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?
"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?
