Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Why is alcholism or drug addiction called a disease when in fact it's a choice?

I'm a recovering alchy %26 attend drug/alchol classes 4 nites a week, but I'm told as well as the meth heads attending we suffer from a disease of addiction. Why say it's a disease? NOBODY forced the bottle down my throat nor the crack pipe in anyones face either.
Answer:
I think the answer is two fold, first by calling it a disease it may help the addict to physiologically overcome the addiction. that almost makes a little sense but the part that bothers me is it takes responsibility away from the user and puts it on the substance. I agree with you addiction is not a disease, there may be some diseases you can get as a result of you're addiction but the addiction itself is just that. Think about it, a junkie goes back to shooting up not because he has a disease but because he has an addiction. I don't want to sound like a propaganda machine but the modern liberal world we live in has made it very popular to sugar coat things in the name of political correctness. This is just another example of that.
who said it was a disease? It's called an addiction, duh 鈾?
Though no one forced you to make the initial decision to consume the drug of choice, the "thereafters" were not a decision, they were needs you had to meet because of your body's response.
It's an excuse so that booze can be kept legal and get taxed. The disease is what you get later (i.e. cirrhosis and all that). The addiction isn't a disease. Just like smoking isn't a disease. It's a choice. I agree with you.
I would also like to know the answer to that. I have never understood why they call druggies and alcoholics people with diseases. A disease in my opinion, is something that you can not help. People choose to drink and use drugs and most if not all know the consequences. When you get the answer you need please let me know. Thank you
Because once it settles in, it does in fact become a disease. People who become addicted have physical symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol; DTs are an example of these, which may include shaking, headaches, and dizziness as examples to what some alcoholics experience during the worse stages of withdrawal. Also, it is referred to as a disease because there is evidence that the probability of one becoming an alcoholic is increased if they have a family history of it.
Some refer to it as a disease because they don't want to add guilt to those who are already trying to recover. As if changing the word is going to make it A OK. =]Others call it a disease because there are people whose chemical make up makes them more prone to addictive behaviors. That is, the person who drinks and manages to quit is likely to then become a smoker or an eater or a chronic exerciser...whatever. The concept is that the person suffers from the disease of addiction.
Because it was a choice to start, but if you have used/abused alcohol or other drugs to the point where it is an addiction, those chemicals have changed the wiring in your brain. So it was a choice to start, but it is not as simple as making a choice to stop. You have created a neurological dependency on these chemicals, and your body will demand that you provide those chemicals just like it demands food and water. When you spend time clean, you can work to rewire, but any relapse will snap you back into the dependent state. You can take 100 steps forward, but if you take one step backward it will be one 100-step leap back to the beginning. You can win, but you can't underestimate your opponent. Good luck and may you find the strength you need when you need it most. Peace.
It started out as a choice...the first time you drank. It then became an addiction, which IS a disease. Good luck on your recovery. You are to be commended for your efforts!
Hi, yes alcaholisim is a recuring desese!! for instance, if you study your background, i will assure you that you will find one or both parents or one or both grandparents had a drinking problem. the gene is there just like cancer and its waiting for you to have anxiety depression or friends to encourage you to make the gene active. it truly is a desease
i am so sorry you live with that!!
as far as a drug that is a concious choice..but once you make the choice and become enslaved to that drug it becomes an illness. you may be clean the rest of your life but hun it is an minute by minute fight..ALOT EASIER WHEN YOU HAVE SOME1 TO EMOTIONALLY SUPPORT YOU. you say you have been in AA ETC. then im sure you have heard the term HIGHER POWER... used alot. GOD is your higher power, he is your only means of rehab. you only have to do ONE thing on your own..ASK GOD TO HELP YOU! HE WILL I PROMISE. i dont kno u but god does and you will be in my prayers GOD BLESS YOU %26#92;O/
It's a disease because even though you made the choice to drink excessively, or use illegal drugs, you didn't choose to become addicted to them. Not everyone who drinks becomes addicted to alcohol, but for those who do, they have a disease. They have some type of a predisposition that enables their body to crave something it was introduced to, something that a normal body would not respond to with a craving. A normal body rejects things that make it feel like crap the next day, it doesn't crave for more. When a body's ability to function normally is impaired beyond a person's control...hence the addiction, well then it's diseased. OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder is a disease too. The brain requires it to perform the same activity repetitively. Addiction can easily be likened to OCD. Just as someone whose brain forces them to arrange things symmetrically over and over again to fullfill an unwanted act or thought, a person with an addition's brain forces them to repeat an action (ingesting a foreign substance) to fullfill an unnecessary urge.Saying you don't have a disease doesn't make you any better of a person that you were as a drunk. It doesn't imply that you're accepting responsiblity for your own actions. What it does do is prohibit you from progressing further in your attempt to get your disease under control. If you don't accept the fact that you have a disease, whether it be cancer or an addiction, and then utilize the treatments available to help get the disease under control, then you will die. There's no way around it.
If you are not addicted, then drinking or taking any intoxicant to the point just before you're high is a choice. Getting high is something your body does. If you find the high irresistable, THEN you're addicted. Addiction is a disease caused by exceeding your body's ability to handle the drug without triggering an addiction response - an irresistable craving. It's believed that each individual has a threshhold of tolerance for each drug, beyond which addiction will occur. Addiction is a disease you can give yourself. And many people do. How much intoxicant it will take and how many highs it takes is an individual matter.

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