The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: mamacags on April 14, 2011, 06:34:31 PM
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I do not believe addiction is a disease. I believe a disease is something that you have no control over that your body produces or you catch from another person. I believe labeling it a disease is a cop out for lack of self control. What do you think?
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I'm not sure. I don't know if there is an addiction gene or if generational addiction is a learned behavior from the parent. Hmmm, I'm not voting because I don't know.
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If there is an addiction gene then you still have control over it. I have a gene for red hair, that doesn't mean it is a disease.
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I agree with mamascags, I don't think it's a disease either. It goes along the same lines is clinical depression a disability?? That's another no.....
After I found out that I was a diabetic last year, I went into a very deep depression and was diagnosed as such( I also had other baggage as well, which makes me wonder...)
But, damned if i am going to call it a disability, stay home , and get paid for it.. :mental:...
I want to work and be a productive member of society!! Yes I am taking medication for it, but there is nothing wrong with my arms, legs and brains(Sparky, just zip it, about living in Maine, blah, blah, blah!! ::)))
There is so much help out there(hotlines. therapy, support groups).People need to get up, dust themselves off, and get on with it!!!!
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I don't think it's a disease, either. Maybe a genetic predisposition, like sunburning or being pigeon-toed, but not a disease.
Not to say that addiction and addressing the associated problems are as easily corrected or avoided, I just can't buy the disease model.
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Not a disease.
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I don't think it's a disease, either. Maybe a genetic predisposition, like sunburning or being pigeon-toed, but not a disease.
Not to say that addiction and addressing the associated problems are as easily corrected or avoided, I just can't buy the disease model.
I do think labeling it a disease gives people an excuse to cop out.
My step sister is a major alcoholic. She has lost her husband, her kids, her home, her license, her career (nurse), been hospitalized numerous times and almost died once from alcoholism, jailed several times, had a few DUI's, had a wreck while drunk and almost killed a mother and daughter, her boyfriend is diabetic and an alcoholic and is basically in the same place she is only worse health wise because of being a diabetic alcoholic. Oh, she is a also a compulsive liar. I predict she will drink herself to death just like her mother (my step dad's ex wife). She is not a functioning alcoholic but her sister is (my other step sister). My step dad also had an alcohol problem, mainly when I was in middle and high school.
My dad (my real dad) is a functioning alcoholic, my brother died of a methadone overdose, my other brother is addicted to gambling to the point of filing for bankruptcy several years ago because of it and now being $60k in debt again, I also think he is addicted to hydrocodone. My mom used to smoke but that is the only addiction she has/had. I haven't been addicted to anything. I often wonder why I'm not an addict, I have been surrounded by it my whole life.
My mom's friend is a recovering alcoholic. She goes to AA meetings all the time (my step sister goes infrequently to the same meetings). The majority of my moms friend's friends are in AA so my mom and I know quite a few of them. One time my mom, me, my moms friend and other AA people went to lunch. We were discussing alcoholism. I was talking about how I can't comprehend addiction because I've never been addicted. One of the AA people asked me why I drink at all if I'm not drinking to get drunk and how I can stop at just one glass of wine or beer. She said she can't understand why anyone would have a drink if they didn't want to get drunk. I can't understand the NEED to drink yet she can't understand not needing to drink.
My mom's friend hasn't had a drink in about 5 years but she has just traded alcoholism for shopping. She blows through money and buys more crap than anyone I have ever known. She is also a semi hoarder as well as has issues with food. What I don't understand is why if she beat her alcoholism (so far) what is feeding her other addictions?
What feeds the addiction? Is it a defect in their personality? Is it a learned behavior? What causes the "defect"? Are they just weak?
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Although I believe that there are genetic factors that enhance one's ability to become addicted, I do not believe addiction is a disease. I firmly believe that people that use that excuse for their lack of self-control (and mind you, I come from a very addiction-oriented family, and have my own addictions, I could so easily use that as a copout.) are truly delusional.
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Although I believe that there are genetic factors that enhance one's ability to become addicted, I do not believe addiction is a disease. I firmly believe that people that use that excuse for their lack of self-control (and mind you, I come from a very addiction-oriented family, and have my own addictions, I could so easily use that as a copout.) are truly delusional.
I'm playing devils advocate here. I have a gene marker called HLAB27. It predisposes me to auto-immune diseases. It isn't connected to my Takayasu's Arteritis (the disease that caused my stroke) so much but is a known cause with my UVeitis and Reactive Arthritis (both of which I have). The HLAB27 gene marker plays a part but something triggers the auto-immune disease (for me it was salmonella that I got while I was in Cancun).
