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My 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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