Do You Believe Addiction is a Disease, Or... [POLL!]

[ATF]

Just wondering what peoples thoughts were on this subject.
I personally am not sure I like the result of the 'disease' theory, and the 12 step folks always made me want to kill myself.

But that seems to be better than the idea of it being 'weak' and having a problems with ones will-power. I can see how a person feels weak when unable to control their addiction, but...is it all in the mind?

Where is everyone at on this?

 

[Amphed Revolution]

I, personally, believe it is both.

Obviously, some drugs are going to rewire your reward system in your brain. That's going to make it damn difficult to quit.

Then again, you are not going to quit, ever, unless you really want to.

 

[mushi mushi 88]

I think there are a lot of factors to be looked into.

You could have a addictive personality, your friends could be steering you the wrong way, some drugs are known just t be very addictive!

I think it depends on how much you do the drug as well and how easily you can get it...?

Only you can help yourself with addiction, if you want to quit then it is going to be a bit easier then if you don't really car if you quit or not...

 

[Olyn]

There are certain tendencies that people have that they have no control over, one being an addictive personality, which could be called a disease.

Addiction, however, requires a lot of bad choices, and everyone is responsible for their own choices.

I definitely don't think addiction qualifies as a disease.

 

[ATF]

Sorry mods, just noticed this thread has been done before, hopefully we can continue discussion?

I guess I was wondering if there were any new theories about the concept of addiction.

Does one make 'bad' choices which kick in an 'addictive personality'?

Are addicts diseased and helpless to their addiction due to genetics/environmental conditions?

With my personal situation I notice that I make choices toward my addiction when afraid of pain, or scenarios that will cause pain, due to me not using. These things arent necessarily going to be painful, but the fear of possible pain or inability to function, in moments when I dont have the time or energy to sit calmly and deal with it, keep me calling and spending money I dont have.

Today is a good example, my hips are hurting so bad I can barely stand up straight, and im out of pain meds and pot. Ive got my sixth day in a row of work today, and one day off, followed by another six days of work. Rent is due but im hurting, and cant afford what I want/need.
Do I choose to tough it out or do I try to find someone to sell me these things...

 

[LightTrailz]

Its called go to a doctor have him give you an exam and look over , and get yourself a legal prescription .

I believe its both the person and the environment , but not a disease ... yes for the most part addiction is hereditary and can go down through a persons genetics , i wouldnt hold it soley responsible ..

take into certain factors such as abuse , no friends , unstable family , divorce , low self esteem etc .. all these factors can also attribute to drug/alcohol use so that would reflect that persons environment not the fact of it being a disease ..

it happened to me because i didnt have many friends / no girl friends . constant pressure from family to be "perfect" drugs were simply a way out to calm down , i couldnt play sports and even when i tried i was made fun of simply for trying .. which hurt even more ... drugs dont make you hurt , they dont care about your shape , your size , your financial situation , your clothes .. how some people call it a disease is unknown to me ..

maybe they just like to classify anything that isnt "normal" int he publics eyes a disease just to draw attention and make poeple fear addictions and not understand them , thus not ever becoming "one of them people" .

thats my 0.02 i could write all day about this but i dont want to get into it ..

 

[ATF]

^thats one of my goals, to get to the doctor and rack up some serious debt figuring this out, but until I have the time to do that Im unfortunately stuck with my pain and the responsibilities of keeping a house in order and bills paid while working full time as an underpaid cook.
Boohoo.

I think the 'disease' idea is really not addressing drug use as a historical, and pre-historical, constant in the human race, and is the best this propaganda infused culture could come up with to make it ok, but still very negative.

Still waiting for the old ass Nixonites to die off...

 

[GenericMind]

No.

 

[phr]

No. I don't think it is a disease. Some people are more prone than others to become addicts. But IMO, addiction is something that someone gets habituated into, for whatever reason.


This is a subject I've been meaning to study. Guess I'll have to stop being lazy and look into it ( not now, in the future of course )...

 

[edarrin]

believe its both the person and the environment , but not a disease ... yes for the most part addiction is hereditary and can go down through a persons genetics , i wouldnt hold it soley responsible ..

you might be intrested in the topic of epigenetics. Epigenes are outside the nucleotide and interact ( or act a a 'buffer') with the environment. What's happening in the environment can influence the turning off or on of the protein the gene codes with.

Fascinating stuff but too much to get into here.

For the record i believe it is a disease , much like diabetes, and needs to be controlled or problems arise. I think it has to do with the metabolism of ETOH and other drugs, coupled with genetically defined levels of various neurotransmitters all of which of course has to be exposed to said substance(s) before it will manifest. therefore, even though one may be genetically predisposed doesn't mean it will manifest 100% of the time.

I think it's a lot like bipolar illness and I think mood stabilizers will help a lot of people manage their emotions/compulsions once clean and sober with the aid of one. If I can get myself clean again I think I'll take lyrica to stablize my overactive nervous system.

 

[NickyBundles]

The only reason they say it's a disease is because it's fits the criteria of what makes a disease, a disease. My thoughts on the subject are as follows:
We as people tend to become fixated on anything that happens to come our way and make us feel "good", weather that be drugs, sex, food, music, hiking, fighting, drawing, the internet, you get my point. Any one of those things mention'd can be stopped at any time, some may be harder then others, but they can be stopped.