All people who have the HLAB27 gene marker don't always have say UVeitis (chronic) or Reactive Arthritis but the great majority of people who have either disease have the gene marker. If you have both diseases you are almost certain to have the gene marker.
This is kind of what I was talking about when I said I wasn't sure. Could some people have some sort of gene marker that causes them to be predisposed to addiction? Like my example above of my gene marker, not everyone who has the gene marker is an addict but a majority of addicts (not all) have the addiction gene marker (if there is one). For example, there are other causes for UVeitis, like in injury to the eye, but it's a one time thing. If it is chronic, it is auto-immune in nature.
Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud and I probably am not making sense.
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A genetic or societal predisposition, yes. Medical condition type "disease", no.
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I voted no.
I come from an almost teetotaler family. When I married I was flung into a new family, from the parents down, and their acquaintances who were almost all addicted to something; alcohol mainly, but a few druggies. I had never seen a mature adult sloppy drunk before and I was shocked.
I couldn't understand then or now how someone can thoroughly toss out any self respect or pride to stay intoxicated to the point of shitting their pants, puking on the floor, pissing all over themselves on a regular basis. MY MIL or BIL would call us at 3 am crying about how they had a disease and someone needed to come over to help them change crapped in clothing or a rug. My husband went; I refused.
What they had was a choice. They made theirs. They were poor choices.
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A disease? No not really....I would say a genetic abnormality of the area of the brain which controls "self contol" I do think it turns into a disease after you start using whichever substance you decide to abuse as a change in brain chemistry does take place. I know children of alcoholics who are complete teetotalers because of their fear of triggering this "disease",so both sides are right to a degree.
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If it's a disease, everyone was born with it, every single person. There are no people out there that can't become addicted to something, whether it's alcohol, sex, working, sugar, perfectionism, endless inspection of your navel, whatever. Every person has the same problem in a different form. The way you handle your particular personality/temperment/genetic makeup determines whether your "disease" is a problem or not.
Of course, the best way to control or cure your particular disease is through the intervention of Christ (or your Greater Power, as AA calls Him). I think most of these "diseases" are an attempt to fill that hole the each person has in their heart...and the only way to actually fill that hole is through Christ.
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Of course, the best way to control or cure your particular disease is through the intervention of Christ (or your Greater Power, as AA calls Him). I think most of these "diseases" are an attempt to fill that hole the each person has in their heart...and the only way to actually fill that hole is through Christ.
I'll go with that to a point. I used to interpret AA, NA, and Al Anon meetings. I met some addicts/alcoholics who were, or became, Christian. Yes they stopped drinking and were able to alter the thinking and attitudes that went with it, but still fought urges, dry dreams, and what not. So yes on one hand coming to Christ (or finding a Higher Power) gave them the ability to not drink, but the desire side of addiction was still there.
My own husband got injured, got sick, was in pain and felt ill much of the time and began seeking relief through booze. At some point he was unable to stop drinking. What's the saying?, "First the man takes the drink, then the drink takes the man?" Hub was a committed Christian to the end. I can't figure it out. Fortunately for all, that's not my job.
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If it's a disease, everyone was born with it, every single person. There are no people out there that can't become addicted to something, whether it's alcohol, sex, working, sugar, perfectionism, endless inspection of your navel, whatever. Every person has the same problem in a different form. The way you handle your particular personality/temperment/genetic makeup determines whether your "disease" is a problem or not.
Of course, the best way to control or cure your particular disease is through the intervention of Christ (or your Greater Power, as AA calls Him). I think most of these "diseases" are an attempt to fill that hole the each person has in their heart...and the only way to actually fill that hole is through Christ.
Couldn't agree more. I'm in AA, and I've been clean & sober going on 18 months. One of the things that AA says that keeps alcoholics sober is helping other alcoholics. The people that I've seen sober up . . . wow. Yes, there's a "hole in the heart," that we alcoholics tried to fill with alcohol. It didn't work, so we have to surrender to God (or the Higher Power--I choose to call my higher power "God") and let Him work through others in our lives. It can be tough if the alcoholic tries to resist it even for a millisecond. I know that it is, having been there and gone through it. My life is a lot more full now, and the best part of it, for me, is that I can enjoy The Heiress' growing up. (My singing voice is a lot better, but that's gravy.) God works through me as I live my life, too. The music director at my church shocked me last night by telling me that she celebrated a year clean and sober, earlier this week. I think that maybe God acted through me in showing her how it could be done.)
