Addiction is not a disease.

[Twilight Hue]

Here's the opening Salvo for the debate......

It would be nice if people stop referring to addictions as a disease, it's simply not the case, so stop calling it a disease.

Weither through drugs or the new recent "disease" of video game addiction (for which I also "suffer" from) is in fact a choice and habit gone chronic.

Drinking coffee and getting addicted to caffeine is not a disease. Honestly, if caffeine was ever made illegal I'd be pounding on the doors and crying and wailing just as much as any drug addict hooked on meth. But the bottom line is, it's simply not a disease.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3314045/


http://www.theclearingnw.com/blog/why-addiction-is-not-a-disease-an-interview-with-dr.-marc-lewis


https://nypost.com/2015/07/12/addic...were-treating-drug-and-alcohol-addicts-wrong/


For those that think it is a disease, how in the world can addiction be classified as a bona fide disease?

Addictions are no way similar whatsoever with diseases. Biologically or Mentally. You don't catch or inherit an addiction.

The word disease is more less a cafe' term as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Audie]

All addicts are either communists, morally
weak, or simply insane.

 

[Estro Felino]

Drinking coffee and getting addicted to caffeine is not a disease. Honestly, if caffeine was ever made illegal I'd be pounding on the doors and crying and wailing just as much as any drug addict hooked on meth. But but the bottom line is, it's simply not a disease.

It's an addiction...that creates abstinence crisis...once your psyche is used to it.
Without espresso, Italians would commit a mass suicide (and I am not exaggerating )

 

[Revoltingest]

"Disease" does apply well to addiction.
There are 2 justifications....
1) Just as physical diseases cause physical changes,
so does addiction.
Ref...
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/science-of-addiction-national-geographic-fran-smith/
2) We recognize other diseases of the brain, eg, schizophrenia, depression.
Addiction appears quite similar.

 

[David1967]

Weither through drugs or the new recent "disease" of video game addiction (for which I also "suffer" from) is in fact a choice and habit gone chronic.

Good definition........but your not likely to win many friends with it.

 

[Twilight Hue]

"Disease" does apply well to addiction.
There are 2 justifications....
1) Just as physical diseases cause physical changes,
so does addiction.
Ref...
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/science-of-addiction-national-geographic-fran-smith/
2) We recognize other diseases of the brain, eg, schizophrenia, depression.
Addiction appears quite similar.

Similar but not exact. I mean you don't inherit or catch addiction. If change is a criteria then shouldn't Botox be considered a disease as well? Breast implants?

How about the mental side? Should Christmas presents be considered a disease? or birthday presents?

Shouldn't addiction just stand on its own definition for what it is. Addiction?

 

[Revoltingest]

Similar but not exact. If change is a criteria then shouldn't Botox be considered a disease as well? Breast implants?

Intentional changes typically aren't considered a disease.

How about the mental side? Should Christmas be considered a disease? or birthdays?

Those are holidays.

People do tend to act differently on those days.

Acting differently is only considered a disease if it's very
dysfunctional, eg, obsessive compulsive behavior.

Shouldn't addiction just stand on its own definition for what it is. Addiction?

This is about whether it's a disease or not.
It's still "addiction".

 

[jonathan180iq]

I can understand calling it a mental illness. But it's certainly not a disease in the traditional sense.

So, you're right.

All you have to do to avoid this "disease" is choose to not pick it up off the table... I've lot lost very close friends to addiction, so forgive me if I'm a bit cynical of the whole thing. But you can't die of an overdose if you never put the trash in your body in the first place.

 

[SalixIncendium]

You should probably let the Center on Addiction and the AMA know. These knuckleheads don't seem to be up to speed on opinions posted on RF.

https://www.centeronaddiction.org/what-addiction/addiction-disease

 

[Twilight Hue]

Intentional changes typically aren't considered a disease.

Those are holidays.

Acting differently is only considered a disease if it's very
dysfunctional, eg, obsessive compulsive behavior.

This is about whether it's a disease or not.
It's still "addiction".

Well when a person first takes drugs or whatever it is an intentional act in most cases. If it's prescribed by a doctor this would still be intentional because you're still willingly putting it in your mouth, hopefully aware of the side effects and such with the focus of getting better. Of course we all know about addiction to pain medicine that was prescribed. Would that consequently make a prescription a primary cause of disease?

I use holidays because people's behavior typically changes around holidays and birthdays. They tend to place people in a different frame of mind and for some people, the holidays could turn into a mental addiction that's hard to let go for better or for worse givin people are either exceedingly happy or exceedingly depressed as a result.

