Is Addiction A Disease?
Is addiction a choice?
Or
Is addiction a disease?
you tell me
Lets face some harsh reality right off the bat, addiction affects each of us. That affect may be indirectly or directly, but it still affects us all.
Here's why I say addiction affects all of us
- you may be an addict or in recovery
- your loved one is addicted
- your children have to grow up in this drug epidemic
- your hometown is now filled with 'junkies'
- you trusted an addict and they lied, cheated and stole from you
There are several reasons beyond these as to why addiction can affect you. The fact is, this drug epidemic is gaining attention all over the place.
You may have noticed in my title I asked a simple question - Is addiction a disease?
I'm not here to answer that question. Instead, I want you to answer it for me!
In the end, I am even going to share with you my deepest darkest secret. For now, I'm going to share my point of view so that you can share yours.
Always remember, effective communication is key to success.
Lets gets the boring but important facts out of the way first so we can have some effective discussions later!
Good ole' Google immediately pulls up some great definitions of addiction, disease and choice.
What is the definition of addiction?
The fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing or activity.
What is the definition of disease?
A disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of personal injury.
What is the definition of choice?
Selected as one's favorite or best.
We can now understand what we are discussing better.
Knowledge is always power.
Okay, shew. I'm glad that part is over because it's even boring for me to type but it really is important to understand the definitions.
Now I'm going to give you a glimpse into my mind and how I view the situation
Are you ready?
First, addiction comes in many forms. We can be addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, food and many more. I'm just using drugs as my example for today.
So imagine this,
You've never in your life tried herion but you wake up one day dope sick.
That's literally not even possible!
So, it brings me to believe that drug addiction starts and stays a choice. You will only become dope sick when you choose to put the poison into your body.
Lets take my father for example. He died when I was 14 years old.
He was drinking and driving and flipped his vehicle off a cliff.
Did my father choose to drink so much alcohol he couldn't function and then he decided to drive? Or, did this disease take over his body and that's what made him crash? Maybe, addiction is a disease and the disease altered his mind so much that he had no choice but to drink and drive.
The world may never know.
Seriously, people just can't seem to stop fighting over the question - is addiction is a disease or a choice?
Lets get talking about disease.
Cancer is clearly a disease, right? Cancer patients absolutely do not choose to have cancer.
Diabetes is a disease, right?
We will forever classify these two as a disease.
So what about the person that smoked so many ciggerettes, they now have lung cancer. How about the person that didn't care for their body and developed diabetes due to poor eating habits?
Those people made the choices that led to what is called a disease. Would we still classify their disease as a disease or because they made the choice that caused their trouble, those particular people don't have a disease?
Again, the world will probably never know.
Here's some more of my thoughts
Drugs change the chemicals in the brain and create this impulsive uncontrollable drive for more which then some would argue turns into a disease.
Even if drug addiction is not a disease, it needs to be treated as such, through treatment and prevention.
Just as we would a disease.
Is addiction a choice?
The first initial drug use is a choice. The affects on the brain and body are not a choice. Is it still a choice to use beyond that? I'm not here to decide but I do believe that choice doesn't determine a disease.
Now, I am taking us back to cancer. Sun exposure and chemicals lead to cancer, that cancer is still a disease regardless of choice being a factor.
So, is addiction a disease?
Here is my dirty little secret
I'm a recovering drug addict. In 2016, I was arrested on a grand jury indictment. The secret status on the warrent was lifted and they came and found me. Why? Because I made the choice to dance with the devil.
What you gonna do when they come for you? 🎶
I also made the choice to continue dancing. It wasn't until I made the choice in out-patient rehab to get and stay clean by listening to the advice I was given.
I am happy to say that I now admin on a facebook group that my husband created. His non-profit organization is called RAADE (Recovering Addicts Against the Drug Epidemic). What a success!
I now encourage you to tell me your thoughts on this subject. No matter what your thoughts are!
