Addiction

Everyone, and I mean everyone has an addiction.
It may not be the typical kind of addictions we hear about all the time on or the disastrous kinds we read about, but everyone has one. Over the last few weeks I have had some terribly rough nights at work, dealing with patients who have been admitted to our hospital for addictions- but as one of the night nurses I work with has always said;
'EVERYONE have a vice, EVERYONE has an addiction, and it will be their own downfall.'

It's true.

I have friends who have chosen caffeine as their addiction. I know members of my extended family who have chosen food. I have friends who have found themselves addicted to lighter things, like popular movies and television shows. I know nurses who have chosen sugar and candy. But we don't see most of these as addictions, and they really are. But it took someone who needed that extra hit of Demerol to help me realize this

My addictions won't kill me, and society won't look down at me for them, but I have them. My addictions are simple things that get me through the day, such as caffeine when I'm working anything more than 4 hours, or Grey's Anatomy re-runs to get me through days off.

In medicine a lot of people judge, and the more I work my secondary unit the more I realize it is true. We are taught not to judge, we are taught not to discriminate, but we are human.
I hate that the staff does this. I understand their thinking, but its difficult for me to want to agree with them. (Thank goodness we only have to help our patients with their addictions for 8 hours, think about living with it.) Yes, working with a drug addict is time consuming and hard to do, but its also very insightful.

Last night I had a few patients working on their own addiction. And I did what I do every shift during downtime.

I asked myself 'what can I learn from these patients?'

The answer is simple: We are all in fact, human. They have judgements, just as we do. They have addictions, so do we. And when they fail themselves, they feel the same way we do- we feel human.

Do not misunderstand me by any means- I am not supporting their addictions because its a painful, expensive and life altering vice. But we are more like our patients than we think- and all we can do is treat them like family, and absorb as much knowledge as we can from them.
Addiction is a painful thing. Its also an incredibly simple one.
http://www.helpguide.org/