I think it's called a disease because that's the simplest term for it. I also believe that, if it were a disease, everyone would have it. I know that there's a fair number of people who can drink alcohol and not have the problems that I had with it. My wife's one of those, but I think that the fact that her sister has 11 years clean and sober has a lot to do with her reluctance to drink. It's definitely a "condition," drinking is. As I look at pics of my daughter, I hope that she sees what Daddy does to stay sober, and she stays on the sober path. All I can do is to be a good example. God will use me to get through to some people. Others, He will use other people.
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Couldn't agree more. I'm in AA, and I've been clean & sober going on 18 months. One of the things that AA says that keeps alcoholics sober is helping other alcoholics. The people that I've seen sober up . . . wow. Yes, there's a "hole in the heart," that we alcoholics tried to fill with alcohol. It didn't work, so we have to surrender to God (or the Higher Power--I choose to call my higher power "God") and let Him work through others in our lives. It can be tough if the alcoholic tries to resist it even for a millisecond. I know that it is, having been there and gone through it. My life is a lot more full now, and the best part of it, for me, is that I can enjoy The Heiress' growing up. (My singing voice is a lot better, but that's gravy.) God works through me as I live my life, too. The music director at my church shocked me last night by telling me that she celebrated a year clean and sober, earlier this week. I think that maybe God acted through me in showing her how it could be done.)
I think it's called a disease because that's the simplest term for it. I also believe that, if it were a disease, everyone would have it. I know that there's a fair number of people who can drink alcohol and not have the problems that I had with it. My wife's one of those, but I think that the fact that her sister has 11 years clean and sober has a lot to do with her reluctance to drink. It's definitely a "condition," drinking is. As I look at pics of my daughter, I hope that she sees what Daddy does to stay sober, and she stays on the sober path. All I can do is to be a good example. God will use me to get through to some people. Others, He will use other people.
H5 for that
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The Mayo Clinic says alcoholism is a disease - not just any ol' simple disease, but a chronic disease.
If that isn't sufficient justification, well, no skin off my nose:
Alcoholism is a chronic disease in which your body becomes dependent on alcohol. When you have alcoholism, you lose control over your drinking. You may not be able to control when you drink, how much you drink, or how long you drink on each occasion. If you have alcoholism, you continue to drink even though you know it's causing problems with your relationships, health, work or finances.
It's possible to have a problem with alcohol but not have all the symptoms of alcoholism. This is known as "alcohol abuse," which means you drink too much and it causes problems in your life although you aren't completely dependent on alcohol. If you have alcoholism or you abuse alcohol, you may not be able to cut back or quit without help. A number of approaches are available to help you recover from alcoholism, including medications, counseling and self-help groups.
Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/DS00340)
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I voted, but I'll exercise my God-given right as an American to keep that to myself, as well as my opinion on this matter. My family and I have far too long a history with this issue to be objective about it.
Let's put it this way, I've always taken great pride in the fact that we, as conservatives, don't cast each other out as heretics for having differing viewpoints on things, recognizing that there are far more important issues that we all do agree upon.
This would be one of those.
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The Mayo Clinic says alcoholism is a disease - not just any ol' simple disease, but a chronic disease.
If that isn't sufficient justification, well, no skin off my nose:
Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/DS00340)
After 30 years of drinking, most of it binge drinking, I quit cold turkey about 3 years ago. However, the last two New Year's Eves , my wife and I have split a bottle of Champagne, but that's been it.
I'm not sure where I would fall in the Mayo Clinics thinking. We'd go out 2-3 times a week, every week, and I would drink to get drunk, period. However, I never did it on a night before having to work or otherwise get up in the morning.
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Hell no, and I'm addicted to nicotine and probably even beer.
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I know the Mayo Clinic classifies it as a disease. I was asking what you believe. I am not saying people aren't predestined to alcoholism. I know that I can never touch a cigarette or a bottle of Jim Beam again. I think classifying it as a disease is a cop out and vitim mentality. A disease gives you no choice. You always have a choice to pick up a bottle, pipe, needle.
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I know the Mayo Clinic classifies it as a disease. I was asking what you believe. I am not saying people aren't predestined to alcoholism. I know that I can never touch a cigarette or a bottle of Jim Beam again. I think classifying it as a disease is a cop out and vitim mentality. A disease gives you no choice. You always have a choice to pick up a bottle, pipe, needle.
I believe it's a disease in line with what the medical professionals are saying.
And because alcoholism IS a disease, the person who has it DOES NOT have a choice, if that person expects to have a full, rich, rewarding life.
Plenty of alcoholics do not ever recover. They wind up either dead from cirrhosis, in jail or prison, or even worse, wind up killing someone else due to their decisions.
