ARE YOU AN ADDICT OR AN ALCOHOLIC-DENIAL

'I used to tell myself I wasn't addicted to the stuff, even while I was putting the needle in to inject,' says Roger. 'I could handle it. I could give it up any time.'

Here is the mystery of chemical dependence. Addicts or alcoholics are often literally the last people to see what the illness is doing to them. If they do see, they are blind to the obvious way to recover. This is the mental side of the illness.

It is an illness which tells the sufferer that he hasn't got it.

An addict or an alcoholic is characterised by denial. He or she is unable or unwilling to admit to the problem.

There is a third aspect to the illness of chemical dependence. This is the ethical degradation, what recovering addicts sometimes call the 'spiritual' side of the illness. An addict's behaviour becomes worse and worse as the illness progresses.

Addicts and alcoholics behave badly because they use drugs and drink: they are sick and therefore their behaviour deteriorates. It is not that they are bad people: their bad behaviour is usually the outward symptom of their inner illness of chemical dependence.

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