Now my father has diabetes, and my aunt died of lung cancer. I'm sure my aunt would have said, ok cancer, this is goin a little far im gonna stop now, but that wasn't quite possible, same with my fathers diabetes. It wasn't something he saw one day and said, that looks like fun i'll give that a try, honey, grab me some marlboro's and that box of diabetes.

I highly believe addiction is just a learned behavior that can be un-learned. I'm no doctor and have absolutely no credentials on the subject, but I do have a brother that was addicted to heroin longer then me, now 4 years clean off every substance and healthy as can be, simply because he wanted to un-learn the addiction, and before anyone flames me, I am an addict and know how very hard it is to stop using, but that still doesn't change what I believe about it.

 

[phr]

Good to see you don't buy the "addict for life" bullshit.

 

[5staR]

good post Bundles makes sense to me and iv never hered it put like that, tho i have heared its a disease but iv never ben to a rehab or anyhting like that so no ones really explained this to me in depth.

 

[OverDone]

I think it all depends on the definition of disease. I'm an addict but but I don't think I have a "disease". If I interpret the word "disease" as a malformed manner of dealing with myself or life than, yes, i meet that interpretation. I could NEVER compare myself to someone who has Lou Gherigs, Leukemia or any condition that was not self-imposed.

I CHOSE to drink when I was a kid, I CHOSE to smoke weed, I CHOSE to snort blow and I absolutely chose to figure out how to stick that needle in my vein(s).

Diseases aren't chosen, they happen for whatever reason.

 

[Mr. White]

^^ exactly my thoughts

IMO anyone who calls it a disease is just trying to shift the blame away from themselves.
"its not my fault, i have a disease!"

I much prefer to take responsibility for my own actions. if i ever became an addict, it would be nobodys fault but mine

 

[LillyF40]

addiction + deease

Do I think addiction is a diease, yes. Do I blame anyone but myself NO..When I was 14 years old, my GYN put me on Snyalgos DC (Dihydrocodeine) for cramps
Miltown (Meprobrimates) for tenson headaches, valium for nerves. and Nembutal for insomnia. Do I blame him? I was too young to know what these pills were doing to me, but, I became an adult and I knew better. In just one day the party was over and my using became a full time job. I also do not bwelieve it is a weakness. I have a choice, and my choices have made me do things that I never thought I would do, took me places I never believe existed. I do not believethe 12 step abstinance either. Did I make any sense?? I no longer use my DOC, but I am human, I like to party sometimes..All I know is my fathers side of the family are all drug addicts, and my moms side are all alcoholics, but to me a drug is a drug.

LillyF40 %)

 

[ATF]

Now my father has diabetes, and my aunt died of lung cancer. I'm sure my aunt would have said, ok cancer, this is goin a little far im gonna stop now, but that wasn't quite possible, same with my fathers diabetes. It wasn't something he saw one day and said, that looks like fun i'll give that a try, honey, grab me some marlboro's and that box of diabetes.

Well you could argue that the diabetes (at least adult onset) was caused by ones poor choices in diet, particularly regularly consuming foods with high fructose corn syrup and other refined sugars, and choosing not to consume whole grains and raw fruits and vegetables, as well as high quality protein sources from legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Lung cancer, and most cancers, can also be linked to choice of diet (antioxidants/carcinogens etc.), and the choice of smoking.
Of coarse I dont know about your family members particular diseases, but in general, this is the case.

Its much more common to find someone addicted to their unhealthy lifestyle, than to find someone addicted to drugs. And drug-related death numbers pale in comparison to diet-related illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Albeit people often combine unhealthy lifestyles with drug use.

Now, I just dont get how Everquest and Warcraft fit into this scheme...

 

[NickyBundles]

Basically man, all I'm saying is, I learned that heroin made me feel great, I then learned how to cop it, learned how to mix it up, shoot it, and finally learned that sitting on a couch watching tv was my favorite thing to do while high.

But as you said, people are addicted to thier un healthy lifestyle and get disease's that way thru smoking or what have you, thing is tho, once they have the disease, life style change or not, the disease isn't going away, now if I change my life and exclude everything about heroin I previously had in it, would my disease be gone? Or would I still have a disease that's going to kill me.

I understand that I could relearn everything I knew about dope and the world that goes with it, but I refuse to believe that I have a disease, all I have is a shitload of problems that go away for a little bit when I get high, and when I stop getting high, my so called disease stops with it.

I'm gonna do a little research on the subject and see if i can't back up anything im talkin about, so ill get at you later, peace bro.

 

[getreal]

I believe addiction is a disease. Most of know people that can stop drugs w/o a worry or w/o any w/d symptoms.
The disease part comes into play when a person with this disease is genetically 'different' in the brain.
Thats ^ a laymans way of explaining, I dont know how else to describe it!

 

[NickyBundles]

Why do you think it's a disease, because you heard that it's a disease and ran with it. Fact is, I dont think many of us here have researched this question very well, and are all giving answers based on what they've heard or what they believe.

If we really want an answer lets try to see what we come up with reading about it and not just arguing post after post. I will say this however, someone's gonna have to come up with some very irresputable evidence to change what I think. Good luck!