Michigan Addiction Project
Not convinced that addiction is a chronic disease?
Many people who have not experienced addiction think that labeling it as a disease is a way for people who are addicted to side step responsiblity for their behavior. Please take the time to learn the facts.
Check out the reseach that explains the biology of addiction:
Addiction: "Drugs, Brains, and Behavior - The Science of Addiction"
Follow the process and see what happens in the brains of people who are addicted
Even after some people have seen the research, they still refuse to accept that addiction is biological. They argue that people "make the choice" to put distructive substances in to their bodies. Understanding something like addiction that you have not experienced first hand can be difficult. Scientists are still researching why drugs, tobacco and alcohol can become addictive for some people, while other people can try them once or twice and then never feel compelled to pick them up again.
We have a long way to go before we will fully understand all of the aspects of addiction. Until that time, we are asking for people to change their ideas about addiction being something you choose--to stop thinking about addiction as something that people can control if they really want to. The truth is drugs can cause a decrease in glucose metabolism in the brain, especially in the frontal lobe where planning, abstract thought and regulation of impulse behavior are regulated. Essentially, this means that the two halves of the brain of someone who is addicted do not communicate.
"Can you say that in English please?"
Essentially, what the above statement means is that a person who is addicted to something does not have the ability to recognize that what they are doing will hurt them physically, could cause them to lose their job, family, friends, house etc. Many people who have experienced addiction describe it as a compulsion. They sometimes do not even remember how they obtained the drugs or alcohol. Their bodies just needed it, and as if they were on "auto pilot," they went and got what their body told them it needed.
For people who have never experienced addiction, this type of a sensation/behavior is impossible to understand. For them, not picking up a cigarette, not ordering alcohol with dinner, not looking for a hit is something they choose not to do because they know it is harmful. These people who are not addicts then transfer what they know, their experiences, onto people who are addicts. They believe people who are addicted should simply choose not to do it. This is where the social stigma of addiction is born.
Russian Roulette
How can we avoid addiction? Science has yet to determine how we can predict who will become addicted and who will not. The truth is that if you try alcohol, tobacco or drugs there is a chance you might decide this is harmful behavior and you don't want to do it ever again. Or, you could be one of the people who's nerve cells in their brains releases GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that works to prevent the receptor nerves from being overstimulated (an activity that would tell your brain to stop what you are doing). Why take the chance that you could be a person with this type of physicochemical attribute? While recovery has been proven possible for people who have this condition, the fact is it is something they must deal with chronically, for the rest of their lives-- just like other chronic physical ailments (high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, glaucoma, or epilepsy). So why take the chance?
Many people who have not experienced addiction think that labeling it as a disease is a way for people who are addicted to side step responsiblity for their behavior. Please take the time to learn the facts.
Check out the reseach that explains the biology of addiction:
Addiction: "Drugs, Brains, and Behavior - The Science of Addiction"
Follow the process and see what happens in the brains of people who are addicted
Even after some people have seen the research, they still refuse to accept that addiction is biological. They argue that people "make the choice" to put distructive substances in to their bodies. Understanding something like addiction that you have not experienced first hand can be difficult. Scientists are still researching why drugs, tobacco and alcohol can become addictive for some people, while other people can try them once or twice and then never feel compelled to pick them up again.
We have a long way to go before we will fully understand all of the aspects of addiction. Until that time, we are asking for people to change their ideas about addiction being something you choose--to stop thinking about addiction as something that people can control if they really want to. The truth is drugs can cause a decrease in glucose metabolism in the brain, especially in the frontal lobe where planning, abstract thought and regulation of impulse behavior are regulated. Essentially, this means that the two halves of the brain of someone who is addicted do not communicate.
"Can you say that in English please?"
Essentially, what the above statement means is that a person who is addicted to something does not have the ability to recognize that what they are doing will hurt them physically, could cause them to lose their job, family, friends, house etc. Many people who have experienced addiction describe it as a compulsion. They sometimes do not even remember how they obtained the drugs or alcohol. Their bodies just needed it, and as if they were on "auto pilot," they went and got what their body told them it needed.
For people who have never experienced addiction, this type of a sensation/behavior is impossible to understand. For them, not picking up a cigarette, not ordering alcohol with dinner, not looking for a hit is something they choose not to do because they know it is harmful. These people who are not addicts then transfer what they know, their experiences, onto people who are addicts. They believe people who are addicted should simply choose not to do it. This is where the social stigma of addiction is born.
Russian Roulette
How can we avoid addiction? Science has yet to determine how we can predict who will become addicted and who will not. The truth is that if you try alcohol, tobacco or drugs there is a chance you might decide this is harmful behavior and you don't want to do it ever again. Or, you could be one of the people who's nerve cells in their brains releases GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that works to prevent the receptor nerves from being overstimulated (an activity that would tell your brain to stop what you are doing). Why take the chance that you could be a person with this type of physicochemical attribute? While recovery has been proven possible for people who have this condition, the fact is it is something they must deal with chronically, for the rest of their lives-- just like other chronic physical ailments (high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, glaucoma, or epilepsy). So why take the chance?
