Addiction as a disease?

Question

Please, let me say first that I have read the q's about addiction being an addiction. For MY question, for a paper I am writing, I am looking for people's responses with a REASON, not just an opinion...do you think addiction is a disease? If yes, why? Especially, if not, why not? Please be specific! Not looking for smartass answers to report

Answer 1

Thank you for your question. I suffer from addiction. Tonight I've struggled with my disease. I used to believe that people simply got "Hooked" until i found myself in that position. I have been educated through medical counseling about the "Disease concept". For me to answer your question first I must separate other disorders I have as well. To be frank, addiction comes in many different forms. I have learned that ANYTHING mood or mind altering is addictive. Addiction is an Obsessive Compulsive Behavior Disorder (Tunnel vision), which is self-destruction. The results of OCBD are not healthy. Addiction is a slow and progressive disease which if left untreated will cause a negative affect to the physical body as well as the addicts mental health. Look at it this way, the smartest people on this planet recognize addiction as a disease, if the medical society didn't then your medical insurance would not cover the treatment. There are so many ignorant people that actually believe that will power has something to do with it. God bless em.

Answer 2

It's a difficult question to answer, because it all hinges on the definition of 'disease'. Clearly it is a dis-ease - the person is not at ease with themselves (I'll say more about that in a minute). But it is definitely not a disease in the sense that TB or whooping cough or influenza are diseases - there is not pathogen causing it.

We simply don't know (so far there is no solid incontrovertible evidence) whether there is a genetic component to alcoholism or other addiction. What is abundantly clear is that people are more likely to become addicts if they come from families where there has been previous addiction. BUT there is no reason to suppose this is genetic, because we also observe people becoming addicts from families without a previous history of substance addiction. What seems to be in common among addicts is a childhood that has been difficult in some way. The addict may not always report this or believe it initially, but you'd be surprised what can be hiding away behind "I had an idyllic childhood". This is because the patterns that lead to addiction are defence mechanisms built up in early childhood in order to avoid painful feelings. So the person may have learnt techniques to 'feel OK', but in fact this is really feeling numb. And substance addiction is a great way to numb out painful feelings as an adult.

Of course, this begs the question of why some people have similarly difficult childhoods and don't become addicted adults. Perhaps there IS a genetic propensity. Or perhaps they have found some other mechanism that works for them so well that they don't need to discover substance abuse.

Overall, it seems unlikely that addiction is a disease in the sense of something caused by a pathogen or a genetic issue (as in some cancers or chronic diseases) or anything else (like Parkinson's Disease or multiple sclerosis) that is a physical condition with clear pathology that can be observed under a microscope or through lab work. There may be a predisposition, but the person will not become an addict without emotional/psychological injury suffered in the early years of life. IF one calls a psychological injury a disease, then addiction is a disease. But I DON'T term that a disease (which suggests that it's something that 'just happens'). Psychological work is needed to get through addiction of any sort, and without such work, abstinence is unlikely to last long.

Edit: having read some other Q & A, I have discovered that some people seem to believe that if something isn't labelled a disease, it is just something trivial you should 'get over'. I am not suggesting that for one single moment - very much to the contrary, I am saying this is serious stuff and exceptionally difficult to deal with, that an addict needs therapeutic help at quite an intense level over a long time - just that it's not the same sort of thing as TB or muscular dystrophy.

Answer 3

Addiction is a disease, not a habit or a character weakness. Social and family environment along with genetics play a role, that why you see multigenerational addicts within families. Yes addicts have free will, and make a choice to take that drink, snort that line, whatever, but once they do they cannot control their compulsion. It is a chronic, cant be cured only controlled and often involves other mental health problems. The addict may have started out trying to self medicate in many instances

Over the years the addicts brain chemistry changes and new neural paths are created which continue to foster the addiction. Thats why many addicts in recovery talk about "rewiring" their Brain and a recovery technique is to "play the tape' in ones head of what happens based on the past- loss of job, loved ones, home, hitting rock bottom. The results of addiction are institutionalism and death.