You could make the argument that picking up a bottle of Jim Beam is making a choice. I maintain that that is not, because no sane person would make that choice knowing what the end result will be.
Without parsing words too much, one has to make rational choices in order to make viable choices. Anything else isn't a choice at all -- it's simply another direction borne out of a disease.
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I believe it's a disease in line with what the medical professionals are saying.
And because alcoholism IS a disease, the person who has it DOES NOT have a choice, if that person expects to have a full, rich, rewarding life.
Plenty of alcoholics do not ever recover. They wind up either dead from cirrhosis, in jail or prison, or even worse, wind up killing someone else due to their decisions.
You could make the argument that picking up a bottle of Jim Beam is making a choice. I maintain that that is not, because no sane person would make that choice knowing what the end result will be.
Without parsing words too much, one has to make rational choices in order to make viable choices. Anything else isn't a choice at all -- it's simply another direction borne out of a disease.
Thanks, Euph.
I make my living with words, but sometimes, emotion and experience get in the way and I find myself at a loss for them. You did just fine.
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What is addiction when one comes right down to it??
Do we have different scales for addiction --say those that drink are at a 10, and someone addicted to sugar is a 3.
A drug addict is at a 15 .
What is the roots of adiction---something that makes a person feel good, some may be adicted to chocolate, some collecting tea cups.
Addiction can be most anything that we feel the need for, collecting objects to into the need for sex or even the power to controll their home. Politions are addicted to the Ego and power what ever they can get.
Drugs and drink can and do addict as the person cannot get any other satisfaction in their lives.
This is not a disease , it is the symptom of the need to to get the person on another track, Addiction and compulsion are not that far apart.
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I believe it's a disease in line with what the medical professionals are saying.
And because alcoholism IS a disease, the person who has it DOES NOT have a choice, if that person expects to have a full, rich, rewarding life.
Plenty of alcoholics do not ever recover. They wind up either dead from cirrhosis, in jail or prison, or even worse, wind up killing someone else due to their decisions.
You could make the argument that picking up a bottle of Jim Beam is making a choice. I maintain that that is not, because no sane person would make that choice knowing what the end result will be.
Without parsing words too much, one has to make rational choices in order to make viable choices. Anything else isn't a choice at all -- it's simply another direction borne out of a disease.
What sane person would make the choice to inhale tar and nicotine knowing that they will end up attached to an oxygen bottle and slowly suffocating to death?
What sane person would continue to consume large quantities of sugary foods knowing that they will end up with diabetes, destroyed kidneys, attached to a dialysis machine, and have various limbs removed?
What sane person would have sex with multiple partners knowing that they will eventually end up with a disease that will destroy their immune system and leave them to suffer with multiple infections until they die?
Where do we draw the line between making a choice and being totally unable to control your own actions?
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I voted "no."
It's true that there's maybe possibly perhaps some sort of "addiction" gene, much as there are probably genes for just about every other preference and taste a human being has.
However.
One cannot control how one feels, or how one is driven, but one can control one's manners.
I used this analogy frequently when the Impeached One was still president; Just like Bill Clinton, franksolich, a male, is a wild tomcat, eager and anxious to bed down with any woman coming his way.
But unlike the Impeached One, franksolich keeps his impulses under control.
One can't control one's feelings, but one can control one's behavior.
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What sane person would make the choice to inhale tar and nicotine knowing that they will end up attached to an oxygen bottle and slowly suffocating to death?
What sane person would continue to consume large quantities of sugary foods knowing that they will end up with diabetes, destroyed kidneys, attached to a dialysis machine, and have various limbs removed?
What sane person would have sex with multiple partners knowing that they will eventually end up with a disease that will destroy their immune system and leave them to suffer with multiple infections until they die?
Where do we draw the line between making a choice and being totally unable to control your own actions?
I'm speaking of alcoholism as a disease -- and I'm simply quoting what the medical professionals are saying to support my own belief, which is what mamacags asked me to state. I am not delving into the questions that you're posing, because I can't answer them. I'm not sure anybody definitively can.
Sanity is a flitting thing for some people, as is personal responsibility. In a perfect world, we'd all be perfect. But we ain't.
From what I know of alcoholism, it is a disease like no other. It couples with the physical and the psychological/mental aspects of the human body. There's a lot of information out there written by people who know a lot more about it than I do, but from where I'm standing and my own association with the disease through family members specifically, there is no doubt it's a disease.
