The disease model

[cyberius]

Has anyone else hear of the Mental Emotional Body disease model of addiction? Im in rehab again and its really eye opening and Im wondering if its common in the recovery community yet

 

[freesolo123]

Sounds interesting can you expand on your original post, what exactly does the "Mental Emotional Body disease model" help us understand about our destructive behavior?

 

[jdfisse]

I am glad you are alive cyberius and yes it some form of it has been in use for years.

 

[Mafioso]

Sounds interesting can you expand on your original post, what exactly does the "Mental Emotional Body disease model" help us understand about our destructive behavior?

It's the concept that addiction is a disease that affects mind/thought process, emotions/feelings, and our physical bodies.

The concept isn't a new one, but it is just recently becoming more widely accepted among universities, medical professionals, and other authority types- namely those working in the field of addiction. It's an attempt to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon and move away from stigmas associated with drug use, abuse, and addiction. Addiction is more than just bad behavior, lack of will power, or lack of caring. Drugs that are commonly abused affect parts of the brain used to control and reinforce behavior. For many reasons, some still yet to be fully understood, the brain of someone addicted to drugs does not function the same as a person not addicted. Drug use changes how a brain functions, and these changes can "encourage" drug use/addictive behavior as well make it harder to stop. These changes can affect how we feel and how we think, ultimately affecting behavior.

The changes can even lead to physical symptoms, such as muscle spasms, constipation, eating more/less, sleeping more/less, etc. Some of the physical symptoms are a result of the drug interaction in the body, not brain. Alcohol is absorbed into the blood and travels to every organ of the body thus producing a physical effect apart from the buzz/drunkenness/commonly known effects of alcohol.

Addiction is a biopsychosocial disorder, meaning it affects: the biology of the person(physical), the psyche of a person(mental), and the friends/family of the person(social).

 

[freesolo123]

Thank you Mafioso for taking the time to explain it, makes sense.

 

[Rio Fantastic]

It's the concept that addiction is a disease that affects mind/thought process, emotions/feelings, and our physical bodies.

The concept isn't a new one, but it is just recently becoming more widely accepted among universities, medical professionals, and other authority types- namely those working in the field of addiction. It's an attempt to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon and move away from stigmas associated with drug use, abuse, and addiction. Addiction is more than just bad behavior, lack of will power, or lack of caring. Drugs that are commonly abused affect parts of the brain used to control and reinforce behavior. For many reasons, some still yet to be fully understood, the brain of someone addicted to drugs does not function the same as a person not addicted. Drug use changes how a brain functions, and these changes can "encourage" drug use/addictive behavior as well make it harder to stop. These changes can affect how we feel and how we think, ultimately affecting behavior.

The changes can even lead to physical symptoms, such as muscle spasms, constipation, eating more/less, sleeping more/less, etc. Some of the physical symptoms are a result of the drug interaction in the body, not brain. Alcohol is absorbed into the blood and travels to every organ of the body thus producing a physical effect apart from the buzz/drunkenness/commonly known effects of alcohol.

Addiction is a biopsychosocial disorder, meaning it affects: the biology of the person(physical), the psyche of a person(mental), and the friends/family of the person(social).

The latest research is moving further away from the disease model, since addiction is so unlike other diseases that to try and call it as such renders the term worthless. It's useful just for emphasising that the decision an addict makes to use isn't the same kind of process that a normal person would use when deciding what actions they will or will not take, but past that it's pretty worthless and is often taken to the other extreme of being used to justify a complete lack of responsibility on the part of the addict. The thinking is now moving towards labelling it a kind of self-induced learning disorder - the run-away culmination of natural processes in the brain becoming distorted by extreme stimuli that the human brain isn't designed to handle, i.e. drugs.

Makes an awful lot more sense to me than the disease model, and a little bit of research should make it clear why the tide is turning against the whole outdated disease concept. It served its function in stopping the archaic view that its a moral failing, now I think its time we update our conception of it to reflect reality.

 

[CfZrx]

addiction is so unlike other diseases that to try and call it as such renders the term worthless.

great way of saying it!

 

[Mafioso]

The latest research is moving further away from the disease model, since addiction is so unlike other diseases that to try and call it as such renders the term worthless. It's useful just for emphasising that the decision an addict makes to use isn't the same kind of process that a normal person would use when deciding what actions they will or will not take, but past that it's pretty worthless and is often taken to the other extreme of being used to justify a complete lack of responsibility on the part of the addict. The thinking is now moving towards labelling it a kind of self-induced learning disorder - the run-away culmination of natural processes in the brain becoming distorted by extreme stimuli that the human brain isn't designed to handle, i.e. drugs.

Makes an awful lot more sense to me than the disease model, and a little bit of research should make it clear why the tide is turning against the whole outdated disease concept. It served its function in stopping the archaic view that its a moral failing, now I think its time we update our conception of it to reflect reality.

I would be interested in what this "latest research" is. The article you referenced doesn't appear to have referenced anything new but I am still going through it.

Taken from the article you linked (psychology today "addiction is a learning disorder")
"Thus, addiction might be best viewed as a chronic disease (e.g., diabetes), so that most addicts will require long-term treatment and relapse can be expected to occur sometimes during the treatment. That is, in the later stages the addict may seemto lack all power of choice and free will.What are the treatment implications? One approach is that because the addicts’ brains are so compromised, it is necessary for others (families, friends, and professionals) to fill in as relentless supports for the inability to make decisions."

Really the article doesn't even seem to support your own statement as far as I can tell. The dsm-5, published in 2013, uses the term "disorder" and the disease model is still taught in schools, so I'm not sure what tide you are talking about. I agree the word "disease" is limiting, and disorder is much more fitting but the word "disease" and "disease-model" are two different things. I also agree that it is a unique disorder that bears a lot of similarities to other disorders but is unique in many ways, thus it should have it's own unique classification. I think it could be said that a learning disorder is part of a substance use disorder, but I'd be hesitant to lump them in the same category.