BOB CREAMER BELIEVES that addiction is the most important social issue facing our state — and he should know.

For about 50 years, Creamer has worked with people recovering from addiction to substances such as alcohol and drugs from the time he was in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s working as a neuropsychiatric technician at a 2,000-bed Army hospital outside Honolulu.

Afterward, he worked at the VA Maine Healthcare Systems-Togus in Augusta, first as a nursing assistant and then as an addictions recovery counselor. Then he worked for the VA in Arizona.

At 69, he is retired but still works with people recovering from addictions — as a volunteer educator at both Discovery House, a methadone clinic in Waterville, and at Somerset County Jail in Madison.

“About 50 years ago when I started doing this, one of the big substances people were concerned about was heroin, and here we are 50 years later and one of the big substances people are worried about is heroin, so you’ve got to ask, why is it still going on? What aren’t we doing? We’re obviously doing some things that work.”

Creamer, of Hallowell, loves his volunteer work, and he enjoys the people he helps to educate about addiction and what it’s all about.

“I love to see the lights come on when people get it,” he says.

Through all his years of experience, Creamer has come to the conclusion that addiction is a disease — that it should be viewed as a medical issue and people who are addicted are not the problem, nor is the substance they are using.

The problem is the disease, and it should be treated as any other disease such as diabetes or cancer, he says.

He acknowledges that his views may not be popular with some people, but he is set in his belief that genetics plays a very large part in predisposing people to addiction.

“I think the majority of people now believe that there’s a genetic basis to it. I think the evidence points to maybe a 60/40, with the 40 due to environmental and social causes. Trauma — major trauma — can alter a person’s chemistry, and even their genetic function, enough to kick in addiction. Many people will, at least temporarily, go to substances of some kind during times like that.”

Creamer does not have a license to be a counselor, nor does he want one, being retired now and enjoying his volunteer work. He teaches classes at Discovery House and the Somerset jail, helping to educate people recovering from addictions about why they became addicted — and telling them that addiction is a disease.

“What I find is that most people with addictions don’t really understand what that means. If I have a disease and I don’t understand how it works or what it’s about, how am I going to treat it? You’ve got to appreciate that 40 or 50 years ago we didn’t understand what we do now about addiction. The same is true with cancer, stroke and heart disease.”

“Any disease that we can pre-act to has a much better outcome than when we react to it,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re not at a place where we’re pre-acting. You’ve got to start a dialogue — you’ve got to get over some attitudes — and many people still believe, ultimately, that people with addiction make bad choices, so ultimately it’s their fault.”

And that’s where Creamer disagrees with the notion that people who are addicted have a choice — that they are to blame.

“If I keep telling you the things you do are your fault, after a while, how are you to tell? You feel embarrassment and blame yourself. Basically, you get to a point where you might feel hopeless.”

Addiction, he says, must be treated like other diseases, where the focus is on the disease, not the person. When someone goes to the emergency room with chest pains, for instance, the symptoms may indicate a heart attack, so the focus is on the disease. When someone goes into a treatment center or hospital or emergency room for addiction, the focus is primarily on the person, not the disease.

People recovering from addiction often are described as druggies or junkies — titles that are derogatory, Creamer says. How does one feel if he is called a junkie? he asks.

Some people confuse the symptoms of addiction with character defects, which he believes is an important distinction.

“If you call people defective, they are going to get defensive, and I don’t believe they are defective. I believe they have an addiction. They have a disease that causes all the chaos they’re involved with. It’s not something that we choose, but it sure does happen.”

The people attending Creamer’s classes at Discovery House are of all ages and come from all walks of life.

“It’s people living in the woods and penthouses and everything in between,” he said. “Addiction is like any other disease. It knows no boundaries. It’s not prejudiced in any way.”

He explains to those hardworking, caring and dedicated people who are recovering from addictions that they are not the problem — they are the victims. He tells them it is the same with diabetes — that sugar is not the problem, it’s the person’s inability to process or metabolize sugars in the appropriate way.

“Addiction is the problem, and if you don’t understand what addiction is about, how can you take care of it? I’m a firm believer in education.”

Many of those who attend Creamer’s classes started experimenting with alcohol or drugs in their early teens and some later on in life.

“I’ve worked with people who say they didn’t start drinking or using until their 40s. That’s kind of rare. When I was working at the VA, I’d see people come back because they relapsed and were embarrassed. At the jail and Discovery House, people will say, ‘I’ve been in recovery now 2 1/2 years.’ Recovery is hard because part of your brain wants nothing more than to stay involved with the rewards and that part of your brain has no interest in logic or reasoning or the consequences.”

Creamer is ready to start that dialogue with those who help people recover from addiction.

“This is a medical disease and until we legitimize it that way, we’re always going to have some difficulty because people being treated are not hearing that the basis of this disease is medical. Basically, everyone in the state of Maine is affected by addiction. If you figure one-tenth of the population of Maine has addiction, that’s 130,000 people and how many people do they know? Basically, that’s the whole state. So the whole state, one way or another, is affected by addiction. You can’t say that about any other disease.”

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 27 years. Her column appears here Mondays. She may be reached at [email protected]