Addiction is a disease
Specific Purpose: To inform my Audience on how addiction works in the brain, how it is related to survival, why some people are more vulnerable to addiction than others, and why addiction should be treated as a disease.
Central idea:
There are distinctly underactive areas in an addicts brain which cause a need to “self medicate” in order to feel normal. By definition a disease is any abnormality relating to the dysfunction of a specific organ. Addiction is created in the “Central-brain”, which has no free will, giving the addict very little choice to decide what is rational and irrational behavior, therefore addiction is a disease. The areas most predominately affected in addict’s brains consist of the (1) Pre-frontal cortex region, the (2) and the central-brain. The Mid Brain is responsible for memory and learning, thus the mid brain is where the addiction is created. The areas mentioned above are underactive when sober, yet when the addict “uses” these regions of the brain are stimulated and flooded with massive amounts of dopamine, and serotonin creating an instinctual “reward system”.
Unfortunately as the drug raises dopamine to unnaturally high levels the addict finds that the only way to achieve a balance is to continue to use the drug. This changes the hierarchy of important survival needs that release dopamine such as food, water, sex, the mid brain is literally telling the addict they need the drug to survive more so than anything else.
Introduction:
I. Addicts appear to be Extremely selfish, destructive, and looked down upon by society. Maybe you know someone who acts in a similar way. They steal, cheat, lie, and worse. But a huge misconception is that this behavior is by choice, ...
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3. First published December 12, 2011, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.111957
CMAJ February 7, 2012 vol. 184 no. 2 155
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Thursday april 22, 2010
Kevin mccauley: pleasure unwoven: a new look at the disease model of addiction 2. grant collins: acupuncture 3. beth rutkowski, promoting awareness of motivational incentives 4.
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IX. Thursday April 22, 2010 Registration and Check-in 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PRE-CONFERENCE 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (up to 5 CEUs) 10:00am to 4:00pm: Clinical Supervisor Training (Lynn Delvaux)(Lunch on your own from 12:00 to 1:00)-OR- 10:00 to 12:00 -- Emotional Intelligence: Taming Your Anger(Dr. Steve Wolf) (2 CEUs) Lunch on your own from 12:00 to 1: .
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According to Leshner, drug addiction is a chronic brain disease that is expressed in the form of compulsive behaviors (Leshner, 2001). He believes that drug addiction is influence by both biological, and behavioral factors, and to solve this addiction problem we need to focus on these same factors. On the other hand, Neil Levy argues that addiction is not a brain disease rather it is a behavioral disorder embedded in social context (Levy, 2013). I believe, drug addiction is a recurring brain disease that can be healed when we alter and eliminate all the factors that are reinforcing drug addiction.
Sally Satel, author of “Addiction Doesn’t Discriminate? Wrong,” leads us down a harrowing path of the causes and effects that lead people to addiction. It can be a choice, possibly subconscious, or a condition that leads a person left fighting a lifelong battle they did not intend to sign up for. Mental and emotional health/conditions, personality traits, attitudes, values, behaviors, choices, and perceived rewards are just a few of the supposed causes of becoming an addict.
Addiction may be defined as the chronic use of drugs alongside the problems resulting from their use. Despite the person being aware of the consequences of using the drug, he continues to use it. If not attended to, addiction may cause serious social problems and even death (Hanson et al. 36). In order to address drug addiction, it is vital to understand addiction itself and where it stems from.
In 2010, an estimated 23.5 million Americans were addicted to alcohol and/or drugs and needed treatment or supportive services (Partnership for drug free kids). Most people make the assumption that those that are addicted to a substance are just making poor choices. I will have to admit that I was one of those people that thought that it should be easy to quit something so toxic. It wasn 't until I did the research myself that I found addiction is actually a disease. It takes a lot more then willpower to just stop using something that a person 's brain has become so accustomed to. With all of the advances in science we now have a better idea of what leads to addiction. This doesn 't mean that poor choices and life decisions don 't attribute to addiction, but these causes increase the likelihood of an individual becoming addicted to a substance. The majority of individuals that abuse drugs or alcohol will admit to having a history of childhood trauma, alcoholics in the family, or drug use in their social circle.
Drugs are chemicals, and when you process these chemicals, they affect the brain’s communication system. When you are addicted to drugs and overuse them, they can have long-term effects on your brain. When a person takes a drug, the limbic system of the brain releases dopamine to make the user feel good. This is the feeling that becomes addictive. Our brains reward us with small amounts of dopamine when we do actions that are good for us. However, while using drugs, the brain is “tricked” into rewarding the user with high levels of dopamine when they are actually causing harm. When addicted to drugs, the user’s brain is unable to naturally produce normal levels of dopamine, so the user craves drugs to restore the dopamine levels to normal. Essentially, the user is unable to naturally feel good without the
Drug addiction is often characterized as being a complex brain disease that causes compulsive, uncontrollable, drug craving, seeking and use without any regards to the consequences they may bring upon themselves, or society. As long as the brain is exposed to these large amounts of dopamine on the reward system, it will inevitably develop a tolerance to the current dopamine levels, which it is receiving, lessening the pleasure the user will experience. In order to satisfy the brains “reward...
