Is Addiction Really a Disease?

Research and input from top addiction authorities, addiction medicine doctors, neuroscientists and experts from the National Institute on Drug Abuse agree in classifying addiction as a disease. Like other chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, experts are still learning about how and why the disease develops. This blog post will help you understand addiction and how IU Health addiction treatment can help those struggling.

The brain is altered by drugs, making poor choices more likely, but they believe that if the drugs are removed, the brain will eventually “remold” itself back to its normal shape. Eventually this leads to the development of dependence, which means that their body has been altered so much that it loses the ability to function normally without their chosen substance. If use stops, they will experience a series of painful side effects known as withdrawal, until either their body returns to its normal state without drugs or when they use again.

Addiction Treatment & Recovery

Research shows that once an individual enters into a state of drug dependence, particularly opioid addiction, it is quite difficult to recover from mere willpower. It implies that substance abuse becomes linked to one’s brain and is no longer a free choice they can make consciously. If the person is on a recovery path and no longer using the substance, it may take several months before the whole body system adjusts back to normalcy. Choices may stem from peer pressure and the desire to deal with negative emotions and stress. Many other risk factors such as dysfunction in families and other stressors, such as divorce and other family issues.

Some say those who engage in substance abuse are in complete control of their actions. Everyone makes a choice about using https://worldinwords.net/tag/the-silk-road/ drugs or taking a drink for the first time. Willpower and shaming won’t undo the changes in the brain and cure addiction.

Drug Addiction: Disease or Choice?

What kind of disease is this for which the best available treatment is religion (Antze, 1987)? Clinical applications are based on explanations for why the behavior occurs. An activity based on a religious belief masquerading as a clinical http://wilka.ru/lyrics/index.php?newsid=61072 form of treatment tells us something about what the activity really is–an ethical, not medical, problem in living. Choice arguments are also unable to account for the role of heredity in a person’s risk factors for developing an addiction.

• Many believe the addiction is caused solely by the person’s choice to use the substance.
• In 2010, a little more than a year after graduating from medical school, I was admitted to a psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital after a drinking and Adderall binge.
• Addiction changes the circuitry of the brain in ways that make it difficult for people to regulate through deliberative efforts the allure of a concentrated chemical rush of reward.
• In recent years, researchers have started to term drug addiction as a disease other than a simple behavioral choice.
• Synthesized, the notion of addiction as a disease of choice and addiction as a brain disease can be understood as two sides of the same coin.
• With some, it may encourage helplessness and their sense of responsibility.

Scientifically, the contention that addiction is a disease is empirically unsupported. Addiction is a behavior and thus clearly intended by the individual person. What is obvious to common sense has been corroborated by pertinent research for years (Table 1). Each person will have a number of biological and environmental risk and protective factors.1 A risk factor is something that puts the individual in more danger of becoming http://linguaeterna.com/bibl/paxson.html addicted, while a protective factor is something that minimizes that danger. People who have an intensely good experience their first time using begin to learn that drugs can make them feel great, and the foundations of addiction are set. Addiction is a complicated subject filled with debate between researchers and scientists from a variety of backgrounds, and these debates have only grown as the years progress.