is drug addiction a disease?

Question

i heard people are trying to diagnose drug addiction as a disease .. DO YOU THINK DRUG ADDICTION IS A Disease ? WOULD YOU CONSIDER IT TO BE IN THE SMAE DiseaSE CRITIERA AS SAY DIABETES .. HEART DIisease ..lung cancer and so forth???
is drug addiction to you a medical emotional or brain disease?

anyform of addiction is not a disease... im addicted to pictures is this going to kill me??

Answer 1

We might not totally agree. But alcohol and drug addiction is considered a disease. It's a mental disease with psychological manifestations. It's very hard to view them as such as there's some will power and choices involved.


Addiction begins with the voluntary behavior of using drugs, and addicts must participate in and take some significant responsibility for their recovery.


Thus, having this brain disease does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior.
But it does explain why an addict cannot simply stop using drugs by sheer force of will alone.


The entire concept of addiction has suffered greatly from imprecision and misconception. In fact, if it were possible, it would be best to start all over with some new, more neutral term.

The confusion comes about in part because of a now archaic distinction between whether specific drugs are “physically” or “psychologically”addicting.

The distinction historically revolved around whether or not dramatic physical withdrawal symptoms occur when an individual stops taking a drug; what we in the field now call “physical dependence.”

However, 20 years of scientific research has taught that focusing on this physical versus psychological distinction is off the mark and a distraction from the real issues.

Thus, the majority of the biomedical community now considers addiction, in its essence, to be a brain disease:

A condition caused by persistent changes in brain structure and function expressed in compulsive behavior.

Answer 2

Addiction is a disease. It changes the structure of the brain. It rewires the reward/pleasure pathway. I've often wondered what the percentage breakdown of personal responsibility is. While an addict makes the first choice to pick up, once they are addicted there is very little choice involved. For those physically addicted to a substance, the withdrawal is so terrible, avoiding that substance is near impossible. To those that say it's a choice. Ask yourself this; would you put a drug that kills you slowly above every thing you love? Would you give your consent to risk dying daily for a quick fix? New evidence has emerged that when treated like a long term chronic illness, addiction treatment is much more successful. Deaths from overdoses have overtaken car accidents as the number one cause of death. So Id say the ratio of willpower and choice to disease decreases over time. It is classified as a disease by the AMA.

Answer 3

NO! A disease is something you catch without your knowledge. Drug abuse is just "stupidity". Idiots know that they can get hooked the very first time but to impress others they will risk it. The only public money that should be spent on these addicts is to take them to sea and drown them. They commit so much crime, burglaries, robberies, rapes and murders to get money for drugs. As for the dealers, they should give the dealers the drugs and slowly increase the dosage on a day to day basis. They should be made to pay for the suffering that they cause to innocent people (society). When they finally die, the body should be burnt in a rubbish incinerator with all the other rubbish. The drugs are not the disease but users tend to carry a lot of disease with them (AIDS, Hepatitus etc.)

Answer 4

I am so pissed at the B.S. people try to demand that this behavior is a disease... if someone keeps taking drugs, it s choice! If you want a disease, I have one for you, cancer ! or necrotizing pancreatitis ! No amount of wishing, hoping, b.s. and other non-sense will cure it, and it cannot be self inflicted. If someone can t control themselves, and then calls it a disease to get benefits and sympathy, and try to make it look like they are a victim, they are just scumbags, and morons. it is not a disease. if you wish you had a real disease, maybe you can get cancer someday and see what a disease really is! The liberals are always trying to b.s. the rest of us!

Answer 5

Tell people that are dying of cancer and don't have a CHOICE that drug addiction is a disease. Cancer patients would live to decide not to have cancer . Like it or not drug addiction is a choice.

Answer 6

Disease is an adverse change in the body. Drugs change the body's functions. They damage cells, organs and can change the chemical balance of an otherwise healthy person. Therefore, drug addiction IS a disease.

Answer 7

Any form of addiction is considered a disease such as alcoholism. It is a mental/emotional disease which does effect physical health by putting harmful substance(s) into the body.

Answer 8

It's not a disease, not in the medical sense. It's a weakness... but that doesn't sound very PC.

Answer 9

Wow, I have a disease, I'm ADDICTED to breathing!!!
Drug addiction IS NOT a disease! A disease is not something you can choose to start or stop. You cannot choose to NOT have cancer go to a rehab and get clean and free of cancer! I'm sick of these bleeding hearts saying it is a disease when it is clearly a choice. I have family members that are addicts so I understand how it hurts to see them strung out.

Answer 10

Maybe not in the same criteria..but DUH it's a disease and anyone who has a drug addiction should seek help. I've seen it screw way to many good friends up.