To think that addiction is a disease?

[feryon98]

Was having a discussion with a few coworkers about this and it seems to offend them when people claimed addiction is a disease and they said people with actual diseases don't have a choice.

Yes, addiction it's self inflicted but there are many diseases which are caused by an initial choice (e.g Eating unhealthy can cause Type II diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure,).

Addiction is definitely a disease.
People suffering from it cannot just simply choose to stop using or stop behaving in a certain way.
Their addiction causes changes in their brains, making the substance litterally irresistible.
Nothing to do with willpower, selfcontrol etc.
However, it is the responsability of the person, who is addicted to seek help and do everything in their power to overcome the addiction.
Even when someone has stopped abusing the substance, they will forever more be susceptible to the addiction.
It is a terrible disease and people suffering from it need love and support, not judgement….
Speaking as the partner of a man who has overcome his addiction through AA, therapy and blood, sweat ‘n’ tears……

This is worth a watch.

A lifestyle choice that can lead to disease.

It's a disease of the mind with gradually worsening and physical effects. Sadly, it is also treated like many diseases of the mind by those who don't understand it - with utter contempt.

We've finally got to a point where many people understand that you cannot think yourself better or snap out of it during depression, and that chronic depression is a thing. Hopefully, in years to come, addiction will be viewed similarly and gain more compassion.

Don't you feel that's a bit of a cop out? The idea that you are powerless? Not personally but as an ethos.

For those who say that addicts deserve empathy, how far does that extend?

If an alcoholic gets behind the wheel of a car when drunk and kills someone, do we think they deserve empathy because they must be struggling with their addiction?

If someone addicted to drugs or alcohol goes home and beats up their partner do we think they deserve empathy?

It’s all very well to say that people deserve empathy if they’re really struggling with their addiction, have taken the steps to overcome it, and are on that journey.

But if someone kills someone or is violent due to an addiction which they have chosen to continue, why should they deserving of anything but contempt?

It is, but there's been a moment of choice. I have never chosen to turn to drugs or alcohol in my darkest times.
My daughter's father did choose alcohol, over his children, his marriage, everything. There was a moment that he could have chosen a different route, but he didn't.

@Eyesopenwideawake I've personally witnessed many, many people who had lost everything, who had destroyed relationships and families and themselves, simply because they were unable to stop drinking, find themselves and their self respect again - rebuild their relationships and their lives.

It's called the gift of desperation - coming to AA and realising that you have nothing to lose by giving it a go, because you have lost most of what matters, self worth and all. Acceptance that alcohol means you are powerless is, yes, part of it. I'm ok if that makes it a cop out.

I'm comfortable with calling addiction an illness. But I'm not comfortable with anyone inflicting pain on other people because they refuse to manage their illness. Any illness.

Any threads about addiction always descend into moralising judgements, over simplifying the complexity of addiction down to ‘choice’ is so ignorant. And tedious. And just perpetuates stigma and shame, which prevents people from seeking help.

Totally agree with this. Loving someone with alcohol use disorder or substance use disorder is a painful rollercoaster of emotions

So true unless it's a codeine addiction, started off as pain control, then all the sympathy comes pouring out here.

I guess that’s an acceptable ‘middle class’ addiction 🙄

I don’t think this is true (although haven’t seen many threads about it on here) but I do think there is a bit of a difference between this & alcohol/drugs.

If you’ve been prescribed codeine for pain by your GP and that same GP, a medical professional, is still prescribing it, most people wouldn’t worry or think twice about the potential for addiction because they have pain and a medical professional is actively recommending and writing these prescriptions, and people trust in these professionals to know what is okay and what is not. No GP has ever sent someone away and told them to drink a bottle of vodka.

I left my partner who was an alcoholic. I felt he could have done something about his drinking if he chose to. Lots of people with addictions do something about it. You don't choose to have an addiction but you choose what to do about that.

I am not sure what your point is, other than proving my point that prescribed medication is less stigmatised than alcohol and illicit substances. A prescription for codeine does not equal automatic addiction - there are a multitude of other factors that influence this.

Addiction is an illness, not a weakness. It’s a simple as that really.

Also it could happen to any one of us. People who sneer at those with addictions might want to consider that all it could take is a disease with chronic pain, a dead child, or a complete destruction of life by whatever means, and they are very susceptible.

Or smoking/lung cancer.
or having legs amputated.
Or cancer
Or literally any disease ever!

It’s a strange logic really isn’t it

There’s a problem with painkiller addiction in the US because their medicine culture is fucked up. When I used to hear celebrities of going to rehab over painkiller addictions I thought it was a euphemism for drugs. But no it’s a big problem and it’s talked about. For all its risky the US is light years ahead in terms of addiction management and has been for some time.

Spot on

But there are very well researched and marketed ways to reduce the chance of dementia. Eating well, leading a healthy lifestyle etc. so it’s actually not different - people know that leading a healthy lifestyle making good choices reduces the chances of pretty much every disease going. And yet very few people make the effort to do just that. They’re no less complicit than an addict in their own health choices.

As the daughter of an addict, k feel two things can be true of addiction:

1. its a disease
2. Youre allowed to have angry feelings about your loved one suffering from this disease especially when a symptom is treating people you’re supposed to love like absolute shit

I’m a recovering alcoholic and I’m not sure I agree with the disease model. Because it works on the assumption that it’s like a yes/no question - are you an addict? Do you have this disease called addiction? - which sort of implies that it’s obvious the people who are addicts and the ones who aren’t.

Whereas in reality, addiction isn’t yes/no, it’s very much a spectrum or a slow slide. Would I consider myself an addict? Yes. Was I physically addicted to alcohol? Yes, probably, though I personally didn’t need to go through detox. When did the switch flip from drinking too much to having a disease? Who the hell knows! I was there and I couldn’t tell you.

It’s much more complex and messy than the disease model of addiction would have you believe. And there are huge numbers of people, women especially, who are drinking in very unhealthy ways but who the disease model wouldn’t classify as ‘addicts’. I think in that way it’s not useful because it keeps a lot of people focused on a very stereotypical image of an addict or an alcoholic. But actually, Gemma from mummy and baby prosecco group is drinking clinically dangerous amounts, but doesn’t neatly fit into that model because she’s still too far to the middle of the spectrum to be an ‘addict’.

I think using terms like problem drinking or substance misuse are more helpful than ‘addiction’ in the classic sense.

Tbf, he's probably riddled.

There is a massive problem with prescribed painkillers in the UK too. In fact the most commonly used illicit substances in Scotland are street pregabalin and gabapentin, which people resort to when no longer getting it on prescription.

It is interesting to me that someone becoming dependent on codeine prescribed by their GP is more morally acceptable than a child becoming dependent on cannabis after being offered a spliff by their drug addicted father. Or a teenager becoming dependent on alcohol which was supplied by their older brother, in a house full of domestic violence. To say there isn’t classism going on here would be incorrect.