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is addiction really a disease?

laCster

laCster

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Nov 16, 2010
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i refuse to believe that addiction is a disease, it makes no logical sense to me and psychologytoday agrees with me...

"Widespread enthusiasm for the disease model, however, has led to willingness to overlook the facts. Addiction has very little in common with diseases. It is a group of behaviors, not an illness on its own. It cannot be explained by any disease process. Perhaps worst of all, calling addiction a "disease" interferes with exploring or accepting new understandings of the nature of addiction.

This becomes clear if you compare addiction with true diseases. In addiction there is no infectious agent (as in tuberculosis), no pathological biological process (as in diabetes), and no biologically degenerative condition (as in Alzheimer's disease). The only "disease-like" aspect of addiction is that if people do not deal with it, their lives tend to get worse. That's true of lots of things in life that are not diseases; it doesn't tell us anything about the nature of the problem. (It's worthwhile to remember here that the current version of the disease concept, the "chronic brain disease" neurobiological idea, applies to rats but has been repeatedly shown to be inapplicable to humans. Please see earlier posts in this blog or my book, Breaking Addiction, for a full discussion of the fallacy of this neurobiological disease model for addiction.)"

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-heart-addiction/201112/is-addiction-really-disease


so what do you guys think? please list reasons as to why you do believe, or why you dont believe it is a disease. in treatment centers, i always get into huge arguments with people and the therapists/technicians about this subject. i just think that believing that addiction is a disease is a weak excuse to shift the blame on to other reasons than to take a deep look at the actions that individual took. i think that most treatment centers push the disease model because that gives them a reason to stay in business, if people have a disease then that means they need a hospital and professional help. AA likes the disease concept because it gives people a reason to keep coming back (pun intended) and without that people wouldnt need a primitive 12step program.

also, if it isnt a disease, then what is it?
 
dis·ease noun \di-ˈzēz\
: an illness that affects a person, animal, or plant : a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally

I think that addiction fits the definition of a disease. Addiction is a "condition that prevents" the motivation and drive areas of the "mind from working normally."
 
I have issues with both concepts...but I do know that some people are more prone to become addicted..it definitely runs in families so there has to be some biological aspect to it (even when you take away the environmental factors..such as someone not being exposed to others in their family who are addicts). Also, some people can take opiates/opioids and never have a desire to abuse/misuse them..then there are those of us who do...and I dont think this has to do only with making that decision to abuse/misuse..some people just seem to have that tendency in them and some just do not.
 
I don't believe anyone can be an addict without actually having a psychological or physical dependancy to the drug. It's, however, irrefutable some are biologically predisposed to addiction.

People will say things like, "I was born an addict". Not so. How can I be addicted to meth if I had never tried it? Some are more prone to addictions, others are more drug or habit specific.

When I was in NA, I was always told I was addicted to everything - that addiction is addiction. I rejected this idea, as it is certainly not true in my personal case. I smoked weed [heavily] for years, but stopped because I was bored of it. I haven't smoked pot, nor do I think about it, in 4 years or so. I drank quite a bit for a while, but stopped because it was just kind of whatever to me. I might have a few beers here and there, but I rarely think about it. I used heroin heavily for a while, but stopped because that drug sucks. After the withdrawals, I didn't experience any psychological attachment to the drug.

Meth, on the other hand...


With that said, I think abusing any mind altering substance while fighting drug addiction is stepping on shaky territory


I remember reading somewhere at some point (maybe it was in rehab) that the brain actually changes once addicted. I'm not familiar enough with pathology to assume this implies addiction is a disease.
 
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i think addiction is just result of maladaptive coping mechanisms. saying addiction is going to far IMO. it seems so much harder to tackle when addressed as a disease, but when it is looked at as just a group of behaviors, then that makes the addiction seem so much easier to address IMO
 
I don't believe addiction becomes a disease until, for example, you abuse pain killers to the point that it alters your way of thinking. I believe the fact that it physically alters the way your brain and body function it can be considered as such.

That said, it's not in the same realm of cancer or a chronic condition. I'm split on this. I also agree that labeling it as a disease enables addicts to relapse more often and feel sorry for themselves, that's not conducive to conquering the addiction. It's conducive to paychecks.
 
