Re: Addiction is a disease?
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A disease is a negatively abnormal (pathologic) change in the functioning of an organism. This change can be the result of any disease process (etiology). By this definition, alcoholism clearly is a disease.
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This ignores the possibility that alcoholism might be a symptom of some other disease. This is an important distinction for two reasons. First, if someone is "cured" of alcoholism, but the underlying condition remains, the "true cause" may continue to have an undesirable effect. Second, if alcoholism can be viewed as a symptom then correct treatment may depend on the nature of the underlying problem.
An example would be sore throats. To treat alcoholism alone is like giving someone with strep a painkiller. It may eliminate the "problem" (temporarily), but the disease remains. Also giving a person antibiotics just because they have a sore throat is definitely not justified, because a number of things may result in a sore throat - treatment could include antibiotics, antihistamines, or just plain waiting it out (among other things).
Personally I believe the compulsive element of addiction exists in everyone. It's just a mechanical thing. An addict, to me, is usually someone with an emotional problem that they can only cope with using some specific behavior. The need to deal with this problem overrides any desire to stop the behavior, and that is where the addiction itself comes from. Addiction can be overcome by handling the original problem, thereby removing the "need" for the addictive behavior. (Physical addiction is something else, of course)
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See, I thought this as well, that handling the original problem would prevent the "addiction". But, if you read the 12 steps (of any of the Anonymous groups), they make it seem that the problem is the alcohol, coke, etc... I don't know if I agree with these 12 steps. But, on the other side of that coin, if you get 100 truly happy people and get them to try heroin, how many of them would really "want" to do it again? I don't mean where they just think about it and then get over it in a day, but where they think to themselves "I have never felt this good before, I want to feel this again". Cocaine and Heroin are both very psychologically addictive drugs (not just from one time though). Don't you think that people want to have that same feeling again?
Also, why do a lot of people think that addiction is just getting the "fix"? There is much more to an addiction than just the actual high. The entire ritual is essential in the addicts mind.
craig
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