I will be paying it forward by rewarding one person who engages in this with me, an upvote and resteem on one or more of their post.
Shout-Outs to some of my #dolphinschool Steemians -
@markrmorrisjr (the brains behind this amazing project)
@manuelmendez
@mawit07
@lilyraabe
I will pay-it-forward every day I am in this course with shout-outs to each of my fellow classmates.
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This is a beautiful, and really brave post. I work in the prison system regularly and a lot of the people I work with are connected to recovery groups because even after years of being locked away from the substance they still feel a need for support. I’m interested in how the topic can be destigmatized and openly discussed so that more people can get the help they need! Kudos on writing about this and sharing your thoughts.
Thank you very much. I'm not proud of it, its not who I am but I can't change it. My only hope is to spread awareness and support to those who need it. I also run a page called RAADE on fb (Recovering addicts against the drug epidemic). I'm glad to hear that there are people in prison still trying to better themselves. What kind of work do you do?
I think addiction is not a disease nor a choice, is a feature of the brain, and sadly we have to deal with that. Of course, the choice to take that first line o cocaine is important, but what happens next is just the brain acting on its most basic principles
Think of it this way, a person robs a bank a doesn't even get close to get caught so he does it a second time with the same result. At the seventh time he got caught, but the brain was so in love with the act of robbing banks that he never realized the consequences. That's just the brain trying to survive. If something feels good it must be good for me, that's the main algorithm of the brain
At some point in life we face an addiction, hopefully for most of us here it won't be as bad as drugs or crime
Thanks for the mention, and I'm glad you are recovering, i have many loved ones that have been there where you are
I love your thought on it. That was a very good example of robbing a bank. I never looked it that way but you're right. The rush is what would get them to continue robbing, the brain as you said. Definitely has me thinking. Thank you for the encouragement. It was a path I'm not proud of and will never get back to but at least I'm at a point that I'm not hiding it anymore and can help others.
Gosh a really good question - I don't know the answer but as I struggle with my own addiction I can tell you that I have a voice inside my head that fights with my voice of reason - right now I'm winning but crap it's hard work!
Thanks for raising the question :)
You're right it is hard. It doesn't matter if our addiction is drugs, food or even gambling. That voice inside of us is always pulling in the other direction. I'm super excited to follow your journey with weight loss.
I have some oppinions on this that probably aren’t popular, but you asked for them. I was raised by and around drug addicts, alcohol addicts, and sex addicts. I began to experiment with drugs when I was 11, but an event in my life put an end to that when I was 15. Thank God! But I do recognize that I have an addictive peronality. My opinions come from my experiences.
I don’t believe addiction itself is a disease. The chemical condition that drives cravings and behaviors, I believe could be disease. I’m not trying to be condescending and I’m not trying to split hairs here, and I’m not sure I can thouroughly explain myself, but I’ll try. I feel like addiction is a thought process. When a thought or craving pops up, and I find a way to justify the behavior that follows the thought, because I don’t believe I have a choice, that’s what I believe addiction is. I feel like the chemical process that drives the thoughts and causes withdrawls might be the disease, and if it is, I think it should be given it’s own name.
I would consider myself addicted to the news. I can’t help myself. When I wake up, the news comes on. I listen to it on the radio when I’m working outside and there are a couple of commentators, that if I miss their show I’m afraid I’ve missed the best show they’ve ever had! I schedule my days around those two shows. When I go on vacation, I record them, but I think about them throughout my days and check out their websites a couple times a day, just to get a peek at what they’ve got going. My family knows how I feel about these shows and they don’t have a problem with me listening to them when they’re on, but if there was a problem, there would probably be a fight. Now, this addiction doesn’t keep me from doing my job, spending time with my family, and it’s not going to make me sick or land me in jail. But I consider it an addiction. Would you call it a disease?
If you wouldn’t call this addiction a disease, but you would call a heroin addiction disease, how do define disease? What qualiies one over the other?
