Addiction Is Not A Disease Of The Brain

slimvictor

slimvictor

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"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
Addiction has been moralized, medicalized, politicized, and criminalized. And, of course, many of us are addicts, have been addicts or have been close to addicts. Addiction runs very hot as a theme.

Part of what makes addiction so compelling is that it forms a kind of conceptual/political crossroads for thinking about human nature. After all, to make sense of addiction we need to make sense of what it is to be an agent who acts, with values, in the face of consequences, under pressure, with compulsion, out of need and desire. One needs a whole philosophy to understand addiction.

Today I want to respond to readers who were outraged by my willingness even to question whether addiction is a disease of the brain.

Let us first ask: what makes something — a substance or an activity — addictive? Is there a property shared by all the things to which we can get addicted?

Unlikely. Addictive substances such as alcohol, heroin and nicotine are chemically distinct. Moreover, activities such as gambling, eating, sex — activities that are widely believed to be addictive — have no ingredients.

cont at
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/09/09/140307282/addiction-is-not-a-disease-of-the-brain
 
Let us first ask: what makes something — a substance or an activity — addictive? Is there a property shared by all the things to which we can get addicted?

Unlikely. Addictive substances such as alcohol, heroin and nicotine are chemically distinct. Moreover, activities such as gambling, eating, sex — activities that are widely believed to be addictive — have no ingredients.
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But every single one of these activities achieves a common end, in that they all trigger the release of dopamine. Whomever complied the article should be ashamed of such shoddy info to be put in print.
 
Tenchi said:
But every single one of these activities achieves a common end, in that they all trigger the release of dopamine. Whomever complied the article should be ashamed of such shoddy info to be put in print.
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He does talk dopamine-release in the full article :) ANd he's actually arguing that dopamine-release in itself is not enough to cause addiction.
 
drawing is addictive, i am pretty sure it give me a dopamine rush to create art, does that mean artists have a disease?
 
kracks said:
drawing is addictive, i am pretty sure it give me a dopamine rush to create art, does that mean artists have a disease?
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Technically, anything you derive enjoyment from could have the possibility to become an addiction given the right conditions.
 
i just re read the dictionary: the word Disease: figurative a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people : departmental administration has often led to the dread disease of departmentalitis.


therefore addiction is only a disease if it has a negative impact on the individual. Non serious addictions, like masturbation, weed or coffee are not technically diseases under this definition
 
my human bio teacher put it best; "Humans are natural addicts"
 
Love is an intense addiction to another person. It ruins more lives than it's given credit. Yet it's seen as a wonderful thing.
 
I used to be addicted to video games till they got boring. Get home school then play till I had to go to sleep. That's like eight hours a day of videogames. What else can you sit and do eight hours a day for months for fun except drugs?
 
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