Working at a treatment facility gives zero idea of what it is like to be an alcoholic
It is one of the few things that I say if you aren’t one there is no possible way you can understand
It is one of the few things that I say if you aren’t one there is no possible way you can understand
Yes and no.
Largely no.
Perhaps you have never experienced a high degree of empathy. Perhaps you have little capacity to more or less experience what it is like to place yourself in another person's skin.
True, it's not identical understanding with identical knowledge. However, in my housemate's case, it is far from a "zero idea" as every alcoholic he's worked with or known closely would be happy to tell you.
Struggles with any kind of addiction have a LOT in common. Each particular sort has some distinctives fairly unique to that specific addiction. However, there's still a LOT of shared stuff across all addictions. That's even more true across all substance abuse addictions.
Failure to believe or understand that is simply lack of understanding or awareness. Perhaps one of your addictions is exaggeration.
You seem like you are an extremely BLACK or WHITE 100% vs 0% sort of person. Your teens must have had fun with that.