Everyone I know is addicted to someething. I think it’s just part of the human condition, a part that forces us all to practice self control all the time. If everyone is addicted to something, how can addiction be a disease. Everyone breathes, and breathing isn’t a disease. Just my two cents.
Those are some deep thoughts @magicalmoonlight...
I'm sorry about your father and I think it's encouraging that you decided to do rehab and also sharing your story.
I'm with you,, I vote for choice. There are chemical factors, obviously, but not knowing they can only come if you consume is irresponsable.
Anything can be addictive. So rule number one it's balance. All excess is bad, and we need to remember sometimes "one time only" turns out to e more than enough. Rule number two it's loving yourself! Caring about your mental and physical health makes you choose what's best.
I love this comment so much! Very encouraging and such wise words. You're right we must first always love our self once we do that we will be cautious with everything we do. Just one time or just one more time is like playing with fire. No matter what it is we are dealing with.
When I think of the derivation of the word, it becomes dis-ease. So it is definitely a dis-ease of the body (and mind).
But I agree, that the first time we expose ourselves to the addiction, it is a choice. And sometimes, we know we are choosing something that can damage us, but other times we are not aware of it. No child even considers that sugar is bad. In that case, the choice is made by the parent or caregiver.
I think the problem has so many layers that it can't be answered easily.
Genetics - our family story has alcoholism, diabetes and weight issues and I believe that is a genetic commonality we share, being unable to properly process carbohydrates. Everybody's family history is different, but they all have something going on.
Toxic environment - we live in a toxic society, whether we are looking at chemicals, heavy metals, or poor food quality. This creates damage in the gut which in turn can create toxicity in the brain, and be responsible for brain fog and poor decision making.
Other societal pressures (and there are many) - can cause anxiety, which leads to using any substance or activity we can think of to distract ourselves from it.
Poor decisions can be made from a place of poverty, fear, shame, anger or ignorance.
Whatever the reasons, how do we get ourselves out of it? That is where our conscious choice needs to be made. But even then, that is only the first step and there may be many layers of dysfunction, pain and physical components to unravel and heal.
Thank you for the well thought out comment. I like thinking of it as dis-ease. Yea the factors that go into it have so much to do with it. My family has a long line of alcoholics and drug addicts. Then there is the disease of certain cancers that run in my family.
There is no question for me: Addiction of any kind is a disease.
It's an emotional disease that causes, ofcourse, some severe bodily harm. From food addiction to cigarettes to alcohol and harder drugs.
I wish I could remember the speaker of this one TED talk I listened to... He did some research and concluded that all addiction is a result of not having a solid social structure in your life... That is, not having people around who love you and care about you. Or at least, thinking that you don't.
And that the best you can do for an addict is just be there for them, show them you care, no matter how much they test your patience.
Thank you for writing this, and kudos for sharing <3
Okay now this is nice way of looking at this as well. I'm so glad this can effectively be discussed on Steemit because it sure can't on fb. Your view of it being an emotional disease, really has me thinking. You're right most addictions no matter what they are seem to be caused from something emotional.
Great! This is a really well thought out piece. You've engaged your audience and gotten to the end. I will say your reveal was predictable, but, that doesn't make it bad. Because, you got us rooting for you. We wanted to confirm what we were thinking your secret was. Congratulations on your recovery, that's amazing. I won't share my opinion here, partly because I'm torn, but also to keep it from coloring the critique. So, now for the tips, watch the grammar. You're so close to perfect here, but this topic is a scientific one, so readers may expect more. It's good, but there are a few rough spots in it. Consistency in formatting. If you use headers in one text section, use them in the next. Also, it's good to use short paragraphs, but if you break them up too much they can become disjointed, that's not necessarily what I see here, but, be aware of that. You've gotten 22 views, and 12 votes! That's a good ratio! You've also averaged one comment per vote, WOW that's good engagement. Nicely done.