This is not to suggest that alcoholics are helpless creatures bogged down by their demons. Far from it. It simply takes the clinical, cold perspective that alcohol, ingested over a certain undefined period of time (or sometimes right from the start), leads to an obsession and an inability for the drinker to abstain, once that first drink is taken. As I understand it, some of the leading indicators whether or not someone is an alcoholic is whether they've had serious issues directly resulting from drinking. Whether that be a DUI, or physical (liver) or esophageal problems, or financial troubles as a direct result of drinking -- all of these can indicate that a person is an alcoholic, but not necessarily PROVE that a person is an alcoholic.
But I defy ANYBODY to call anybody else an alcoholic. It's a personal accountability that either is, or is not, taken by the drinker.
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Although I believe that there are genetic factors that enhance one's ability to become addicted, I do not believe addiction is a disease. I firmly believe that people that use that excuse for their lack of self-control (and mind you, I come from a very addiction-oriented family, and have my own addictions, I could so easily use that as a copout.) are truly delusional.
To clarify the original statement, I was answering the question as given. There are MANY addictions out there, not just alcohol and drugs. Eating, Gambling, Shopping, etc can all be addictions as well. When the addiction is one that adjusts a body's chemistry, I could see where that could evolve into a disease. With that being said, self-control is still of the utmost importance to recover from that. Unless one lives in a completely isolated environment.
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I do not believe addiction is a disease. I believe a disease is something that you have no control over that your body produces or you catch from another person. I believe labeling it a disease is a cop out for lack of self control. What do you think?
If alcohol isn't a problem for you and you have enough "self control" to keep it from screwing up your life, then good on you. Know that not everyone is wired like you and if it helps them to call alcoholism a disease, so what if the end result is them not drinking.
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What sane person would make the choice to inhale tar and nicotine knowing that they will end up attached to an oxygen bottle and slowly suffocating to death?
What sane person would continue to consume large quantities of sugary foods knowing that they will end up with diabetes, destroyed kidneys, attached to a dialysis machine, and have various limbs removed?
What sane person would have sex with multiple partners knowing that they will eventually end up with a disease that will destroy their immune system and leave them to suffer with multiple infections until they die?
Where do we draw the line between making a choice and being totally unable to control your own actions?
My brother was not insane yet could not control his actions. He had a rare tumor on his adrenal gland called a pheochromocytoma. It causes your adrenaline to be in hyper mode for extended periods of time. He did think he was going insane but we didn't find out the reason for it all until his autopsy. After we found out about it it explained so much. He had been to the doctor so many times, to the ER several times (each time the drug screen came back clean except for ambien). He couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, had massive headaches that came on quickly with no warning, had extreme anxiety and panic attacks so badly the he thought he was dying right then and there, his heart would race to the point he would pass out, he would sweat like a stuffed pig while sitting in an air conditioned room with a fan blowing on him. He would also be normal and calm one minute and the next thing you know it was like he was on speed. We all thought it was drugs, it makes me sick to think he would be alive today if a doctor found out what was wrong and he could have felt normal again.
He had almost every symptom listed below. His doctor and the ER doctors never could find what was wrong. He was prescribed anxiety medication as well as anti depressants. They didn't help. He was self medicating with his wife's pain medication. She had pain patches, oxycontin and methadone. Plus those narcotic suckers which my youngest daughter got into one christmas when she was three years old. I went ballistic when she came toddling out with it asking me to open it. My brother's widow (I don't consider her my sister-in-law) was prescribed the pain medications for facial tumors but I know for a fact she was addicted. Her tolerance for narcotics is very high.
While my brother was self medicating with her pain medications, his tolerance was not as high as hers. She had been on these medications for years and years. She gave him the medication that killed him, she admitted that she gave him some methadone the day he died (then took it back after the autopsy said that methadone was what killed him). From the autopsy we learned the he had enough morphine in his system to kill several people. He was not able to control his actions, he was desperate for relief and never found it.
I apologize ahead of time for going off here but I'm talking about my brother who is DEAD from a drug overdose. And yes he was an addict towards the end of his life. We tried to get him help. My mom begged him to move back home and she would pay for everything and get him healthy again. I even called a drug rehab in his state and set it all up. His bitch of a wife said she would handle it. Obviously it never happened.
Again, look at the list below, this isn't even all of the symptoms. My brother was not insane, yet he still was not able to control his actions Tell me you would be able to control yourself when the medication your doctor gave you could not have helped you in any way, shape for form because they didn't know what was wrong with you. He thought he was going crazy because no doctor could tell him what was wrong. He was NOT insane, don't lump all addicts together.
