Is Addiction a Disease?

According to dictionary.com, an addiction is: 1. a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment. 2. any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc. 3. any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society: His fascination with executions is a disease. 4. decomposition of a material under special circumstances.

I'm posting this on r/darknetmarkets because I think this subreddit, more than any related subreddits like r/drugs, will show the least bias, or maybe at least the most even mixture of biases:) Recently, in another thread (the one about naloxone) I suggested that addiction is not really a disease, though I did suggest that the disease idea should be popularized because it greatly reduces the stigma associated with addiction. Interestingly, I received a decent amount of downvoting and negative replies, suggesting that many people WANT to believe they are diseased, or at least want the sympathy the idea engenders. Now of the 4 definitions listed above, only 1, 2, and 4, are really scientific, 3 is more of a common usage definition. I should also point out addiction is usually defined as a compulsive behavior wherein an individual seeks out a stimulus as much as possible, generally to the point that they harm themselves or others (the last part is rarely precise as to what counts as "harm").

My argument for why this idea is false is based on the following rational: Our brains have evolved naturally to repeatedly seek out things that give us pleasure, like food, sex, social status etc. If you take that definition of addiction and remove the "causes problems" qualifier in its second half (and I think we should because all habits cause at least one problem: they take up time and energy), then we have no choice but to accept that addiction, though it may be a problem in many instances, is not a disease, because it represents our natural, inborn response to things that make us feel good.

HOWEVER, I'd like to emphasize that I still think the "addiction is a disease" concept should continue to be propagated. Right or wrong, it still helps de-stigmatize addiction, which is a good thing. P.S. Yes I have lots of first-person experience with addiction, likely more than you do. Also please be civil, and respond using logic, I know we're all entitled to an opinion, thanks.


Comments


[2 Points] septic_shock:

Umm.... "DarkNetMarkets"... Think you in the wrong sub bud.

I know cancer is a disease, if that helps...


[2 Points] DctrJewish:

Worst marketing gimmick since "Just say no". Almost as bad as this insufferable pink culture that makes cancer patients "heroes"


[2 Points] throwawayk5zq47j6wd3:

Yes, just like depression. When somebody get addicted, their brain literally gets rewired into a fight or flight response. When they're not under the influence of the certain substance their brain is telling them they need the drug or they will die.

Just like your brain makes you thirsty if you need water, hungry if you need food, it tells the person that they need the drug or they will actually die. Using the drug becomes more important than eating or drinking. I've seen it happen to countless people, friends and family.

Can't believe so many users on this sub don't know the facts. I work with addicted patients in rehab and I've seen the heroin epidemic first hand and how people can beat the addiction and become better human beings.


[1 Points] at69:

Real quick before I pass out for the night, what about alcoholism being genetic? Is it genetic or the environment? On that thought, I'm hung over and going to catch up on sleep now.


[1 Points] walker710:

short answer ... no


[1 Points] AlcoholicTiger:

No, everybody likes pleasure wtf.


[1 Points] hhayn:

According to the DSM it is. Practically, no it's not a disease like cancer or ALS.


[1 Points] None:

No. Whenever people tell me it is I piss in their face


[1 Points] ScoopDat:

It's quite simple, take the lessons of history. It's either treated as a disease or a criminality. Now take a look at which view has had more success in remedying the situation and you will know whether it should be defined as a disease or not.

Overall addiction is a symptom of a disease formed by habit or exterior influence be it ethereal or physical. But to not go down a philosophical rabbit hole, addiction can be broken cold turkey by some, and not by most. Dealing with addicts as criminals is criminal of itself because it is not empathetic to understanding the addiction of itself. Which is why most addicts fall back into addiction after they have been through our current system with addressing the addiction like jail time or regular drug screenings. More success has been seen when it is treated as a medical condition and treated by health professionals, though also admittedly working within a legal framework that is harsh and restrictive for physicians looking to experiment without hindrance toward custom solutions.

The sad state of reality of the current times, I only see one prevailing solution to addiction with high success, and that is substituting one addiction for another. Very sad, but has been shown to work quite effectively, though because of our current systems in place, it doesn't take into account whether the new addiction is worse for the person or not in the overall health/psychological state of the person being treated.

I think we need far more serious people to change society through social engineering, far more progressive thinkers who don't care about the stupidity of stimatization of the mass population of ignorants out there, and solely work on the addiction issue itself with no hindrance, and then have their work published with results that can show what it possible if people would drop their nonsense biases taught to them by people who raised them (and stop seeing them as the all knowing elders as evidently their way of life simply isn't working, and take that as the more important factor of judging whether a group of peoples ideals and ideas matter).

I can branch off into a far more serious topic if this were to be explained more comprehensibly, but I don't have the urge at this hour to do so.

A better TL;DR would be: Addiction is a word, and a construct formed by a something we call language that is terribly interpretive and subjective and has far too many voids when attempting to be objectively descriptive. It doesn't matter what we should call it, but whether we can find the best means of curing it, if that is what most people seek to do when they feel they are addicted to something.


[1 Points] theOzRenegade:

"Addiction" is nothing more than human nature what happens after depends entirely on yourself.
i.e. if your addicted to cheeseburger's chances are you'll become obese among other complications and die (disease)


[1 Points] N3OMN:

Op post this on /change my view


[1 Points] throwahooawayyfoe:

Wait... That second definition...

  1. any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.

PLANTS CAN BECOME ADDICTED TO THINGS????


[0 Points] None:

What a stupid thread. If it helps people to look at addiction as a disease wtf difference does it make what you think snowflake?