Addiction is not a disease — and we’re treating addicts incorrectly

[SLM]

Addiction is not a disease — and we’re treating addicts incorrectly

We all know addiction is a disease. It has been so classified by all the authoritative sources. The American Medical Association labeled alcoholism an “illness” back in 1967.
The Centers for Disease Control, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and Alcoholics Anonymous urge us to think of alcohol and drug addiction as diseases.
Great minds such as Oprah Winfrey, Russell Brand and Joe Biden agree: the then-senator even introduced a bill in 2007 called the “Recognizing Addiction as a Disease Act.” (It never came up for a vote.)
The disease theory has powerful forces behind it, has money behind it. Perhaps most important, it has a comforting thought behind it. Hey, it could happen to anyone. You’re not a morally flawed individual if you catch the flu, are you? We don’t think of people with autism, “They could beat it if they tried.”
“To reject the disease label is not to demote addiction, nor is it to diminish sympathy for the addict’s plight.”


Addiction-as-disease is in some ways a thoroughly American idea. It ties together how we approach medicine (with a precisely defined target and a definitive program to fight it) and our proudly tolerant spirit in which being judgmental is seen as a kind of vice. Plus it opens up profit opportunities from sea to shining sea.
If addiction is a disease, though, why do most addictions end spontaneously, without treatment? Why did some 75% of heroin-addicted Vietnam vets kick the drug when they returned home?
It’s hard to picture a brain disease such as schizophrenia simply going away because someone decided not be schizophrenic anymore.
Addiction is not a disease. It’s simply a nasty habit, says neuroscientist Dr. Marc Lewis, himself a longtime addict and professor of developmental psychology, in his new book, “The Biology of Desire.”

More here:

Addiction is not a disease — and we’re treating addicts incorrectly | New York Post


Could not agree anymore with this had I wrote it myself. Particularly note worthy are the parts relating to the necessity of empowerment in healing.

 

[Machjo]

Interesting. To me at least, addiction is synonymous with a bad habit, albeit a much more en grained one.

 

[Kreskin]

https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_ha...you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong?language=en

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

If addiction is a disease, though, why do most addictions end spontaneously, without treatment? Why did some 75% of heroin-addicted Vietnam vets kick the drug when they returned home?

Most diseases end spontaneously, without treatment. Ever had a cold or flu or a stomach bug?

 

[Johnnny]

Once a junkie always a junkie. Don't be so naive people!!!!

 

[SLM]

Once a junkie always a junkie. Don't be so naive people!!!!

Yeah! Fuk hope, that's for suckers!!!

 

[damngrumpy]

Once a junkie always a junkie not true I know several people who went a
long way down the sad road to disaster and today they are doing very well
and don't do booze or drugs generalizations are not contributing to solutions.
Being negative doesn't help either

 

[petros]

Once a junkie always a junkie not true I know several people who went a
long way down the sad road to disaster and today they are doing very well
and don't do booze or drugs generalizations are not contributing to solutions.
Being negative doesn't help either

The craving for dopamine never goes away or changes. How you acquire an elevated level does.

 

[Machjo]

Once a junkie always a junkie. Don't be so naive people!!!!

That is true. I've been a teetotaler for well over a decade and still can't risk drinking alcohol.

Once a junkie always a junkie not true I know several people who went a
long way down the sad road to disaster and today they are doing very well
and don't do booze or drugs generalizations are not contributing to solutions.
Being negative doesn't help either

Let me guess. If they drank compulsively, today they are still teetotalers.

I don't mind people offering me alcohol, but I find it highly offensive, the ultimate disrespect to try to pressure me to drink in the least. That might be why the vast majority of my friends are teetotalers. Drinking not even one glass would make me crave another. I would black out on low levels of alcohol but apparently would keep drinking until I passed out. The next day I'd crave it until it was all out of the system. I do not believe it to be DNA. I suffer PTSD (which my therapist thought to probably be intergenerational), OCD, and BPD, which can all contribute to addiction. I've also struggled with a number of addictions in my life, alcohol being the only chemical one, the others all being process addictions. I don't buy lottery tickets, never mind playing at the casino. Even that can become compulsive to me. I wouldn't necessarily mind if someone bought me a ticket for my birthday for example, but I do refuse to buy them myself because I would react the same way to those as I do to alcohol.

My first encounter with alcohol was at the age of twelve at Christmas. My dad, a retired military firefighter (who also likely suffers PTSD and is a heavy drinker to this day) wanted me to try a glass. The first thing I'd noticed was the numbing effect it could have on my emotions and so started gulping it down. My dad angrily told me to sip slowly and I could feel myself having to restrain my desires to do so. It was such an unpleasant experience that I'd decided never to drink again. Even in my initial stages in the military I refused to drink until I'd broken under peer pressure, then finding myself drunk whenever I had a day off for months. I had such a hard time dealing with the drinking environment that I'd requested a discharge (though I never told them the real reason for my request) and, that having failed, purposely made myself lazy in training. That worked.