The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Pheochromocytoma includes the 40 symptoms listed below:
Headaches
Nausea
Vomiting
Weight loss
Hypertension
Hyperglycemia
Diabetes
Diabetes-like symptoms
Palpitations
Angina
Chest pain
Clammy skin
Cold skin
Anxiety
Nervousness
Panic
Feeling of impending doom
Rapid pulse
Rapid breathing
Breathing difficulty
Vision disturbance
Impaired vision
Orthostatic hypotension
Fainting
Sweating
Flushing
Abdominal pain
Constipation
Paresthesias
Skin sensations
Headache
Paroxysmal hypertension
Tachycardia
Tremor
Emesis
Postural hypertension
Weakness
Fatigue
Pallor
Decreased gastrointestinal motility
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I don't think it's a disease. I have raging alcoholics in my family. I could probably be one but I didn't like the way it made me act so I just stopped the same day I quit smoking.
The way I look at it is if this "diseased" person was stranded on an island, they wouldn't die from non-treatment of alcohol so it's all in their addiction problems not genetics.
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My brother was not insane yet could not control his actions. He had a rare tumor on his adrenal gland called a pheochromocytoma. It causes your adrenaline to be in hyper mode for extended periods of time. He did think he was going insane but we didn't find out the reason for it all until his autopsy. After we found out about it it explained so much. He had been to the doctor so many times, to the ER several times (each time the drug screen came back clean except for ambien). He couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, had massive headaches that came on quickly with no warning, had extreme anxiety and panic attacks so badly the he thought he was dying right then and there, his heart would race to the point he would pass out, he would sweat like a stuffed pig while sitting in an air conditioned room with a fan blowing on him. He would also be normal and calm one minute and the next thing you know it was like he was on speed. We all thought it was drugs, it makes me sick to think he would be alive today if a doctor found out what was wrong and he could have felt normal again.
He had almost every symptom listed below. His doctor and the ER doctors never could find what was wrong. He was prescribed anxiety medication as well as anti depressants. They didn't help. He was self medicating with his wife's pain medication. She had pain patches, oxycontin and methadone. Plus those narcotic suckers which my youngest daughter got into one christmas when she was three years old. I went ballistic when she came toddling out with it asking me to open it. My brother's widow (I don't consider her my sister-in-law) was prescribed the pain medications for facial tumors but I know for a fact she was addicted. Her tolerance for narcotics is very high.
While my brother was self medicating with her pain medications, his tolerance was not as high as hers. She had been on these medications for years and years. She gave him the medication that killed him, she admitted that she gave him some methadone the day he died (then took it back after the autopsy said that methadone was what killed him). From the autopsy we learned the he had enough morphine in his system to kill several people. He was not able to control his actions, he was desperate for relief and never found it.
I apologize ahead of time for going off here but I'm talking about my brother who is DEAD from a drug overdose. And yes he was an addict towards the end of his life. We tried to get him help. My mom begged him to move back home and she would pay for everything and get him healthy again. I even called a drug rehab in his state and set it all up. His bitch of a wife said she would handle it. Obviously it never happened.
Again, look at the list below, this isn't even all of the symptoms. My brother was not insane, yet he still was not able to control his actions Tell me you would be able to control yourself when the medication your doctor gave you could not have helped you in any way, shape for form because they didn't know what was wrong with you. He thought he was going crazy because no doctor could tell him what was wrong. He was NOT insane, don't lump all addicts together.
Somewhat different from making the choice to pick up that bottle, light that cigarette, buy those Twinkies, pick up the next one night stand...
Choices that lead to addictions are choices, not diseases. Diseases that cause the things your brother went through are diseases, not choices.
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I wrote a very long answer to this the other night after mamacags posed the question...and it got zapped into the ethernet somewhere...which may be just as well, especially after reading some of the responses here.
There are addictions that are harmful to the body - alcohol, drugs, nicotine, food.
There are those that are extremely financially devastating - gambling, drugs, shopping.
There are those that are "time" and "lifestyle" addicting - reading, internet gaming, exercise.
Personally - as far as those with so-called "sex addictions" - that's just a tidy little phrase to use rather than saying the person is morally corrupt as far as sex is concerned. Get 2 consenting adults in a monogamous relationship that are having sex as often as rabbits, and people would just say they were "happy and content" with each other...no one would call that couple "sex addicts".
I have some pretty good experience with alcoholism in my life...and the damage it can do. I have also seen first hand what drugs - prescription - can do. This has been an issue in my family - my genetic one, the one I married into, and the one I have partnered with for the last 17 years, for as long as I can remember.
