1.
>>The reason why the person running a 12 step meeting (therapy group for addicts) must be a former user and addict, is because to understand the addict, to understand the pain, one had to have experienced it.<<
I need to disagree with you here. It is wrong to say that the only person capable of helping someone is someone who had similar experiences. Are you telling me that the only person who can help a mother who (lo aleynu) lost a child is someone who they themselves lost a child? How about infertility? Illness?
One simply needs to be educated as to the nature of the addiction and what comes with it. To say they must have been an addict themselves is an injustice.
2.
Is it abuse or addiction, in this article you try to focus on both as the main factor. Which is it?
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