Addiction is a cancer of the soul, a true disease and those that suffer should be treated with the compassion of any other terminal disease sufferer

Answer 4

From what I've seen, some addictions like alcohol, drugs and sex show a different pattern to brain stimulus or a different response to brain pleasure chemicals.
This is verifiable using MRI technology.
If there is a physiological difference if response than a non addict to the same stimuli then we have something different at work beside 'poor self-control' or 'poor judgment'
But I do think you can have poor self-control or poor judgment and take too many drugs or drink too much without it being a physiological addiction.
There may well be mental or emotional problems that people use drugging and drinking to avoid or numb. This is discretional not physiological and I wouldn't think of it as a true addiction.

Answer 5

a b has the right perspective on this,2 thumbs up for you a b!!

In my opinion(as a recovering addict/alcoholic) Yes it is a disease, just like cancer,diabetes,etc.

Can it be treated the same as those other diseases? NO.

One cannot see drug addiction,except its effects(and purchases,behavioral changes...etc)From the same train of thought, can we see depression?Bipolar disorder? NO, but they are listed as similar illnesses.

Is there a cure for addiction,other than abstaining,none that I have ever heard of!(which is not a cure,just a arresting of the symptoms,like chemotherapy for the cancer,but more effective if one never picks up another drug.)

Back to topic.

I understand addiction, and critics of addiction(being an addict in recovery)

Do I want justification that I am a drug addict and not be 'responsible' for my addiction, just my recovery? Of course I do, But this does not make your point yet.

If I was responsible for my actions during my 'active' addiction,that would make addiction a willpower defect, not a disease

If my actions during my 'active' days were due to an addiction,uncontrolled by my best assets(character)then I am able to justify addiction as a disease,classify it(legally and mentally) and receive help,as well as justify, morally, that I am not defective, it was an addiction in control.

I hope this helps.

Answer 6

AA is the biggest worldwide group dealing with addiction to alcohol.They originally called it a disease so that it could be funded under medical insurance.

So I think that categories only matter when they have consequences.

I am a heavily addicted person and feel it is way beyond my control and there is nothing out there to help except human support or legislation to remove these substances. There isn't enough money on the communal pot to help me out here,
I would opt personally for it being a disease in order to focus peoples minds on the severity of the condition people die of addiction.

Answer 7

If something has become an addiction in your life it is generally held as something bad ....... drugs, alcohol, food etc. but an addiction to fitness for example I would not view as a bad thing, in fact more people in the USA could benefit from this addiction.

Answer 8

Depend on whether you mean drug additions or something like gambling. I strongly believe that, for some people, regardless of the additions, they are strong willed enough to fight it off. Take myself, I love to gamble, but if I know it will hurt my financial situation, I can stop it just like that. On the other hand, I know my wife will kill me, if I go for another woman, but who knows what will happen, if Miss World like girl is making eyes at me and the wife is not looking. You get my meaning? I think you need to quantify your study to drug and social additions. How do you go about to prove your theory? Sorry, don't know!

Answer 9

i am addicted to smoking and drinking when at home i know what the problem is just not got the willpower to help myself most ot is boredom the rest is blowing out a kind of relief valve going off stupid i know but that what happens to me

Answer 10

Addiction can come in many forms...lack of minerals to the brain for instance, in some cases, causes O.C.D. for instance, which in turn, can cause people to compulsively gamble, sex, etc, and be proned to abuse drugs...because we are not born perfect, this makes sense..but, this is not a DISEASE...this is not something that is caught, or something that we can really call a disease, but is labeled that, in my belief,..so that many people can profit financially from the 'cure'..it is SIN..and it is amazing, that most of these addictions, are never cured, until there is divine intervention...inspite of what 'doctors and men of science' try to claim...How many people have you heard, that can't quit no matter what, and then find Jesus and God, and miraculously, they change...