My father who was a violent alcoholic and yet highly functioning, and never quit drinking up until he was bed-ridden in a nursing home...which is also when he quit his 4pack a day smoking. Obviously he didn't have one addiction...but several.
It was years after she was killed before I realized it, but I know now, that my mother was addicted to diet pills. Every morning, she would lay out all these different colored little pills on her bathroom counter, to take during the day. She would get them from the pharmacy in these boxes that were 2x2x1", that when empty, I would get to use for my Barbie doll stuff. I had a whole bunch of those little boxes!
My ex MIL had both an alcohol and a Rx problem. Her youngest child, died at 24 in jail, from a drug overdose, and had been in and out of trouble over drugs and alcohol since early teens.
My other half who was a social beer-only drinker, yet crawled into a vodka bottle at the death of his father and 3 years later had to be hospitalized for 17 days in order to crawl out....the good news is he has been sober 5+ years, and though he has been told he was not an alcoholic by the doctors and could probably go back to beer drinking if he wanted to, he has no desire to "test" that theory as he never wants to be that out of control again. His mother was a binge alcoholic who was in an out of treatment centers for the last 20 years of her life. M was always very conscious of the fact that he had the "potential" to become an alcoholic, yet after having to make some incredibly hard decisions about his father, (Living Wills do not always work like they are designed to), he used vodka to conquer (ha!) what was eventually diagnosed clinical depression that he was unwilling to recognize. Trying to make a drunk see reason is an impossible task, especially when said drunk is hell-bent on destroying themself.
I, myself, do drink. Fortunately for me, my intestinal tract will keep me from ever being an alcoholic. I have a very low acceptance tolerance for most medicine...even vitamins...and all the good "drugs" -I'm allergic to. I tried cigarettes at 15 - smoked half a Marlboro and I broke out in hives. I was so stupid, 6 months later...I tried a couple of puffs of a Salem - got bigger hives, some almost like blisters.
I have gone to ACOA (adult children of alcoholics) and Al-Anon meetings. Truthfully, I thought they were horrible. I came out of those meetings feeling worse than when I went in. I do know that they are very good for some people and have a high success rate...which is a very good thing. I learned more from reading, than I did at the meetings.
Alcohol, drug, and nicotine addictions while they might not technically be a disease, the damage they do to the body will eventually cause disease to various parts of the body. We all know the diseases that are caused by alcohol and nicotine in particular, and with drugs - the damage is more dependent upon the "drug of choice" as to what happens to the body as they are more varied and tend to be more specific based on the drug itself.
And to say that an individual can just decide one day to quit, with no problem is so not true.
An alcoholic who has reached the total dependence of alcohol, on a significantly frequent basis during a 24 hour period of time - to stop cold turkey can result in a massive heart attack which can and will kill the individual. Among other things, alcohol can deplete the body's potassium to such low levels that without being in a controlled treatment environment and receiving medication and intravenous fluid, as the body detoxes the heart will stop. Even in a treatment situation, this can happen and it may not be possible to save the person.
Valium, ativan, xanax and methadone will also cause death during withdrawal if done cold turkey. Ironically, cocaine or crystal meth which may kill you while taking them...quitting cold turkey won't.
What these substances do, to everyone who uses any or all of the substances TO EXCESS, is make people become mentally dependent upon the substance. Does that make the brain "diseased"? I think so.
I think the more important thing to think about is what causes a person to use those substances to excess.
Consider all the people who drink but are not alcoholics.
Consider all the people who take a pain pill or a sleeping pill and do not become addicted to them.
Consider all the people who can try cocaine once or twice and never want to do so again.
Consider all the people who have tried or even smoked when out drinking, who either don't want to continue, or just tire of it and quit with no problem and never want another one.
After seeing people with addictions, up close and personal, for most of my life, I have to believe that some of us are just predisposed to become "addicted" to something.
Do some of us have genetic markers, as BEG and others have suggested, to become addicts? Keeping in mind, that not all addictions are harmful - I personally, do not in the least think my chocolate addiction is harmful. My two year sugar dependency that I developed was becoming harmful physically in my weight gain, and potential
for developing diabetes and my family will attest that I was an absolute bitch the first 3-4 weeks after I reduced my sugar intake to almost nil...I did eat about 2 tablespoons of M&M's at night or I probably would have slit my wrists or killed one or both of the two men in my house!
Are we just mentally unstable ( a nicer way of saying "not sane"), as Mrs Smith has suggested? Hmmm....that would mean that ANYONE who does some activity that has become addictive to the individual - whether it does harm to the body or not - is "not sane".
