Are alcoholism/ drug addiction really diseases?

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^^well said Dent.

I also self-medicated heavily when I was younger as I had limited access to ADHD meds. Many of my friends from therapy group got hooked on hard drugs pretty badly. I wouldn't describe any of them as "mental midgets", but they were definitely very underprivileged compared to those kids who looked down on them.

I think the way drug addicts are viewed in society is basically a class issue. It's easy to get righteous when you've lived a sheltered life.

Personally I don't see taking drugs as an ethical/moral issue.

Biologically animals and people seek edible substances that cause their brain chemistry to feel happy. Maybe donuts, maybe beer. In nature you might see that magical substance once a year. In this artificial food and anything you want near and affordable, you might see that magical substance once a day. We have seen in nature that birds and animals love to get drunk on fermented fruit. But they get drunk only at certain times of the year when that fermented fruit is available. Getting drunk once a year is not the same as getting drunk every day.

Also reminding people that prior to sanitary water recycling, european water was so filled with amoebas that it was considered posion. In Rome, the Middle ages, the Rennasience, people drank wine or beer with every meal and any time they were thirsty. And yet no one talks about entire populations of drunk people.

I am an addict. I dont beleive it is a disease, more of a compulsion really.
You wake up and the first thing you thing about is drink/ drugs.
If you dont get it, you become sick.
No matter how long you are clean for the compulsion to use is always there.
Luckily ive broken the cycle, but no matter what you find something to compensate..sex,food,training etc

No, diseases are illnesses, that you catch from people, like from mouth, blood, etc.
At least that what I was tought.

Interesting. I can buy that explanation--psychological dependency and a vulnerable mind. It would explain a lot about addiction and we still don't fully understand how the brain works. I would stop short of calling it an actual "disease," though. Diseases are physical infirmities that can have mental consequences; drug addictions are the other way around.

Metal illnesses often have physical causes.

Alcoholism and addiction is a disease in much the same way that type 2 diabetes is...

Both conditions are brought on by a combination of poor behavior and vulnerable physiology.

Just because there's an element of voluntary behavior at the beginning doesn't disqualify something from being a disease.


THINK, PEOPLE.

Good post. There are many different routes to addiction most of which I know little or nothing about. However the people that are there have not just a psychological addiction but a physical one also. The body can have terrible physical reactions for someone detoxing which in themselves can be life threatening.

Just one example of how you could innocently get to addiction. For my own nervous system condition I take pain killers. I'm maxed out on what they allow me. Now on a good day if you woke up with my level.of pain you'd be screaming for an ambulance. I've learned to adapt to the pain and ignore it, but there are days I could really do,with taking an extra tablet or two. Now I dont, ever, but given they only take the edge off at best it would be easy to rational that maybe the dose should be a bit higher. Trying two extra tablets would be harmless but what if they worked?

Now I'm into really understanding this stuff. So I know I'm dependant (very different to addicted), so I know I've built up a tolerance. Therefore any gain would be short lived and I'd end up putting the dose up again seeking the same effect. Not for pleasure or fun, but to stop being in physical pain. Easy to rational but before you know it you're addicted, and you're pain is still no better. I'm very regimented in my use of the pain meds as the idea of addiction terrifies me, but if you didn't fully understand things if would be so easy to get yourself in a right mess.

A person's mental health plays a huge role in their overall health. Substance addictions can manifest both mentally and physically, so I believe that alcoholism and drug addiction can be considered diseases. I don't judge people who use drugs, because having had issues with caffeine addiction and borderline alcoholism (well, not what "normal" people would call it, but there were a few times I technically came close...) myself, I understand that drugs can be hard habit to kick. Thank goodness I've never tried any street drugs, save for the time I was contact high from someone smoking weed in the same room as me.

Last edited by mr_bigmouth_502 on 16 Oct 2014, 2:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

Some people can drink alcohol responsibly and others can't, but I think it's still a choice to drink at all. It's not like you're being forced to drink while held at gunpoint by Captain Morgan or whatever.

I'm an alcoholic and have had substance abuse issues bordering on dependency in the past.
I had the super fun combination of childhood trauma/abuse, depression, anxiety and undiagnosed ASD to help me along, but I do believe that, particularly in the case of alcohol, I was powerless over the compulsion to drink once I'd started.

I gave up on AA because the theosophy is too blatant and the thinking way too rigid for my liking... How funny is that?

First of all, I don't think that alcoholism/addiction is a disease. My belief is that it's a genetic disorder, as in to say, it was dormant within me up until I first started sneaking sips of my parents' booze before they came home from work at age 11. Even at that age, I quickly learned to drink just enough to alter myself, but not so much that they could smell it. I know they did a couple of times, but the denial was strong, as they say.

The first time I remember getting proper drunk (though mum reckons I did before this,) was when I was 15. I went halves in and drank most of a bottle of vodka for a house party. This is where I learned that my Irish blood gave me a high tolerance. Interestingly, it also partially nullified the social defecits of AS and I believed that I became more popular after this.
At any rate, from that very first time I set the benchmark incredibly high and proceeded to get that wasted every time I drank, slowly pushing my tolerance up as I went. I'm in Australia and for the most part, drinking culture is heavily celebrated here so I was respected within my circle of friends for this. At this point I started with poly-substance abuse as well.

