Opinion Should Addiction Be Viewed as a Disease? The New York Times

Trauma can also play a role in addiction, as individuals may turn to drugs or alcohol as a way to numb their pain or escape from their past experiences. Peer pressure can also be a powerful influence, as individuals may feel pressured to use drugs or alcohol in order to fit in or be accepted by their peers. Environmental and social factors can have a significant impact on the development and maintenance of addiction. Stress, trauma, and peer pressure are just a few examples of factors that can contribute to the development of addictive behaviors.

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is addiction a disease or choice debate

I understood addiction as a damaged condition that neatly divided me from the normal population. Choice arguments are also unable to account for the role of heredity in a person’s risk factors for developing an addiction. Once again, if it were solely choice based, addiction would affect each person as an individual and their family history would play no significant role. It is important to recognize that recovery is a lifelong process and that individuals with addiction may require ongoing support and treatment. By providing individuals with the tools and resources they need to manage their condition, we can greatly improve their chances of long-term recovery. Treatment for addiction can include a combination of therapy, medication-assisted treatment, and support groups.

Biological Risk Factors for Addiction

I’ve heard countless “If only I had…” stories from parents, students, and people in addiction recovery. The relationship between drug use and mental health issues moves in both directions. As the National Institute on Drug Abuse points out, “many individuals who develop substance use disorders (SUD) are also diagnosed with mental disorders, and vice versa.” Those with mental health issues are more likely to use drugs, perhaps to cope or self-medicate.

Each semester that I taught college courses on addiction, I was dismayed by students’ lack of basic knowledge about what psychoactive substances actually do in their brains and bodies.
These spontaneous remission rates are argued to invalidate the concept of a chronic, relapsing disease [4].
But the brain changes are not a malfunction of biology, which is the defining feature of disease.
Moreover, some of the most fiercely debated aspects – for instance, whether or not addiction should be classified as a disease or disorder – are irrelevant for the conceptualisation of addiction.
To address these issues, policymakers should prioritize prevention education and promote understanding of the inherent risks of drug use.
The argument that addicts are not compelled because there are always alternative possibilities (together with a capacity to control), neglects an experiential and individualist account of addiction.

The neurobiology of drug addiction: cross-species insights into the dysfunction and recovery of the prefrontal cortex

The key results were that remission after age 30 was reasonably stable, and that it was unlikely that there were enough missing or dead addicts to alter significantly the trends displayed in Figure Figure11. Critics question the existence of compulsivity in addiction altogether [5–7, 89], typically using a literal interpretation, i.e., that a person who uses alcohol or drugs simply can not do otherwise. These data suggest that commonly used diagnostic criteria alone are https://theohiodigest.com/top-5-advantages-of-staying-in-a-sober-living-house/ simply over-inclusive for a reliable, clinically meaningful diagnosis of addiction. They do identify a core group of treatment seeking individuals with a reliable diagnosis, but, if applied to nonclinical populations, also flag as “cases” a considerable halo of individuals for whom the diagnostic categorization is unreliable. Any meaningful discussion of remission rates needs to take this into account, and specify which of these two populations that is being discussed.

Risk and protective factors of drug abuse among adolescents: a systematic review

These broad conclusions are consequently applied to individuals who, as discussed, endure a very heterogeneous condition. For instance, consider the fact that most addicts mature out of their addiction by their late twenties and thirties. That still leaves a subgroup of (often severely) addicted individuals for whom addiction may very well be chronic. These addicts often suffer from severe comorbidities, such as mood, anxiety, or personality disorders [46]. As a result, these generalised findings by the CM may not apply to severely addicted individuals in terms of chronicity.

The Impact of Environment and Social Factors on Addiction

This will be challenging — perhaps as challenging as breaking free from addiction — but only then can we truly deliver appropriate, supportive and professional care to all who struggle with this difficult and often life-destroying problem. At worst, prevention programs Top 5 Advantages of Staying in a Sober Living House create shame for people struggling with their substance use and actually impede help-seeking by shutting down communication with adults. But looking to the left is the wrong response in a country where people drive on the opposite side of the street (like England).