I know, for me personally, that while I don't have substance addictions, I think the "addictive" tendencies that are in my family...have just manifested themselves differently. I have had "issues" with shopping, my reading and internet gaming, have at times, been issues. Sugar definitely was. Chocolate? There is no doubt, it's necessary for my mental survival!
I don't think anyone with any type of addiction should ever be labelled "victim". That's misusing a word as a cop-out to obtain sympathy for the addict. If anyone is a "victim of substance abuse", it would be the friends and family of those who are the addicts. Those individuals are the true victims of addiction...they are the ones who suffer from the addicts behavior. The child born to the addicted mother with fetal drug or alcohol syndrome. The child who watches their parent drink themselves into oblivion and has to take care of them, with no one caring for the child. The wife or child is who is beaten during a drug or alcohol rage. The family who loses their home because the father had a gambling addiction. The friends or family members of the addict who has stolen from them, in order to by more drugs or go gambling. Those are the "victims".
The addict doesn't care. They are too deep into their addiction to recognize what their addiction is doing to themselves, their family or their friends. Sure, at first, when the addiction doesn't have them by the throat, they may see some effects...but the addict will justify anything that has become detrimental to themself or anyone else...as someone else's fault. The addict is unable to see that they, in fact, were the ones who willingly made the choice to drink, or use drugs, or gamble.
"Is addiction a disease?" is an awfully broad question to begin with....however, I do think SOME addictions
can become a precursor to physical disease. I also think SOME addictions can cause such an extreme mental dependency which may have a worse effect on the individual - and possibly their friends, families, and careers - than any physical disease ever could affect.
It might be better to ask if the "mental dependency" of addiction is a disease, a glitch in the brain construction,
or is it a defect in the individual's "psyche" development?
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I do think labeling it a disease gives people an excuse to cop out.
My step sister is a major alcoholic. She has lost her husband, her kids, her home, her license, her career (nurse), been hospitalized numerous times and almost died once from alcoholism, jailed several times, had a few DUI's, had a wreck while drunk and almost killed a mother and daughter, her boyfriend is diabetic and an alcoholic and is basically in the same place she is only worse health wise because of being a diabetic alcoholic. Oh, she is a also a compulsive liar. I predict she will drink herself to death just like her mother (my step dad's ex wife). She is not a functioning alcoholic but her sister is (my other step sister). My step dad also had an alcohol problem, mainly when I was in middle and high school.
My dad (my real dad) is a functioning alcoholic, my brother died of a methadone overdose, my other brother is addicted to gambling to the point of filing for bankruptcy several years ago because of it and now being $60k in debt again, I also think he is addicted to hydrocodone. My mom used to smoke but that is the only addiction she has/had. I haven't been addicted to anything. I often wonder why I'm not an addict, I have been surrounded by it my whole life.
My mom's friend is a recovering alcoholic. She goes to AA meetings all the time (my step sister goes infrequently to the same meetings). The majority of my moms friend's friends are in AA so my mom and I know quite a few of them. One time my mom, me, my moms friend and other AA people went to lunch. We were discussing alcoholism. I was talking about how I can't comprehend addiction because I've never been addicted. One of the AA people asked me why I drink at all if I'm not drinking to get drunk and how I can stop at just one glass of wine or beer. She said she can't understand why anyone would have a drink if they didn't want to get drunk. I can't understand the NEED to drink yet she can't understand not needing to drink.
My mom's friend hasn't had a drink in about 5 years but she has just traded alcoholism for shopping. She blows through money and buys more crap than anyone I have ever known. She is also a semi hoarder as well as has issues with food. What I don't understand is why if she beat her alcoholism (so far) what is feeding her other addictions?
What feeds the addiction? Is it a defect in their personality? Is it a learned behavior? What causes the "defect"? Are they just weak?
You are addicted to cleaning. Admitting the problem is the first step in overcoming it....... :-)
I am on the fence on this. One of my brothers is an alcoholic. My BIL just died from it. It is and was extremely difficult for them to stop. I think that goes more than self-control, but I could be convinced otherwise I guess.
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After 30 years of drinking, most of it binge drinking, I quit cold turkey about 3 years ago. However, the last two New Year's Eves , my wife and I have split a bottle of Champagne, but that's been it.
I'm not sure where I would fall in the Mayo Clinics thinking. We'd go out 2-3 times a week, every week, and I would drink to get drunk, period. However, I never did it on a night before having to work or otherwise get up in the morning.
I stopped drinking about ten years ago and haven't desired another drop (having alcoholics in the family can do that to you). You can stop. I guess it is about self-control.