What leads me to believe in the disorder theory is that I had absolutely no choice in the matter once I got started. In fact, the road to sobriety saw me get to a month or so at least 10 times before deciding that 'one beer wouldn't hurt,' or something along those lines. The relapse went as such: 1 beer one day, 2 beers the next, may as well buy a 6 pack to save money, buy a slab, two days later buy another slab, end up doing the 12 a night then going to the pub. Every. Night. Rinse, repeat. Weekends, 18-24 a night.

One of the questions that really got me to question my inability to stop was, 'does it cause you physical discomfort to have one drink and stop?'
I found the answer to be, yes.

I could keep writing all night, but in summary... I sort of agree with you, addiction isn't a disease and shouldn't be wielded as an excuse, but on the other hand it is a genetic disorder, it's clear to see that it runs in families, even nationalities... For some people, the only way to ensure that one doesn't die an early and tragic death is to completely arrest the cycle of addiction. For what it's worth, I am one of those people, and to fool myself that I can drink again is complete lunacy.

P.S. My other gripe with AA is this kinda logic... For the uninitiated (you lucky sons o' guns,) it's based around accepting your addiction then appealing to God to absolve you of it, which results in mind-benders such as this:

'Oh no, AA isn't a religious program, see anything can be your higher power! My higher power is this doorknob!'

But then later on in the 12 steps YOU HAVE TO ASK THE DOORKNOB TO REMOVE YOUR ADDICTION

THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE

Okay, what you're describing here is EXACTLY the disease theory of alcoholism/addiction. The disease of alcoholism is the manifestation of your genetic disorder.


So, here's the thing about AA... all it is, really, is homespun Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The reason to appeal to a higher power is to negate the experience you described above--where you repeatedly try and fail to get sober on your own.

Many people in your situation might think that getting sober after so many failures is impossible. Appealing to a higher power is simply a way to reframe the situation--it's a cognitive crutch. This time is different. This time I will succeed (where I failed so any times before), because this time I'm not alone. This time I have God (or whatever) on my side.

If you can buy into the idea, it can actually help. Even if you don't fully buy into the idea it can help. Praying can help you focus your own thoughts even if you don't really believe--hence the AA slogan "fake it 'till you make it."

Also, AA is probably not the best program for younger people. David Sheff makes some good points here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5vNJdspEc4[/youtube]

Sheff's book Clean is definitely worth a read.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17165919-clean

It was required for my Addiction and the Family class. It was actually better than the textbook.

Aye, what I'm taking issue with is pure semantics... A DISEASE is something that you catch as such, whereas a DISORDER is something that differs from 'the norm' by way of genetics or what have you. I heard a lot of people going 'duhh it's called a disease because you're not at ease... A DIS-EASE, GET IT??'

I couldn't handle that. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. It is not logical. In my eyes, you have to ignore the truth to succeed in AA. But that's just cus I get stuck on minor details and don't believe in a sentient God, or that the universe can actually manipulate itself to benefit me while people die of their eyeballs bleeding out from some horrible ACTUAL disease overseas.

That said, I took a lot from AA, and still go through the Just for Todays sometimes, and expecially the One Day at a Time concept.
But then again, even the Just For Todays has something like 'Just for today, even though I am not hurting I will not show it...' which for me simply causes me to repress my emotions and then explode or get dangerously depressed.

Anyhow, I don't wish to debate the relative merits of 12-step recovery, just simply state that I'd like to think that those with ASD could apply their own knowledge of the stigma surrounding the condition to that of alcoholism/addiction. There are a lot of parallels.

I do not think it's a mental weakness, it doesn't matter how mentally strong someone is it would still be possible for them to become addicted to something. Perhaps if they initially got addicted due to self medication that might be a part of it in the sense if one self medicates for psychological reasons that is an indication they have some sort of mental issue....not so sure if having mental issues is necessarily a mental weakness though. What is a mental midget? Also using drugs is not the same as being addicted to them.

Hmm last I heard drug addiction and alcoholism are considered disorders.....and how is it necessarily someones fault if they develop an addiction, I imagine most people who end up with an addiction did not set out to get one.

The whole 'mental midget' label / idea basically leads to a dismissive attitude of pretty much any sort of pyschological disorder, no matter how legitimate they might be as disorders or diseases. Is someone with schizophrenia a 'mental midget' because they cannot will away the voices in their head without help from medication, or is a bipolar person a 'mental midget' just because they can't remain on an even keel without medication, even though both these diseases can be traced to chemical imbalances in the brain? Is someone with Aspergers (presumably such as yourself since you are here on this web site, and certainly like myself) a 'mental midget' because they can't will themselves not to be shy or force themselves to make eye contact with everyone, all the time? Is someone really a mental midget because they lack the willpower to overcome a biochemical craving in their body for certain substances? I think you could fairly argue that there might be a bit of 'mental midgetry' going on when someone decides to start using drugs - certainly its a bad decision when people generally know that they shouldn't start - but once there is a physical addiction in place I don't think you can fault someone for not being able to overcome it, especially if you've not dealt with the same thing yourself and don't really know what its like.

It's not..