There are many biological factors that are involved with the addicted brain. "The addicted brain is distinctly different from the nonaddicted brain, as manifested by changes in brain metabolic activity, receptor availability, gene expression, and responsiveness to environmental cues." (2) In the brain, there are many changes that take place when drugs enter a person's blood stream. The pathway in the brain that the drugs take is first to the ventral tegmentum to the nucleus accumbens, and the drugs also go to the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex, which is called the mesolimbic reward system. The activation of this reward system seems to be the common element in what hooks drug users on drugs (2).
Prolonged abuse of any substance can cause long-lasting, widespread changes in brain function and structure. This fact should then encourage research exploring ways to treat this disease—addiction—because of how universally the effects of substance abuse are felt. Its implications are even felt in the realm of public health, seeing as how drug-use is responsible for the transmission of many diseases (ex: AIDS, hepatitis), and a recognition of this abuse as a brain disorder “characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use” will help lower social costs for the consequences and ineffective treatment of the disease (1).
A disease is what happens in the body as a result of those choices. As has been noted, many people do believe addiction is a sign of weakness. While the first time may be by choice, once the brain has been changed and affected by addiction. Over time the addict loses substantial control over his or her initially voluntary behavior, and it becomes compulsive (Leshner.) In Marc Branch’s “Drug Addiction. Is It a Disease or Is It Based on Choice? A Review of Gene Heyman’s Addiction: A Disorder of Choice” he discusses and explains Gene Heyman’s opinions on rather addiction is a disease or not. Heyman argues that people do not choose to be drug addicts, rather they make choices that lead to their habit of addiction. Heyman however does not believe addiction is an actual disease. Many others argue that addiction is not an actual disease because people can overcome the addiction without help or treatment. On the other hand, in Alan Leshner’s “Addiction Is a Brain Disease” he declares that addiction is an actual disease and explains “using drugs repeatedly over time changes brain structure and function in fundamental and long-lasting ways that can persist long after the individual stops using them”
The fact that addiction is a brain disorder is a new detail that I learnt from the HBO video. As pointed out by Dr. Volkow, addiction as a brain disease renders the addicts unable to control themselves in relation to curbing their addiction problem. In conceptualizing addiction as a brain disease, Volkow illustrates this standpoint with the fact that the brain has a “natural reward system” that facilitates the learning of “behaviors that are necessary for survival” (NIDA 2006). Learning that the abused drugs take over this system – the dopamine system of the brain - was pivotal in finally grasping the rationale behind referring to addiction as a brain disorder. The brain with time becomes dependent on the abused drugs. This arises from the fact that natural rewards no longer have the capability to produce “normal levels of dopamine or pleasure” (NIDA 2006). As time goes on, the continued intake of drugs subsequently makes the addict lose all control over their use and dependen...
So, it is clear that addiction is all around us and can attack anyone of us at any given time. Even studies conducted show that people neglect to speak around their dependency for two primary reasons. Foremost, because people do not comprehend, or they bear a total misconception to their addiction, that they do not realize that addictions can be critical to their overall wellness. Moreover, second, many people believe being an addict will never happen to them, but, in reality, most addictions start off as simple little habits. Such as starting with one drink after dinner and before you know it you are drinking several drinks a day. However, one does not opt to be addicted to a substance, because addictions are physical defects in the brain, a disease, and not one’s choice.
Drug abuse and addiction are issues that affect people everywhere. However, these issues are usually treated as criminal activity rather than issues of public health. There is a conflict over whether addiction related to drug abuse is a disease or a choice. Addiction as a choice suggests that drug abusers are completely responsible for their actions, while addiction as a disease suggests that drug abusers need help in order to break their cycle of addiction. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that addiction is a disease, and should be treated rather than punished. Drug addiction is a disease because: some people are more likely to suffer from addiction due to their genes, drug abuse brought on by addictive behavior changes the brain and worsens the addiction, and the environment a person lives in can cause the person to relapse because addiction can so strongly affect a person.
Smith, Melinda, and Lawrence Robinson. "Understanding Addiction." : How Addiction Hijacks the Brain. Robert Segal, 1999. Web. 20 May 2014.
Leshner, A. (2011) Addiction Is a Brain Disease, and it Matters. Frontiers in Neuroscience: The Science of Substance Abuse.
Drug addiction is a very big problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined due to drug addiction. The people that use the drugs don’t even realize that they have an addiction. They continue to use the drug not even realizing that their whole world is crashing down around them. Drug addicts normally lose their family and friends due to drug addiction.