Once out of the military I'd forced myself to quit drinking but then suffered severe depression for about a month afterwards before finally getting used to accepting my emotions again, which have never really gone away since childhood. That's why I have to be careful. Dopamine numbs emotions, and I can get it from one addiction or another (it does not necessarily need to be a chemical addiction). In my case, numbing emotions feels good, to not feel feels good. Even today when I see my dad my heart rate increases and an irrational fear of him rises up even though I rationally know he can't hurt me. I've learnt to be a good actor around him and force the smile. I love him yet fear him if that makes sense. Stress can also trigger me to be tempted to turn to one process addiction or another, so I must avoid potentially compulsive behaviours altogether, though thankfully I can identify them easily enough.

 

[Johnnny]

I've dealt with way too much Rapasse abusing oxy's in Sudbury to not be able to see it any other way. Sure there are one or two people who turned their lives around, but the majority of the people i've known and still know would stab their own Grandmother for a hit.

 

[SLM]

I've dealt with way too much Rapasse abusing oxy's in Sudbury to not be able to see it any other way. Sure there are one or two people who turned their lives around, but the majority of the people i've known and still know would stab their own Grandmother for a hit.

You know that the term "addiction" encompasses much more than just Oxy and heroin though, right? Alcohol, tobacco, gambling....just to name a few.

 

[Machjo]

You know that the term "addiction" encompasses much more than just Oxy and heroin though, right? Alcohol, tobacco, gambling....just to name a few.

Internet, gaming, sex, even eating can become addictive to some people. And yes, it is a disease, but perhaps more of a spiritual disease. It might never go away, but one can learn to control it.

Another argument is that addiction is not a disease but rather a symptom of one.

 

[petros]

It's all about the dopamine and the way addictions rewire the neural pathways.

It takes a long freakin' time to heal.

 

[Machjo]

It's all about the dopamine and the way addictions rewire the neural pathways.

It takes a long freakin' time to heal.

But heal from what. The first time I'd consumed alcohol at the age of twelve, I'd recognized within minutes that I could get hooked to it. I'm not saying I was born an alcoholic, but rather that it would seem the brain was already predisposed to it. I just had to drink to make it happen.

 

[petros]

If it weren't for beer, humans wouldn't anywhere nearly advance as we are. If you think "the environment" and water supply is bad today you need to look back a long way and to see how it was. Bottled or bagged water available today is as huge of a leap forward as beer.

It's in our nature to drink.

 

[Twila]

 

[SLM]

Internet, gaming, sex, even eating can become addictive to some people. And yes, it is a disease, but perhaps more of a spiritual disease. It might never go away, but one can learn to control it.

Another argument is that addiction is not a disease but rather a symptom of one.

The main issue I have though with referencing addiction as a disease is it completely removes self-responsibility out of the equation. And it's not just a matter of assessing blame on someone for becoming addicted in the first place, but it's about the empowerment that comes from taking control, and responsibility for the control, over one's own life. Maybe some will see it as splitting hairs but to me it's a significant difference saying "I can't have a drink" to "I choose not to have a drink", even saying " I choose not to have one because I can't have just one."

It's all about the dopamine and the way addictions rewire the neural pathways.

It takes a long freakin' time to heal.

Amen to that! Even just nicotine, for me anyway, from out of the blue I can still feel blindsided and it takes everything I have just to stay strong.

 

[petros]

Nicotine is an excellent dopamine stimulus. Cravings are an example of the old smoker brain wiring still being part of the network.

 

[SLM]

Nicotine is an excellent dopamine stimulus. Cravings are an example of the old smoker brain wiring still being part of the network.

The only thing that really helps is really,really strong mint. That will overpower the 'craving' for some reason.

Lol, I don't ask why, I just pop a mint.

 

[Machjo]

The main issue I have though with referencing addiction as a disease is it completely removes self-responsibility out of the equation. And it's not just a matter of assessing blame on someone for becoming addicted in the first place, but it's about the empowerment that comes from taking control, and responsibility for the control, over one's own life. Maybe some will see it as splitting hairs but to me it's a significant difference saying "I can't have a drink" to "I choose not to have a drink", even saying " I choose not to have one because I can't have just one."



Amen to that! Even just nicotine, for me anyway, from out of the blue I can still feel blindsided and it takes everything I have just to stay strong.

I don't see how the word "disease" absolve one of responsibility. Let's take pedophilia as an extreme example. That could be classified as a form of sex addiction. There is no law against being a pedophile since all laws are based on action, not just being something. Sex addiction therapists exist. Though there may be an addictive trait to his pedophilia, that pedophile still has a moral responsibility to do whatever he must do to not act on it. He could see a therapist about it. He could opt for chemical casteation, or a myriad other possible remedies, but if he hurts a child, he should be held accountable.

I'd say the same applies to any other form of addiction. It may be a disease, or at least a symptom ofone, but it does not absolve a person from accepting responsibility for his actions.