which is that someone you love is hurting.

Stop trying to decide whether it's a choice or a disease, and start trying to find ways to make it so that your loved ones stay clean.