Matthew Perry debating the topic of addiction with a dismissive Peter Hitchens in 2013

Twitter/X ^ | Oct 29 | Jay

[RandFan]

Matthew Perry debating the topic of addiction with a dismissive Peter Hitchens in 2013

[RandFan]

What is your view on this: Addiction vs. will power?

[Ciaphas Cain]

I recently left the mental health care field after three and a half years. In that time I saw a lot of people addicted to drugs, to alcohol, to sex, to a lot of things. I think there is truth in what Perry and Hitchens both are saying. It is difficult for a person to break away from addictions. It also does require making a conscious and driven choice to abandon those addictions. The thing that I learned more than anything else is that if a person wants to be healed, he or she must WANT that healing. We can talk to them and encourage them until we're blue in the face but ultimately this is a choice that THEY must make. I worked with some people who were addicted to alcohol and smoking. By the time I left, some of these people had been able to break free of those controlling behaviors. They each saw the kind of person it was making them and they decided they didn't want to be that person anymore. But that requires enormous self discipline. The slightest return back to abusing a substance and it undoes all of that hard work. You don't get cured of alcoholism or drug addiction. Once you're there, you're there for life. You are "recovering" and that demands effort on your part to remain that way. People are hoping that this kind of thing is easy. But it's not and I doubt it ever will be. So, I can see where both of these men are right.

[Principled]

Having seen addiction run its course it’s pretty clear that it’s a neurological issue.

Hitchens is an ignorant snob in this video.

Does Hitchens think that a lack of willpower is what has people drink until they lose their job, their home, their family and frequently their life? Does he think they willingly put drinking above their children and spouse?

[enumerated]

I don’t claim to know the answer, but Hitchens won that debate hands down.

Perry used appeal to authority, then sarcasm, then condescension and personal attacks, then - when asked what the objective physical evidence of addiction was - Perry closed with “you don’t know what you’re talking about”.

Then, whoever posted the video cut it right there to give Perry the last word.

My guess is Hitchens had a pretty good response - why else cut it there?

[Luke21]

I can only speak for me. 34 years off the bottle this past Wednesday. There are people who believe it is moral weakness. I just know I had the old time Bill Wilson fellowship and loving and wonderful strangers who I could call in the middle of the night. In return I got sent into noxious hotel rooms where similar hopeless people smoked and vomited and begged to stop. There were no treatment centers full of licensed fools back then.

Hardest thing I ever did, but also the most wonderful.

[enumerated]

It takes a tremendous amount of will power to quit an addiction, right?

So what is so unreasonable about saying that will power is lacking in people who can’t quit an addiction?

Hitchens is not saying addiction dies does not exist, he is objecting to the idea of calling it physical disease or “allergy of the body”.

[Mean Daddy]

No one wants to quit more than the addict or alcoholic.

[DouglasKC]

It’s a choice. Any addiction can be overcome. It’s mostly habit. Perry said it himself...if he didnt’ have that first drink he would be fine. So he loses his willpower to NOT have that first drink.

[Gilderite]

While I have some bad habits, insobriety is not one of them. It was revealing to learn from watching a friend, however, how some seem to process intoxicants differently. The euphoria wears off and it’s like being cold for them. The urge to reconnect is primal, like seeking warmth.

For me, it’s not willpower that keeps me sober. I just can’t imagine getting anything done while wasted.

[Montana_Sam]

Alcoholism and drug addiction are two “diseases” that are 100% self inflicted.

Such diseases are a function of a weakness of character rather than a physical weakness. For me, I didn’t have the strength of character to be the man God created me to be. So, I wallowed in self-righteous and self-indulgent self-medicating. I wasted a solid chunk of the best years of my life being stoned and stupid. By returning to the Way of My Lord, Jesus, I’ve found peace and strength; the peace and strength I was looking for in booze and dope.

I’ve been straight and sober for nearly 40 years following a 15-year reign of terror as a bat-sh!t, crazy drunk and recreational drug user. All glory to God.

[HandBasketHell]

I had friends from high school (a married couple) one an alcoholic and gambler and the other addicted to alcohol and pills. I also was in a 2-year relationship with an alcoholic in the 1980s.

They are the most narcissistic, spoiled, entitled, and selfish people I've ever come across in life. Everything bad that happens to them is someone else's fault, and even their addiction is not their fault.

[normbal]

I worked as a clinical consultant in a triservice alcohol and substance abuse program - ASAP - for 3 years after spending over a decade myself in ACOA and AA. I came to the conclusion there are no addictions, only choices. What I found working for people who remained sober (not using) was a clearly defined reason that meant everything to them.

Users are liars- to themselves, family, friends, God, and choosing not to use wholeheartedly seemed to be what made the difference I saw and experienced myself in deciding to quit smoking after 20 years.

There are no addictions, no addictive personalities, addiction genes, people quit using all the time and stay quit by choice.

JMHMO

[DHerion]

I do think some people are more susceptible to things like alcohol. Fighter ace Pappy Boyington was not a drinker, one day he was offered one drink, and from that moment on he could not get enough of it...I’ve had a few drinks and did not have that response. People are allergic to different types of food. But at the end of the day stopping an addiction is act of willpower...some people can do it, and others can’t.

[Principled]

No one wants to quit more than the addict or alcoholic.

That's true.

[Nifster]

If I don’t drink the first drink I can’t get drunk

[jmacusa]

Peter Hicthen’s is a smug, self-righteous arrogant Brit atheist who love to bash religion, espesically Christains and to be fair Muslims. Worse yet he has recently become a US citizen. If ever some poncey Brit git need his jaw broken it's this prick.

[jmacusa]

34 years? Good for you.

For me it'll be 34 years come February. It works when you work it, right?

[Principled]

It takes a tremendous amount of will power to quit an addiction, right?

In the same way it takes will power to beat cancer or heart disease or glaucoma.

So what is so unreasonable about saying that will power is lacking in people who can’t quit an addiction?

Is it unreasonable to say will power is lacking in people who aren't cured of a disease yet? If they'd just get some will power they'd cure it.

Hitchens is not saying addiction dies does not exist, he is objecting to the idea of calling it physical disease or “allergy of the body”.

I disagree on both parts. He is implying that addiction does not exist, that addicts lack the will power to stop and that said lack of will power is the sole source of the problem. Luckily, he is not an addict [neither am I but I have known a number of them closely.]

I stand by my assertion - Hitchens is ignorant. The fundamental problem in discussing the issue is that those who have not had experience with the issue or lived through a loved one suffering from addiction are simply ignorant. They're not being intentionally vicious, they just don't understand.

[discostu]

Addiction is chemical. Propensity for addiction is genetic/ biological. Willpower has very little to do with it. And keep in mind, on some level we’re all addicts. Endorphins trigger your opiate receptors. Anything you do for fun, anything that triggers that endorphins release, especially if you KNOW it’s going to, is, in the strictest sense, an addiction. And being a jerk seems to trigger Hitchens’ endorphins. So maybe he should use his willpower.

[PeterPrinciple]

Addiction is chemical.

---

Not always,

For many it is a habit, a behavior. behaviors are complex

Many drunks/druggies are not chemically addicted.