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Is Addiction a Disease?

Experts Seem to Agree But Can the Rest of Us?

By Sarah FennellPublished 7 years ago 4 min read
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Diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are caused by a combination of environmental, biological, and behavioral factors. Believe it or not, the same factors are what can lead to addiction. With meeting these criteria, we can say, empirically, that addiction is too, a disease.

It seems a controversial topic or one that is up for some sort of debate but the reality is, facts cannot be argued against. Most medical associations define addiction as a disease, including the American Medical Association. So, why is it that individuals with diseases like heart disease or diabetes aren't faced with the same sort of downtrodden judgment from the public, as those with addiction?

An uninformed society would be prone to believe that those who suffer from addiction are perhaps people who put themselves in that position merely because they wanted to or simply won't stop because they choose to. Maybe some would go as far to say that those that suffer from addiction lack a sense of morality. In fact, addiction is a far more insidious and complex disease that takes much more than just "willpower" to overcome. Drugs have a way of altering the user's brain chemistry, making it more difficult to quit, even when the user wants to quit.

Drugeabuse.gov defines addiction as "a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences." Centeronaddiction.org defines addiction as "a complex disease of the brain and body that involves compulsive use of one or more substances despite serious health and social consequences. Addiction disrupts regions of the brain that are responsible for reward, motivation, learning judgement and memory. It damages various body systems as well as families, relationships, schools, workplaces and neighborhoods."

Sure, the initial act of ingesting drugs is often voluntary but, as aforementioned, repeated usage is what can lead to addiction. Drugs activate ones' "reward circuit" by pumping out a large amount of the chemical messenger dopamine. The overstimulation of this circuit is what causes a "high" and keeps the user coming back. The brain will adjust to the excess dopamine by creating less of it or reducing the amount of cells that respond to it which, subsequently, will reduce the "high" that the user felt the first time. Tolerance may lead a person to take more of the drug in an attempt to achieve the same feeling they felt the first time they used. Over time, the willpower to quit the drug becomes impaired and a person may lose control over their drug use completely.

Not everyone who has taken drugs, however, will become addicts. There are many factors to be taken into consideration when discussing a person suffering from addiction. One's biology, for example. Scientists have found that some genes, ethnicity, or presence of mental illness can be tell-tale signs of a predisposition to addiction. In fact, genetic risk factors make up about half of the likelihood that addiction will develop. Environmental and developmental factors can also play key roles in the development of addiction. However, we cannot control how our bodies will react to drugs and alcohol. Those with addiction will have a much harder time when trying to quit than those who don't.

Many people believe that since addiction starts with a choice, that it continues to be a choice as the person continues to use. Choice doesn't determine diseases. For example, diseases like skin cancer can be caused be sun exposure, an environmental factor. We may choose sun exposure but not skin cancer nor a predisposition to skin cancer. Diabetes can be caused by poor diet or lack of exercise, a behavioral factor. We may choose our inactive lifestyles but no one chooses diabetes or a family history of the disease. Heart disease can be caused by smoking. We may choose to smoke cigarettes but we do not make a conscious decision to choose heart disease or any other uncontrollable risk factor for the disease. All of these diseases can be a result of a "choice" combined with a predisposition to the disease like genetic markers, but not all who stand outside on a sunny day will develop cancer and not all who smoke cigarettes will develop heart disease. See where I'm going with this?

Addicts, in this society, have a hard enough time as it is. No one wants or chooses to suffer from the disease and the added discouragement and degrading remarks, only causes more suffering to those that are dealing with addiction. To minimize their experiences because you don't "believe" they are truly addicted or truly suffering from a disease equates to minimizing the experiences of those suffering from many other diseases. You wouldn't shame a person with skin cancer by saying things like, "well, you could've went inside if you wanted to" or "can't you just stop having skin cancer?" So why are we saying these things to people suffering from addiction instead of offering, at the very least, compassion?

I believe there are many steps that need to be taken to change the ways addiction is handled in the U.S. It starts with open dialogue and the willingness to change our opinions. We need to gain an understanding and accept that addiction is, in fact, a disease.

Although addiction can be a chronic disease, it can be treated and those suffering can lead full, productive, normal lives. There is help!

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction consider seeking help to combat it. Here are a couple of links that may help:

Recovery.org 24/7 toll-free help hotline: 1-888-507-4099

SAMSHANational Helpline 1-800-662-HELP(4357)

Cited websites and more information:

National Institute on Drug Abuse

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse

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About the Creator

Sarah Fennell

Author, mother, and terrible at describing herself.

Sayruhlong.wordpress.com

@say__ruhh on Twitter

say.ruh on Snapchat

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