Drug Addiction
Drug Addiction: A Physical Disease or Matter of Choice?
The United States is schizophrenic about drugs. Celebrities talk about their cocaine problem on TV while the middle/upper class kids go to jail. We had alcohol prohibition as a social experiment that failed. We jail people for various types of drug abuse: alcohol, marijuana, heroin, cocaine and so on. Even so, some look on one or another as more sinister than another. The dilemma stems partly from our view of the cause. Do you view addiction as a physical disease like diabetes or a mental aberration or personality defect? That may define the camp you are in.
The basis for physical disease follows physiological and pharmacologic studies in animals. The stimulation of electrodes in the forebrain of experimental animals can produce euphoria like a drug or alcohol high. Many other studies show that there are specific drug receptors in the brain and other parts of the body that bind narcotics. Other drugs are known to alter nerve pathways and levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine. Moreover, philosophical reasons exist to make us think this is a disease. Who chooses to fail? Who chooses to be an addict? Do I want to self destruct?
Christopher Caldwell in a book review in the FINANCIAL TIMES (June 14) cites Gene M. Heyman’s new book: ADDICTION: A DISORDER OF CHOICE. Mr. Heyman takes the point of view that addiction is a matter of choice and is voluntary. Heyman is a psychologist. It is not hard science, but still very interesting.
Physicians would advocate that addiction is a physical disease like heart disease or diabetes or cancer. It may be viewed as a relapsing and chronic brain disease. Heyman says no to this hypothesis and states that when the cost of using drugs becomes prohibitive, people stop. They can control their addiction. He believes it is more a weighing of benefits. How one values getting high on a drug or alcohol at this point in time versus what a longer term benefit would be if I were studying or working instead. He states that people change their actions as they age. They get more responsibilities like a job, a marriage and children. They choose to stop drinking or using drugs because their values have been altered. They give up addictive behavior for rational reasons.
Mr. Heyman believes that “choice and value interact.” We choose and we change. The lessons here are not only applied to addiction of drugs, but selfishness, consumerism, finances and any self destructive behavior. It sounds like an interesting book.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:10 am
What a bunch of crap!! The correlation between substance abuse and child sexual abuse is almost 90% the same for inmates in jail.You long at any addict and they all have similar stories about abuse in childhood.Humm.Booze should also never be allowed to be sold off TV ad’s