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drug addiction. ... Some psychologists and sociologists assert that animal studies do
not model the important psychological variables governing drug addiction. ...
Is Addiction A Disease. Is addiction a disease? ... This essay will expand on Stanley
Peele's arguments. Addiction has generally been attributed to drug addiction. ...
TV Addiction. ... (608)" However, thinking logically, we could see that Winn`s definition
is too broad, and does not provide an efficient explanation for addiction. ...
Addiction. What Is Your Addiction? The purpose of this paper is to delineate the
evaded term “addiction”. ... Money has an immense role in addiction. ...
Addiction: A Desease Or A Choice? Addiction: A Disease Or A Choice? Several
people argue whether drug addiction is a disease or a choice. ...
Submitted by kingshrty22 on May 1, 2005
Category: Psychology
Words: 2885 | Pages: 12
Views: 786
Popularity Rank: 9,844
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Addiction: It's A Neurological Disorder
Addiction is a neurologically based disease. For many years recovery specialists have compared alcoholism or addictions to a physical disease: like diabetes. In reality addictions are more closely related to a neurological disorder like Tourette's Syndrome* than they are to diabetes.
If the problems you suffer stem from severe alcoholism or addiction, you must accept that these problems are not primarily mental or free will issues. Addictions are not about will power. The problems facing addicts, alcoholics, and their families are miserable, disgusting, and infuriating. They are often hopelessly discouraging. But to imagine that an addict "could change if he wanted to" is a serious misunderstanding of the long term dynamic of addictive disorder. The fact is precisely that an addict cannot change in the long run even if he wants to! That is the definition of addiction: "the loss of control over the use of a substance." It is important to understand that this loss of control is manifested not in terms of days or weeks, but in longer term behaviors: terms of months and years.
The reason addicts have lost control is because they have suffered permanent physical neurological changes based in their brains and nervous systems. The disorder manifests in long term obsessive-compulsive behaviors outside the realm of the addicts own control. It is true enough that the use of chemicals begins with chosen behavior. But if alcoholism or addiction develops, the problem has moved outside the realm of free choice. It has developed into a long term mental and physical neurological disorder. All the emotional 'feelings' involved in drug or alcohol seeking are based in neurology. Addiction is based in physical dependency created by altered neurotransmitter balances, and driven by millions upon millions of new living, functioning active neurological pathways which have been established to sustain the condition in the...
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