Person ‘A’ became addicted to alcohol.

Person ‘B’ became addicted to heroin.

Person ‘C’ became addicted to crack.


It would be very surprising if anyone managed to predict all three correctly. Actually, Person ‘A’, Person ‘B’, and Person ‘C’ are the same person!

By way of introduction, my name is Ray Baker and the three examples provided are ‘snapshots’ of my life from different perspectives. I intentially omitted references to my alcohol and drug use so as not to influence your prediction.

 

I would like to add at this point that at no time during my life have I indulged in alcohol and drug use with the intention of becoming addicted. This may sound like an obvious statement, but there are many people who still believe that an addict is totally responsible for becoming addicted. If we accept that some people are more susceptible than others (as I think most people do) to addiction, and we further accept that none of us know, with any certainty, whether that susceptibility applies to us; then it can only be that we discover our susceptibility through unwitting trial and error (experimentation).

We have all probably experimented with alcohol and/or drugs at some stage in our lives.

Our children almost certainly do or will experiment with alcohol and/or drugs.

And their children are destined to repeat the same experimental behaviour with alcohol and/or drugs.

As a result of this experimentation, some of us become addicted and some of us do not.

I have already stated that addiction was not my ‘goal’ when using mood altering substances - so what was? The answer to this is quite simple – to change the way I was feeling at the time. With hindsight, I now understand that I was totally ill-equipped to deal with (on an emotional level) the stresses of everyday life. There are many factors that contributed to this, but some of the factors that contributed to my eventual addiction to alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine, are specific to me as an individual. There are certain factors that most addicts share, others that are shared by some, and finally (and perhaps most importantly), factors that are unique to the individual addict. Therefore, it is my belief that for any treatment of addiction to be effective and stand realistic chances of continued success, all of the factors need identifying, and addressing.

Unfortunately, there is no single treatment for addiction that will work for everyone. The success rates of even the most well known of treatments, are poor to say the least. My journey in pursuit of recovery from active addiction began in 1990, when I reached the point of realising that I had a serious problem. I now choose to totally abstain from the use of alcohol and other mood altering substances in preference to dying prematurely, and pointlessly. Yes - ultimately, it was, and remains, my choice!

So, to answer the question ‘who becomes an addict?’  I don’t know – but I did, and you might.

I created this website as part of my journey, and to assist others in starting theirs.

Ray Baker


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