Tia Little
English 111
Graybeal
November 7, 2012
Addiction: A Decision or Disease? Drug and alcohol addiction is a very serious and widespread problem in America, and across the globe. Drug addiction is a constant craving, seeking, and using of a substance, despite the negative consequences it may have on the addict or those around them. When drug use becomes more frequent, it is considered drug abuse. Once an individual’s drug abuse is can no longer be controlled, and they are using the drug to get through everyday life, it beomes an addiction. A person on drugs has an altered way of thinking, behaving, and perceiving. There are treatment facilities all over the world dedicated to help those suffering with drug addictions. All
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“The overstimulation of this reward system, which normally responds to natural behaviors linked to survival (eating, spending time with loved ones, etc.), produces euphoric effects in response to psychoactive drugs. This reaction sets in motion a reinforcing pattern that “teaches” people to repeat the rewarding behavior of abusing drugs ”(“Understanding Drug Abuse). Using addictive drugs floods the limbic brain with dopamine, taking it up to as much as five or ten times the normal level. A person with elevated dopamine levels now has a brain that begins to associate the substance with an outside neurochemical reward (“Your Brain on Drugs”). As a person continues to abuse drugs, the brain adapts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of dopamine receptors in the reward circuit. The result is a lessening of dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit, which reduces the abuser’s ability to enjoy the drugs, as well as the events in life that previously brought pleasure. The decrease in normal dopamine levels encourages the addict to keep abusing drugs in an attempt to bring the dopamine function back to normal, except now larger amounts of the drug are required to achieve the same dopamine high, an effect known as tolerance (“Understanding Drug Abuse ). That is what leads to the state of addiction, which leaves the person in a cycle of craving, using, withdrawal, and relapse. Despite the fact
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.
As we have been demonstrating many times before, drug addiction is a powerful force that controls millions of people’s life. Addiction has never been looked as a good thing, but in recent researches they have found out that addictions like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine are a matter of brain chemistry. Dr. Nora Volkow says that a brain becomes addicted to a drug when the levels of dopamine increases. By this the brain reacts by responding with pleasure, this causes us to want it more. When a person uses addictive drugs the drugs flood the brain with dopamine increasing it much as five to ten times the normal level. Our brain associates the drug as a neurochemical reward, over time by raising the amount of dopamine our brains think its “normal”. Even though the high doses of dopamine are seen as “normal” by the brain, drugs still can “hijack” your brain. For example let’s say your excited to go to McDonald's over time you would know what to expect from McDonald so no more dopamine will be released. However, it's not the same with drugs because you don’t know what to expect (drugs can have extra dopamine).
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.
Substance abuse and addiction have become a social problem that afflicts millions of individuals and disrupts the lives of their families and friends. Just one example reveals the extent of the problem: in the United States each year, more women and men die of smoking related lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined (Kola & Kruszynski, 2010). In addition to the personal impact of so much illness and early death, there are dire social costs: huge expenses for medical and social services; millions of hours lost in the workplace; elevated rates of crime associated with illicit drugs; and scores of children who are damaged by their parents’ substance abuse behavior (Lee, 2010). This paper will look at
Addictions are everywhere in the world that surrounds us, there are so many different types and often through the release of dopamine in our brains, addictions create such a pleasure with a followed release of serotonin or a sense of calmness that they are hard to escape. In a gospel perspective addictions cloud our decision and bind up our agency. In a talk given by Elder Russel M. Nelson in 1988, entitled Addiction or Freedom he states “Agency, or the power to choose, was ours as spirit children of our Creator before the world was. (See Alma 13:3; Moses 4:4.) It is a gift from God, nearly as precious as life itself. Often, however, agency is misunderstood. While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the
“Last year alone, 37,000 people died from drug related overdoses.” Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. Substance abuse is a growing problem that not only affects the person who is abusing alcohol or drugs but also affects the lives of those who are close to the abuser. Substance abuse is the abuse of any substance. A drug is a substance that modifies one or more of the body’s functions when it is consumed. It is often mistakenly assumed that drug abusers lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop using drugs simply by choosing to change their behavior. In reality, drug addiction is a disease and quitting takes a lot more than just changing your behavior. Drug Abuse is generally
It is believed that certain drugs have an impact on users that make them want to continue to use and try harder drugs. There is said to be an order to which people use drugs because of the gateway drug theory. People think that most adolescents usually start out with alcohol or tobacco which is then a gateway to trying illegal drugs, such as marijuana, that causes them to then try a harsher drug like heroin or cocaine. In the article, it states how many people agree that “in vulnerable individuals, particularly teenagers, some drugs are likely to be a way to future addiction because the drugs play such a role in the adolescent’s development” (Gateway 429). This article shows that people think there is a connection between adolescents using alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana that makes them take the risk of moving onto cocaine and other illegal drugs. This is not true and there is no order in which teenagers begin to use drugs that will automatically compel them to attempt harsher drugs. An individual is highly likely to seek harder drugs because of certain factors in their life, not due to the impact of the drug on them. These factors could include stress in school where the student is pushed to maintain a good GPA. They could also be in a situation of peer pressure among their friends, where everyone around them is trying and using drugs so they feel the need to keep up with the social standard of belonging in the group. Another one could be the living situation of the
People in the World State and the United States use drugs to escape reality; however, Drugs actually create more problems than actually exist in reality. There are two causes why people do drugs, drug addiction and to get rid of the emotional pain.
