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| Yes | 65% | 939 votes | Total: 1452 votes | |
| No | 35% | 513 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.
Learn more about this author, Kevin Flynn.
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No
Addiction being a disease is a lazy way of thinking. Addiction to alcohol and/or drugs is not a disease. Addiction is a behavior. It is a behavior that can be modified, if not completely changed. It takes a strong will and support of loved ones to be changed, yet it can be done.
Diabetes is a disease. Cancer is a disease. Diabetics do not wake up in the morning and will themselves to have high blood sugar. Cancer patients do not tell their tumors to grow or not to grow. Addicts wake up everyday and decide if they will or will not drink alcohol or use drugs. It is a conscience choice. Cocaine, speed, vodka, whiskey or whatever the poison of choice does not suddenly appear in their systems. It is purposefully put there by the addict themselves.
"I don't know how I got drunk," an alcoholic friend of mine told me when I picked her up from a bar when she was too drunk to drive home.
Really? You don't know. I know how it happened. You got in your car and drove to a bar. You got out of the car and walked into the bar. Once inside, you ordered a drink. Then you ordered another one. And, another one. The man in corner then bought you one. You gladly accepted the drink. You bought a few more drinks. Maybe even accepted more from the man in the corner. You finally decided to go home, but couldn't find the right key to your car. That was when you called me.
I was a bartender for about a year in college. I am not the most experienced bartender and I still don't know much about alcohol, but there are a few things I do know. I know I have never seen a bottle climb from behind the bar and pour itself into someone's glass. I know that booze doesn't chase people down the street, begging to be drank. I know that alcohol can't be drank unless someone opens their mouth and swallows it.
"This crack has a grip on me," a college classmate told me once.
Really. It has a grip on you? I thought you had a grip on the pipe as you lit it up. Crack must be some drug. It found you. It opened the door and walked in, a pipe and lighter in tow. I can certainly see how I would want to avoid that drug. It just suddenly appears and holds a gun to you head and makes you smoke it.
I went to a party while in college. I saw the drugs pulled from pockets and purses. I also saw me make a mad dash to the door. The drugs were there; they were available. They didn't jump on me, force themselves on me. I made a conscience choice to leave. I also made the conscience choice never to go back.
Addiction is a disease? I just don't get it. I know that alcohol and drugs can alter your way of thinking. It can only do that if you let it. Alcohol can not alter your way of thinking if you never drink it. Drugs can not alter your way of thinking unless you use them. Make the conscience choice to abstain and there will never be a problem.
Of course, making the conscience choice to abstain is too late for too many people. They have already made the conscience choice to play with fire. Now they have to make the conscience choice to put that fire out. They need to change their behavior. They need to do whatever it takes not to end up in a situation where drugs and alcohol are available to them. That is known as a strong will. They need people around them who will stay around them and do whatever it takes to keep them away from those situations.
It isn't easy, yet it can be done. Make the choice not to drink and not to do drugs and stick with it. Change your behavior. Hold tight to people who love you and want you to be clean and sober. Seek out people who want you clean and sober. Ask for help and don't take no for answer. Make the conscience choice to live.
Learn more about this author, Emma Riley Sutton.
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