Is an illness the same as a disease? I would allways refer to addiction as an illness, obviously not something you can catch, but something some people are genetically predisposed to. Yes some addicts will "use" this as an excuse to feel sory for themselves., but if not considered an illness, it might be even more neglected by the medical communities in many more countries in the world.
 
Personally, I don't believe it is.

The reason why is because a disease is something you can't control and you can never get rid of. You CAN get rid of an addiction and you CAN control how much you use. The need to get high is the diease, not the addiction. You have to treat why you feel the need to be loaded all the time or else trying to stop will never work.

The disease is what's causing you to feel the need to get high. Not the addiction itself.
 
^^ A lot of people will say once an addict allways an addict, even if you're not using, and you can get over/cured from a disease...
 
SwampFox56 said:
Personally, I don't believe it is.

The reason why is because a disease is something you can't control and you can never get rid of. You CAN get rid of an addiction and you CAN control how much you use. The need to get high is the diease, not the addiction. You have to treat why you feel the need to be loaded all the time or else trying to stop will never work.

The disease is what's causing you to feel the need to get high. Not the addiction itself.
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Yes! This is also what I have in mind.

I believe that a person should fight the addiction and not have it control and consume you. I always tell myself that I'm fighting with myself and no one else. If I'm able to control myself then it will not only reward myself but also my famuly and friends because they will not lose me to addiction.
 
SwampFox56 said:
The disease is what's causing you to feel the need to get high. Not the addiction itself.
Click to expand...

Besides predisposition to addiction, addiction has different roots and causes for everyone (from mental illness to trauma to chronic pain etc.), however IMO the addiction becomes it's own and illness/disease over time... I found it impossible to adress the roots and causes of my mental health problems until i got the illness of addiction treated.
 
The disease is what's causing you to feel the need to get high. Not the addiction itself.
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It is arguable that the craving to get high is part of the addiction itself assuming cravings weren't present prior to the usage of drugs. Various studies have shown that the long term usage of drugs lead to physical changes in the brain leading to cravings. Even if one is able to address the root issues that made them use in the first place they may be left with a damaged brain that still craves drugs. I think treating addiction is more importing than arguing about the semantics of the term or whether or not it is a disease.

Cocaine physically changes brain to seek more - http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265232.php
Long Term Heroin Addiction Leads to Physical Changes in the Brain - http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/11/prweb11340401.htm
 
just because you have used substances to cause the addiction does not mean it can be counted out.. look at other diseases. being from a medical background i have flip flopped around on this from my studies and my drug addictions.. but i believe it really is. and if you stop using you still have the disease its just like a remission stage.. weird. but i took psych this semester and it straight up fits the def.
 
but i took psych this semester and it straight up fits the def.
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This is a huge problem with the discussion, before you can say whether or not addiction is a disease everyone has to agree on the same definition of what constitutes a disease.
 
OK use this one:

disease
dɪˈziːz/Submit
noun
1.
a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

Treating addiction as a disease increases recovery rates.. whether it technically is or not is irrelevant.
 
neversickanymore said:
dis·ease noun \di-ˈzēz\
: an illness that affects a person, animal, or plant : a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally

I think that addiction fits the definition of a disease. Addiction is a "condition that prevents" the motivation and drive areas of the "mind from working normally."
Click to expand...
Is laziness a disease also?
 
All of you fail to realize that every addiction is caused by the need to self-medicate in some way. By using drugs you are TREATING something that needs to be treated.

For instance, people with Parkinson's Disease are at an 80% increased chance of havig drug abuse issues. Same goes for people with ADHD. What's common in both of these diseases? A lack of Dopamine present in the brain. These people are more likely to use drugs (Cocaine especially) because they were born with a total lack of Dopamine in the Basal Ganglia, Locus Corelus, Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex (people with Parkinson's actually lose the ability to synthesize Dopamine in the stratum over time, but at the same concept). These people use drugs, and be come addicted to them because all reinforcing drugs raise Dopamine levels through some mechanism. They become addicts because they're not being treated for their illness.

You see what I'm getting at here? The need to self-medicate is the illness. Whether it's depression, anxiety, Parkinson's or cancer! You are using drugs to treat something you cannot change. You're not using drugs because you the addiction is the disease - the need for you to treat yourself is the real disease.
 
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