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| Yes | 64% | 384 votes | Total: 603 votes | |
| No | 36% | 219 votes |
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Add to FavoritesMy name is Kevin and I suffer from the disease of addiction. My low self esteem and my fear of living life on life's terms caused me to use drugs to change the way that I thought, felt and behaved. It didn't matter what or how much I used because I am an addict and it could have just as easily been sex, food, or gambling that made my life unmanageable. For me it just happened to be drugs.
I know today that addiction is most definitely a disease. I used drugs for twenty two years and perpetrated my problems by believing the lie that it was all about the substance. I knew that alcohol got me arrested so I stopped drinking. Crack gave me chest pains so I snorted lines instead. Pills were dangerous so I smoked pot. No matter what, I had to use something. It never occurred to me to just stop completely.
I have been clean since May 19, 2002 and I have gathered further evidence that addiction is a disease. I have not picked up a drink or a drug in almost six years but I have gone through workaholic, shopaholic and sexaholic phases in my recovery process. All of these were the result of my trying to reach outside of myself to fix what was wrong on the inside.
Every disease has a cause or causes, symptoms, and effects. The cause for the disease of addiction is self-centered fear, a terror which grips an individual with thoughts of impending doom, despair and self-loathing. One opinion is that this fear is created by the environment that we are exposed to in our formative years suggesting that addiction is an economic or sociological issue. This hypothesis has very little credibility because 12 step meetings are filled with people from all different walks of life who share the same problem.
The symptoms of the disease of addiction are clear for all to see. Drug use is the most obvious but once you are aware of what addictive behavior is you can usually spot it. Medical professionals call it OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and it comes in varying degrees of seriousness. Most would not consider someone who works 60 hours a week to be an addict but if the person does it all the time and ends up divorced and without any friends because of it then they might have a problem.
The effects of the disease of addiction are simply devastating. Drug addicts and alcoholics die on a daily basis all around the world. This is probably the most compelling proof that addiction is a disease. Many use drugs or alcohol against their will. They know what the end result will be and yet they continue. People lose their homes, their families and their jobs and they still use. Family members die of overdoses and people still use. Some even do years in jail because of their drug or alcohol use and they still use. This is definitely the pathology of a disease, not a social or economic problem.
In 1935, when Alcoholics Anonymous was founded, many believed alcoholism was a moral dilemma and not a disease. Bill W. and Dr. Bob did not agree with this theory and they started a fellowship where millions have found relief from alcoholism. It was the first treatment of its kind anywhere and it works. In 1953, believing that addiction was a disease like alcoholism, Jimmy Kinnon and others formed Narcotics Anonymous which has over 36,000 meetings a week now in 186 different countries around the world. Both of these fellowships and over 100 others have two things in common. One is that they believe the twelve steps are the solution. The other is that addiction/alcoholism is a disease. That's all the evidence I need.
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No
Addiction is a choice. There may be many reasons and rationalizations as to why people become addicted to alcohol, drugs, or many other things, but if people are honest with themselves, they can usually trace their addiction history back to when it all started. This does not mean that people can just as easily make the decision to stop, but the will to end an addiction is certainly the starting point for which to do so.
Numerous studies have shown that people with addictions have chemical imbalances of one sort or another relative to other people. This is not really surprising, because over time the human body is influenced by various stimuli, whether they be chemical or hormonal. The more that people allow anything to influence them, the more they will eventually become dependent on that stimulant. Similarly, if a person is not told to be conscious of their posture from an early age they may end up with a bad curvature of the spine. That does not mean they had any predisposition or tendency to being hunched over.
Too many professionals in the mental health field seem to be involved in the business of enabling. By declaring addiction and other mental disorders to be illnesses beyond people's control, they have carved themselves a nice little niche that may be quite lucrative for them, but not always helpful to their patients. Accountability and responsibility are not popular words for some professionals who are uncomfortable about talking about morality and values. After all, these are too closely linked to the spiritual realm which many members of the scientific community either scoff at or simply chose to ignore.
For centuries the Salvation Army as a reputable organization has been attempting to deal with addiction from a spiritual perspective. It has helped many to overcome their addiction by guiding them to God for help. Some members of the scientific community have attempted to analyze and even replicate the twelve step program made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous. They too point members of their program to a "higher power" as the means by which to battle addiction. Undoubtedly these groups would identify alcoholism and drug addiction as diseases as well, but their terminology would be "social disease" rather than medical condition.
Once people find themselves in the grips of an addiction they may easily lose sight of the fact that there is still choice involved. Many chose to continue in their habit because their self-destruction is in fact a choice they are willfully pursuing, or to which they are resigned as a lesser of two evils. Hopelessness is a tragic but hard reality for some. Perhaps they have not known much happiness in life and have determined that life consists of only that which can be seen and touched.
But for those who recognize that human beings are also spiritual beings, hope is an important part of the wellness journey. There is much we don't understand about why some people have certain weaknesses while others have their own "demons to face". Some doctors and scientists are spending their entire life trying to decipher genetic codes to prove genetic predispositions to what members of the Christian community generally refer to as sin. I'm sure that the very use of this word has dismissed the credibility of this article in the minds of some. Nonetheless, hope, founded in a Creator outside of themselves is what has given many former addicts the escape from their addictions they so much desired. For those who would have us believe that addiction is simply a disease, I see little hope of that escape.
Learn more about this author, Bohdan Rewko (Bo of T.O.).
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