My entire life my mother has struggled with drug addiction. When I was younger, a typical day spent with her was stealing money or medications from our loved ones or friends. It did not bother my mother one bit to steal from anyone especially her own children. But she justified her actions by blaming it on a brain disease that she could not help. It was merely a choice that she made everyday to hurt her family and those around her. She would choose to steal, lie, and cheat her way to obtaining the drug of her choice. Drug addiction is not a brain disease but rather a choice because you can relieve the symptoms, the idea of compulsion, the effects of neuroplasticity, treatment, and the labeling theory.
Acknowledgement of drug addiction came after the Civil War in America. Numerous men had surgeries from loss of limbs and viruses they developed in their base camps while in combat. Physicians in the war abundantly gave soldiers opium and morphine for their pain and sicknesses. According to Bellis (1981), “During the Civil War intravenous injection of morphine spread rapidly and addiction became so pronounced that an American narcotics “problem” was spoken of for the first time” (p. 5). Consequently, soldiers came home sick with an addiction to morphine and introduced the drug to other people causing the problem to spread further.
Drugs have become one of the most popular substance that impacts a widespread of people in many different countries. A drug can best be defined as a substance that modifies the body normal functions. With this being said, have cause the increase in its popularity of usage across the world for many years and from different age groups. This usage of drugs like marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and meth have led to numerous addictions, also known as substance abuse. By this substance abuse not only can give off a good buzz to its recipient but can also damage the bodies physical functions, decreasing an individual life’s span.
Addiction is very complex, and it is important to recognize how people can become addicted to things. Despite beliefs, addicts are not merely individuals who lack morals or self-control. It is not quite as simple as just choosing to not do something. According to the American Society to Addiction Medicine, “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry… Addiction is often characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and dysfunctional emotional response.” Drug usage and abuse mainly affects the reward circuit of the brain. The reward circuit is responsible for the body’s ability to feel pleasure. Drugs cause the reward system to be flooded with dopamine, and this overstimulation causes a “high”. This, in turn, leads the brain to adjust to excess dopamine. Due to drugs altering brain chemistry, drug addiction is classified as a chronic disease. A chronic disease like this can also disturb learning, judgement, stress,
“ There’s no greater pain than watching someone you love ...love their drugs more than they love you.” Drug addiction is a chronic disease affecting the brain, and just about everyone is different. Drugs affect different people in different ways. One person can take and abuse drugs, yet never become addicted, while another simply has one experience and is immediately hooked.Drug Addiction explains and is characterized by a person having to use the drugs repeatedly, regardless of the damage it does to their health ,their family, their career and their relationships with friends and the community.In 2016 nearly 500 people died on Long Island from opioid overdose. According to the Federal CDC,drugs were the 9th leading cause of death in the U.S in 2013.Opioid overdoses are the leading cause of drug related accidental deaths.
Drugs: A substance which has a physiological effect when introduced into the body. Addiction: the compulsive need to use a habit-forming substance. I began to take a drug, uneducated about the side effects that were to come. Every morning, every night and every chance that I could get I took this drug. Originally, I took this drug to help, it was meant to connect me to the world and keep me updated. Now, I cannot last a couple of hours, let alone an entire day without the taste of it. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I do when I go to sleep at night is consume this hateful drug. I had always believed that drugs were invented to improve an individual’s well-being, I did not realise that the side effects could ever be worse than the beneficial effects.
When a person has a drug addiction, they have a disease that has the ability to affect and hurt the entire family. Everyone in the addict’s immediate family is affected in one way or another. Addiction impacts a family’s finances, physical health as well as psychological wellbeing. It can also cause tension, miscommunication, and more frequent arguments within a household which in turn creates an unhealthy environment for everyone involved. The addict can be very unpredictable which can cause anxiety, emotional pain, stress, and a loss of trust because that person cannot be counted on to follow through with what they say. Frequently, the people who are addicted don’t even realize or believe they are causing these problems within their families. And unfortunately, they don’t view themselves as sick or suffering from a problem, so they don’t reach out for help. When the person finally realizes they may have a problem, they believe the solution is to escape and run away from their addiction.