Is Drug and alcohol addiction a disease or choice? It’s important to understand that these are completely separate. Dependency therapy experts weigh in on both sides of the debate to whether drug or alcohol addiction is the results of choices or a disease. The common argument is that people choose to try drugs or alcohol, so it can’t be a disease. We need to parallel this with other diseases that people don’t ever question, like lung cancer. Just because someone is a smoker and develops lung cancer as a result, this doesn’t mean that the cancer isn’t a disease.
According to SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), abusing alcohol and other drugs can be moderate, mild or severe. The addiction becomes severe when you frequently use these substances, and also it effects functionally and clinically significant impairment, such as failure to meet expectations or physical and mental health issues.
A long-lasting condition that can be controlled but not cured is known as a chronic disease. With this definition in the brain, a Substance Abuse Disorder is a chronic brain disease, that can reach a stage of remission from symptoms which can be controlled through treatment, also known as recovery.
The disease model of dependency
According to Dr. Benjamin Rush, that the condition of these substance abuse disease must be treated by a specialist over two centuries (200 years) ago in 1784. The theory did not gain much physical resistance until much later when Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in the 1930s. The ancestors of Alcoholics Anonymous didn’t have the technology or medical knowledge to effectively understand what physicians do today. But, their research presented alcoholism as a disease of the brain, body, and soul.
Today, even though most medical experts agree that addiction is a disease and there is a whole industry focused on its treatment, people have only started making developments around the stigma of dependency. Alcoholics Anonymous has become the dominant therapy model for addiction and it says that alcoholism and addiction are weak over alcohol, and as a consequence, their life enhances chaos.
The outcomes of untreated dependence frequently involve other mental health and physical diseases which need medical attention. If left untreated for a long period of time, addiction becomes more critical, damaging and can lead to death.
Are drug and other addictions in our genes?
Those who believe in the disease model of dependency accept that addiction, like other chronic diseases such as Alzheimers, dementia, arthritis, asthma and cancer, is a result of various factors and that both biological theories and the disease of addiction are somewhat related. However, the biological principle concentrates on the genetic risk for increasing the “disease” of the dependence. In contrast, the disease model of addiction focuses on the variations among people with the disease and those without the disease. Around 10 percent of people in the U.S. are genetically affected to addiction and alcoholism.
In order to avoid these diseases, you can make a choice to be more healthy by exercising and committing to a healthy diet. This diet can help those genetically predisposed to dependence by being able to quit abusing drugs and alcohol.
How drug and alcohol addiction changes your brain
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH), An estimated 88,0008 people, nearly 62,000 men and 26,000 women have died from alcohol-related causes. Now let us discuss how addiction affects the brain. Addiction is hardwired into our brains. Brains are wired to ensure that we recall and repeat things associated with pleasure and rewards. But what most people are not aware of is that consuming alcohol or other drugs can completely rewire your brain. Overstimulating our brain with these substances generates euphoric effects which strongly strengthen the addiction to substance abuse, which cultivates the habit to repeating it.
Additionally, the brain begins to produce less dopamine and effect a user to abuse more and more to feel “normal.” Your strength to even feel happiness dramatically reduces and which is also called patience, the willingness or ability to undergo something. In short, consuming alcohol or other drug items makes you feel better and you become addicted to it because you understand it doesn’t feel as good as it used to and you want to experience the joy again and again.
Bottom line
It Doesn’t Really Matter What You Believe – Now it’s time to help the people who are suffering from addiction.
What you perceive may influence how you view yourself and your sobriety. For instance, if you think that addiction is a disease, it may reduce your sense of guilt, or if you think it is a choice this may increase your guilt. On a larger scale, it can affect and transform interventions as well as drug policies.There are more than 64,000 people who died in 2017 from a drug and/or alcohol addiction. No matter, whatever side of the topic you perceive to be true, a number of people are dying and in dangerous need of help. No one purposely becomes an addict. If you or someone you love is struggling with the disease of drug or alcohol addiction, it’s time to visit drug and alcohol treatment centers which try to treat people who have lost the power of choice when it comes to drinking or using drugs, and work toward getting clean and sober, which helps you begin a brand new life.