I watched ABC's Primetime: Family Secrets on Tuesday night. Correspondent Cynthia McFadden went behind the scenes with actor and famous Baldwin brother Daniel as he trudged his way through a Malibu drug rehab experience. It wasn't his first help-seeking trip -- at one point in his life, he went to rehab six times in four years.It's a disease, this whole addiction thing, say experts who believe addicts harbor a genetic predisposition for their bad habits. Baldwin agrees. And he calls this ninth stint in rehab his chemotherapy. He needs it, he says, to beat his disease.
McFadden asked Baldwin if his comparison of addiction to cancer wasn't a bit off target. Isn't choice part of the addiction equation, she inquired. "No," he responded. His disease will be with him for the rest of his life, he explained. It's no different really than if he was battling cancer.
I'm not sure about this. I see the genetic argument. I understand addictive personalities. I know it must be hard to kick addiction. But I don't know if I'd put it in the same category as cancer -- because addicts can elect to get help and it can work. Even though nearly 80 percent of those who complete rehab programs go back to using, it's possible to come out clean. Research shows it takes 90 days for the brain to rid itself of this "disease." Research shows there may never be a true cure for cancer.
So I'm just not sure about Baldwin's "chemotherapy." What about you?
1. I hope he never learn the difference. My father was a 25 cigarretes/day smoker during 35 years. And he was that kind that said "don't what they put into this thing but it's impossible to get out of it". Now he is 60 and 2 months ago he was diagnosed with a kidney cancer. That day he smoke his last cigarrete. Two months later he says "It's not what a cigarrete is made of, is what you lack: motivation".
Posted at 9:44AM on Jul 20th 2007 by Telemakos