The
path into and out of drug addiction revolves around choice. Nowhere in the definition is choice addressed. Addiction is
a compulsive behavior, implying loss of control, but a decision triggers the
chain of events leading to that loss of control. Choice is the trigger for
addiction, both into and out of.
Addiction is not a hereditary
disease. As defined in
Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, a disease is “a
disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the
body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection,
poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable
environmental factors.” Addiction does
not consist of either genetic or developmental errors. Arguably, “crack
babies,” babies born to crack/heroin addicts with a physical dependency to the
drug supplied in the womb, would have inherited addiction. However, as newborn
babies, their minds are not developed enough to make decisions yet. Although
these babies’ paths into addiction were not a choice, their path out of
addiction can be. Statistics say that the offspring of an alcoholic is in
greater danger of also becoming an alcoholic. Addiction, however, isn’t necessarily
inheritable, because there is no single ‘addiction gene.’ Environmental factors
do play a role in the likelihood of the child of an addict becoming an addict,
but that doesn’t define addiction as a disease. Addiction only matches one
characteristic of the dictionary’s definition of a disease.
When compared to already-recognized
diseases, such as cancer, there’s room for differentiating. While both
addiction and cancer have recognizable symptoms, the symptoms of cancer can’t
be stopped by choice, but the symptoms of addiction can. It’s where the line
between choice and disease lies. When compared to lifestyle diseases, such as
type-2 diabetes, in which a choice to change diet can eliminate symptoms,
addiction remains different. Addiction isn’t a lifestyle disease because it
involves behavior, affecting chemistry in the mind rather than the body.
The theory that addiction is a
disease is potentially a conspiracy. If addiction were to be scientifically
accepted as a disease, doctors would begin researching a drug treatment.
According to Bill Urell, an addiction therapist of sixteen years, this would
provide large revenue in medical treatment. Arguments for the disease theory
say that addiction is incurable, but treatable, and yet, millions of addicts
have overcome their addictions without the aid of a treatment drug. Substituting
the drug of dependency cannot combat dependency on a drug.
If addiction is to be considered a
choice, can drug addicts even make conscious choices? While drug use does addle
the brain, that doesn’t necessarily mean that drug users can’t make conscious
decisions. According to neuroscientist Jeffrey Schwartz, in The Mind and the Brain, a person’s daily
habits influence the way their brain structures. Long-term use of a drug evokes
a change in the brain’s structure. A taxi driver, for example, develops a
larger posterior hippocampus in order to understand maps as part of his
occupation. Similarly, a drug addict’s brain structure changes, accustomed to
the drug’s effects. Conscious decisions can be made.
Addiction is not a disease. It
doesn’t fall under the terminology for being a disease. It revolves around
choices, a choice of mind over matter. Addicts make the decision to take the
substance that begins their compulsive behavior. Addicts will lose their home,
health, friends, and sometimes even their sanity to the behavior they become a
prisoner to. Once addicts reach the rock bottom of their habits, they find the
willpower to make the choice to turn their lives back around. It would be a false
dilemma to tell an addict that they will never be cured.
