What is wrong with us?

I heard a story at a meeting yesterday that explained everything one needs to know about addiction. The 40 year old guy took his 90 token. A 90 day token is an award for having ninety continuous days of sobriety.  That is a huge thing for a person who has been addicted for years and years. John was a Iraq war veteran. He was a sergeant, a leader of men, a combat hardened warrior.  Then the Army released him. He went home to live with Mom until he got a job. He had continuing nightmares of the time in service, IED's, burned bodies and comrades who were lost while under his leadership. They said he has PTSD. He found a solution in alcohol. Within a year he had switched addictions and was now on Heroin. The Hero was out stealing to pay for the forgetfulness that came with each shot. But it demanded more, more and more. One day he left his door ajar at home and his Mom looked in to see blood everywhere and her son nearly dead. The ambulance came. The doctor said he had 7% of his heart functions left and that he would probably die. He continued to live and he spent one month in intensive care. Four months later he was released to a rehab hospital where he learned to walk and to feed himself again. After one year of therapy he returned to his heart doctor. The doctor told him that his heart had returned to 70% function and John cried. He cried not because he lived, not because his body had been restored or that his heart was basically normal. John cried because he then knew that he could then use heroin again.
An addict will do anything to return to the needle. There is no learning, no recovery and no life if an addict does not seek help. Thank God that today John took 90 days clean time, the most time he has had in years. But John could not have stopped on his own. The doctors warnings were not sufficient to make John stop. His Mothers tears could not convince John that he should not use again. He had to go out and destroy some more relationships and do some more damage before he could start clean time again. John had to find others that had the same problems. John had to get to a 12 step program and start to work the steps for without the steps he would surely use again. John found out that he had a spiritual malady and his only hope was a spiritual solution that can be brought on by working the 12 steps. Tonight John is a hero again. A hero with 90 1/2 days clean time. Congratulations.