"I'm Breaking Up With the Word 'Addict' and I Hope You'll Do the Same" by Meghan Ralston is a must-read article that discusses why we need to stop using the word "addict" and reminds us to use more patient-centered language instead as one's health or medical diagnoses, whether physical, emotional, or mental, does not define who they are as a person.
"We don't say, "my mother, the blind," or "my brother, the bipolar." We don't say, "my best friend, the epileptic," or "my nephew, the leukemia." We don't do that because we intuitively understand how odd it would sound, and how disrespectful and insensitive it would be. We don't ascribe a difficult state as the full sum of a person's identity and humanity ... My days of chaotic substance abuse are long behind me. I am not "an addict" now, and I wasn't "an addict" then. I'm just a person, who had a period of difficulty, pain and challenge. I battled, I failed, I tried again -- just like most people."
"We don't say, "my mother, the blind," or "my brother, the bipolar." We don't say, "my best friend, the epileptic," or "my nephew, the leukemia." We don't do that because we intuitively understand how odd it would sound, and how disrespectful and insensitive it would be. We don't ascribe a difficult state as the full sum of a person's identity and humanity ... My days of chaotic substance abuse are long behind me. I am not "an addict" now, and I wasn't "an addict" then. I'm just a person, who had a period of difficulty, pain and challenge. I battled, I failed, I tried again -- just like most people."
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