But isn’t alcohol and drug using just a choice that people make?
The best answer to this question is yes, no and maybe.

Starting to use alcohol or another drug is certainly a choice. Young people face this choice every day at school, at parties or just walking down their street. The safest option is always abstinence.

As the driving compulsion of Substance Addiction or Physical Dependence sets in, choice tends to mix with need. Drug use becomes - or seems to become - less of a choice and more of a necessity.

“I believed that if I had to live my life I had to use. I could see no way out. I expected to live as an addict and to die in addiction. That was my acceptance.”

Many people are far down the course of deep drug addiction before they realize that they are no longer in control - it is the alcohol or drug which is controlling them. Denial runs deep - and the Compulsion to use is far more persistent, powerful and unexplainable than most appreciate.

“I could see every problem in the world except my own.”

But at some point along their path, most people who suffer with Substance Abuse and/or Addiction will hear that recovery is possible. They may attend - or be forced to attend - a recovery program or learning seminar about the options for treatment.

Denial, false beliefs, compulsion and physical dependency remain powerful motivators to use. But once an addicted person has been introduced to the possibility of recovery, choice is once again an option.

Do I really want to stop using? Am I prepared to do what I need to do to recover? Can I trust what these people are saying to me? Do I believe it possible for me to recover? Am I a lost cause? Am I prepared to die in addiction?

These and other questions are the choices that the addicted person will make each day of their lives after learning about the options for recovery.