 

[Orbit]

It's a matter of semantics imo. "Addiction" by definition causes changes in the brain, require detoxification, a change in habits, and a change of social circle in many cases. I think the reason that public health organizations call it a disease is to lessen the shame and encourage people to seek treatment.

 

[Koldo]

Honestly, if caffeine was ever made illegal I'd be pounding on the doors and crying and wailing just as much as any drug addict hooked on meth.

If you don't think see anything wrong with that, I don't know what to tell you. Seriously.

 

[PureX]

Here's the opening Salvo for the debate......

It would be nice if people stop referring to addictions as a disease, it's simply not the case, so stop calling it a disease.

I don't really see how it matters what we call it. Gay marriage or civil unions: who really cares what we call it but the fools who want to use the words to insult and denigrate others?

If someone smokes for 20 years and gets cancer, how does blaming them for smoking change anything? They still have cancer. And so do the people who didn't smoke, but still ended up with cancer. Addictions are like cancer. Some of us are afflicted with it and some of us aren't, even though we all engage in more or less the same behaviors.

I was born with a predisposition to become an alcoholic. So when I began to drink alcohol, I was effected by it differently than other people, and I did become alcoholic. But I might not have. Or someone else might not have even though they were born with the same predisposition. Correlation is not necessarily causation, and it does not produce the same results, predictably, regardless. And even if it did, so what? That doesn't change the course or frequency of the affliction. Nor does it change the outcomes.

So I don't see what the point of this proposition/debate, is. If it's so you can blame addiction on those afflicted, then you have no understanding of addiction and no compassion for those afflicted. And if it's not about laying blame, then what IS it about?

 

[sun rise]

I mean you don't inherit or catch addiction.

That's wrong according to research that links genetics to some addictions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506170/

And asserting that someone should ALWAYS know what they are taking ignores that sometimes people are given drugs in the hospital when they're basically or totally out of it and subsequently are addicted.

And I agree with @Revoltingest (shocking to both of us, I know) here.

 

[Twilight Hue]

That's wrong according to research that links genetics to some addictions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506170/

And asserting that someone should ALWAYS know what they are taking ignores that sometimes people are given drugs in the hospital when they're basically or totally out of it and subsequently are addicted.

And I agree with @Revoltingest (shocking to both of us, I know) here.

So genetics makes you put pills in your mouth or shoot your arm up with a syringe, or snort things up your nose

 

[Twilight Hue]

Good definition........but your not likely to win many friends with it.

It's a debate. It's like a WWF cage match!

 

[Twilight Hue]

If you don't think see anything wrong with that, I don't know what to tell you. Seriously.

Well I know it's not a disease .

 

[ChristineM]

Here's the opening Salvo for the debate......

It would be nice if people stop referring to addictions as a disease, it's simply not the case, so stop calling it a disease.

Weither through drugs or the new recent "disease" of video game addiction (for which I also "suffer" from) is in fact a choice and habit gone chronic.

Drinking coffee and getting addicted to caffeine is not a disease. Honestly, if caffeine was ever made illegal I'd be pounding on the doors and crying and wailing just as much as any drug addict hooked on meth. But the bottom line is, it's simply not a disease.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3314045/


http://www.theclearingnw.com/blog/why-addiction-is-not-a-disease-an-interview-with-dr.-marc-lewis


https://nypost.com/2015/07/12/addic...were-treating-drug-and-alcohol-addicts-wrong/


For those that think it is a disease, how in the world can addiction be classified as a bona fide disease?

Addictions are no way similar whatsoever with diseases. Biologically or Mentally. You don't catch or inherit an addiction.

The word disease is more less a cafe' term as far as I'm concerned.

A part of addiction is genetic, part environmental
children may inherit the predisposition to addiction from their parents as certain diseases can be inherited

Here are almost half a million scholarly articles on the search term "is addiction genetic"

https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=is+addiction+genetic&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

Whether this genetic influence can be identified as a disease, i dont know. Certainly genetic disorders are generally seen as disease

 

[PureX]

I can understand calling it a mental illness. But it's certainly not a disease in the traditional sense.

Until it kills you. As many addictions will and do kill millions of humans every year.

All you have to do to avoid this "disease" is choose to not pick it up

If we could choose not to "pick it up", we wouldn't be addicted. No one chose to be addicted. The definition of addiction is the loss of self-will. People become addicted when they can no longer control their own behavior, even when they want to. Addiction is not a choice, it's the loss of choice.

 

[Koldo]

Well I know it's not a disease .

Do you see what is wrong with 'pounding on the doors and crying and wailing' just because you can't have coffee anymore ? Or do you think that is a completely normal behavior ?