Addiction And Disease

Addiction, it is all around us, affecting people from all walks of life, it is not limited to certain social classes or lifestyles. It is found in every ethnic group, regardless of gender or age. It affects our neighbors, our friends, and our family either directly or indirectly. Although substances such as alcohol and illegal drugs are two of the most common addictions we hear about, there is a wide range of substances and even activities such as gambling and shopping. There is some debate whether addiction is a brain disease or a choice.

Many people believe the misconception that an addiction is a moral problem and not a disease. To better understand the reasons why an additicition is in fact a disease; I will identify several types of addictions, and the problems associated with them. I will examine reasons why certain people are more susceptible for developing an addiction. Also, I will determine why many addicts deny their problems and many recovery methods addicts use to fight their illness. Researching these issues, will help aid my claim that addiction is a disease.

In order to better understand addiction as a disease as opposed to a moral dilemma it first must be broken down. First you must look at the way in which the chemicals affect the brain. The first attempt at partaking in any mind altering substance can be looked at as a choice to the individual. However what happens after that first

Addiction: is it a disease or a choice? A disease can be described as “a disorder of structure or function that produces specific signs or symptoms, or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of a physical injury.” Knowing this, one can believe addiction is a disease. It is something that is done frequently, that usually does not end, just as a disease; it cannot cease on its own, because it requires some form of treatment. The big question regarding addiction is why people believe it to be a choice opposed to a disease.

At the end of the course, it would only make sense that we turn to the question that we considered at the beginning of the course: What is addiction? Although the many decades of research on the topic have focused on many of the same topics, there are still disagreements on the answer to this question. Despite differences in opinion related to some of the most basics aspects in the field, there have been improvements in treatment and the way the topic is discussed. When I began this course, I was firmly ground in the belief that addiction is a disease, but there were some different parts of the course that have encouraged me to reexamine my initial understanding of addiction. This final paper will detail the process in which my beliefs at the

Addiction is also one of the only diseases that actually leads to another disease. By drinking, smoking or taking drugs a person can develop cancers, liver disease, heart problems, lung disease, and more. These diseases are brought on by the action of the addict. There is not another disease that produces another disease based on a person’s actions. Also there are many people who experiment with drugs that do not go on to become addicts. One final thought to support my viewpoint. There are also addicts that quit cold turkey and do not use again ever. (15) They did it on their own, under their own will power, without any medical intervention or 12 step program. There is no other medical disease that a person can use their own will power and decision making to stop having a disease. What I will concede is that there is an addictive compulsive component when someone makes the poor choice of using drugs, alcohol, or gambling and such. I believe we are all hard wired to have a tendency for obsessive compulsive behaviors, it is how we choose to act or not act on them that I think sets those of us apart from others.

In the medical field "addiction" is not currently a term used for any diagnosable disorder as the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders uses the disease category "substance abuse and dependence" and under this category the specific drug that is being abused, or the patient is dependent on, is listed with it's own diagnosis code. The newest edition, the DSM V, is changing that and replaces "substance abuse and dependence with “addictions and related disorders.” The APA has gone back and forth between use of the terms “addiction” and “dependence” to describe alcohol and other drug problems (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Addiction is like most major diseases. Consider heart disease, the leading cause of death in the developed world. It's partly due to genes and partly due to poor life style choices such as bad diet, lack of exercise, and smoking. The same is true for other common diseases like adult-onset diabetes. Many forms of cancers are due to a combination of genes and life style. But if your doctor said that you had diabetes or heart disease, you wouldn't think you were bad person. You would think, "What can I do to overcome this disease?" That is how you should approach addiction.

In this article, Dodes, begins by introducing how the term “disease” came to be a label for people who had addictions. In the past, society had a “prejudice” view on addicts and they were seen as degrading. Then, it transpired that addicts

Scientists and physicians say that addiction is a complex, but treatable disease that affects brain function and behavior. The use of

This becomes clear if you compare addiction with true diseases. In addiction there is no infectious agent (as in tuberculosis), no pathological biological

The omnipresence of the disease perception of addiction disguises the fact that it did not appear from the buildup of scientific discoveries. The meaning to addiction-as-disease has been continuously reformed, commonly in the path of conceptual flexibility, such that it now bears an embarrassment of riches: an increasing variety of growing range of supposedly addictive experiences which do not assist the intake of drugs. Doing something excessively does not solely represent addiction. Addiction is preoccupying your life around it, as well as, setting it as the prime and most important activity over everyone and everything else. Addiction can make the person become very obsessive over the activity as their day-to-day life revolves around it. On the other hand, abstinence is the very opposite, it is the form of ‘not doing '. It allows someone to act willingly to their own beliefs. However, this still causes triumph as people who do not ‘do ' are still noticed, as well as those who ‘do ' within their social circles as they are breaking norms which are required in today 's society. This makes the person become visible. You get two types of ‘not doing '. They are quitting something that was a habit of the person such as becoming an ex-smoker or an ex-drinker, and ‘never doings’ which are acts a person has never engaged in, for example, sex, smoking etc. Both types define one’s identity but their social significance differs as quitting is easier to manage than ‘never doing’.

Addiction is a choice and by classifying addiction as a disease, we are just enabling drug addicts to take no responsibility for their own actions in their lives. By labeling addiction as a medical condition it creates a false assumption that addicts have no control over their own behavior. People become addicts because of their behavior, not their brain chemistry. The disease concept is so popular because it gives people an easy way out; if they inherited their addiction they can’t be responsible for their own behavior. The disease model of addiction is flawed for a number of reasons; first, most people who take drugs do not become addicted, but may take drugs for a period of time, then stop when they choose to do so. Many well respected professors and scientist claim addiction is a scapegoat behavior that has been incorrectly identified as a physical or mental illness, an addict is only a victim of bad science and misguided policy.

Throughout my childhood & teen years, the illness of addiction was something I grew to be quite familiar with. I was forced to watch this monster take over the lives of my family everyday which led me to develop a blistering hate. Hate for my family, hate for drugs, hate for addiction, hate for everything. When one thinks of something like addiction, they just imagine a person just taking drugs or drinking alcohol for their personal enjoyment but it is so much more than that. Addiction includes lying, manipulating, stealing, and hurting. Not just hurting themselves, but all those around them. Addiction consumes the person as a whole and controls their everyday actions.

According to The Recovery Village, an “addiction is characterized as the inability to stop” (Gould 2016). And no matter who you ask, they are going to give you a similar definition to the one provided by The Recovery Village because that is exactly what it is, an inability to stop and take back control. Addiction is very personal to me because of the way it has impacted my life and my families’ life. I developed a gambling addiction this past year and prior to that I’ve had numerous cousins fall victims to drug addictions. Being addicted to drugs is like having a disease in your body, that is very similar to that of cancer and diabetes. According to Rehab.com, drug addiction is a disease because it alters the brain with chemical dependency and “once these changes