by Marianne Lange

Created on: July 11, 2008   Last Updated: July 27, 2009

Addiction reflects behavior. Many will jump to the conscious choice to do something destructive as just that, a choice; therefore reaching the conclusion that it is not a disease. Though I am not a scientist and not the expert on the physical and chemical side of an addiction, I would offer this scenario for consideration. What about whole families where everyone is an addict? Not possible? Think again. My husband has four siblings and they're all alcoholics. On my own side of the family, again, multiple alcoholics within my own core family. This is not uncommon. What is actually frightening is how common it really is.

When I started to talk to people, it was staggering how many have extensive family histories of addictions of one sort or another. Look at the children we are raising today. Many children are coming to our schools now with addictive behaviors that are already well on the way to ruining their lives. OCD'S, obesity, nicotine, alcohol, sexual addictions, and whatever else you can think of. Though these reflect in the natural and physical levels, the root causes can be and are predispositions, sometimes chemical, that affect neurological processes and then behavior. There are also environmental issues that impact physical and mental behaviors as well.

Choice. It's still part of the process. In the end there are recovering addicts who choose to take their medication, go to meetings, talk to counselors and stay in the program. No one would discount this. For cancer patients you could say the same thing. There are those who will opt for treatment, change nutritional or other destructive behaviors and see counselors. There are yet others who don't follow through. We would not dare to say any cancer patient was a whiner. We just wouldn't. We would not judge them.

The chemical tendencies regarding addictive behaviors are indisputable. Tied to these is that individual responsibility to decide to change. This is where the conflict comes with those who hold to the side that addiction is not a disease. Our society as a whole tends to discount the idea of mental and psychological illness and the strong ties to chemical bodily malfunctions or disease. Our society is exploding with people who are falling prey to more and more illnesses that have their roots in both the physical and psychological functions of their bodies.

Today it is a moot point. It doesn't matter what side of the issue you hold. The explosive numbers of people demonstrating negative behaviors related to addiction is overwhelming. As John Donne, the poet stated, "No man is an island; entire of itself." What really matters is a collective, collaborative approach that produces some kind of result. All the other diseases put together don't have the power that addictions of one sort or another now hold over our society. This is an area that sorely needs attention and answers, especially in the lives of the young children already gravely affected by this disease. What can we do? How can we expedite or create some plan to, on a larger scale, address these issues. John Donne's poem further states, "Therefore send not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

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