Is Addiction a Disease?
Question by Cmeyer: Is addiction a disease?
I wonder about it being a disease because how can someone have a disease and make a choice when they want it to stop? What I mean is when someone is addicted to drugs and they want help they are choosing to. How can people quit cold turkey and it still be called disease? For example, John Lennon was addicted to heroin, and then he wasn’t. How did he shift from being an addict to not? He stopped using. How did he stop using? He decided to stop using, Cold Turkey with all the consequences of his decision. He didn’t have a surgery or take a medications or anything else…he made a decision. This points to a weakness of the disease analogy, and the drawbacks of the disease analogy. I cannot say “I choose not to have Cancer” once I get diagnosed. All I can do is live with the consequences of my disease. I could be 100% committed to beating Cancer and still have it kill me. But if I was battling addiction then 100% commitment would equal about 100% success in kicking the habit right? So that’s why I wonder if addiction is an actual disease.
Best answer:
Answer by Ohhhhh heyy
Yes it is a disease. 100%commitment is not as easy as you think because the DISEASE takes over your mind. Addicts literally have changed brain chemistry. So in that sense Its a physical disease.
Answer by Ms Kitty
Some people are genetically predisposed to addiction which is partially why some people say it is a disease but I’m not sure I disagree. People choose to do drugs, people choose to gamble, it is not something that is forced on them like diabetes or bipolar, it is not something you catch like a cold or the flu. However….. many people do put 100% into quitting an addiction and it does not equal 100% success…. once addicted it is extremely difficult to break it. Much easier to choose to not follow addictive behavior from the start…. Even if someone does quit doing drugs, they are still an addict. Once an addict always an addict even if they never do drugs again.
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