by Miss Kim

Created on: July 29, 2008

Addiction is 100% a disease. Quite frankly, it baffles me that anyone can even say otherwise. Look in any medical book, journal, etc., and you will undoubtedly find that addiction is a disease. Let me start by saying that I am a "recovering" addict. My love for drugs and alcohol once overpowered my ability to live as a normal human being. But I got treatment for my disease, and low and behold, I am one of the 5% of addicts (knock on wood) that is still in recovery. I have been in recovery for over 2 1/2 years and I have a long way to go.

When I was younger, my grandmother used to always tell me, "Don't you ever have even a sip of alcohol because you could be an alcoholic and not even know it." I used to roll my eyes at her and think how crazy a statement that was. Little did I know, that she had seen the genetic alcoholism in my family - on both sides - and was afraid that I might have that same genetic inclination towards addiction. Turns out, she was right. In early recovery, I used to ask myself, "What if I listened to her? Would things be different?" But the truth is, with addiction being a disease, things would have eventually, one way or another, ended up the same. I was born an addict. And when I got that first taste of My Love, I was off and running.

Addiction is a disease, similar to cancer. Before you roll your eyes at me, hear me out: Like most types of cancer, addiction is not cureable. It is, however, treatable. Addiction is like a dragon that lies quietly asleep. But once that dragon is awakened, it rears its angry head. But if you have the right weapons - meetings, counseling, rehab, whatever it may be - it is possible to silence the dragon once again. But no one thing works for every addict. They just have to find what works for them. It could take months. It could take years. But addiction is something that they will deal with for the rest of their lives, whether in recovery or not.

Some people argue that addiction is not a disease, but rather a behavior. That notion is absurd to me. I did not wake up one morning, never having tried any form of a drug, and suddenly tell myself, "I think I'll become a drug addict today." That is nonsense. I tried that drug with never even a thought in my mind that I might become addicted. I tried it out of curiousity, as most people have done at one point or another, addict or not. But the disease of addiction, that I did not even know I had, separated me from everyone else. They could pop pills on the weekends to unwind, while one pill would lead me on a crazy, week-long drug binge. They could go to a party, have a couple of drinks and be fine, while I went to a party, had one drink and then continued to drink until I blacked out. If addiction is a behavior, I could've stop when I wanted. I could've stopped before having to go through in-patient programs, out-patient programs, many detoxes, rehabs, a halfway house, and a methadone clinic. But it's a disease, it gets into your mind and makes you see things the way your disease wants you to see them.

I have the disease of addiction. And as they say in Narcotics Anonymous: One is too many and a thousand is never enough.

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