Addiction and Society

In our society we place high regard in individuals that are independently motivated and generally motivated towards purposes that are considered to be respectable within our society as contributing something. When individuals suffer from addiction deviate from this acceptable behavior they are often ostracized by society and in turn fall into a cycle where they are unable to better themselves not only because of their own addiction but because of the limiting view of an addict in our society. When addiction takes over an individuals being they become less capable of making decisions not related to finding or using a drug. Another aspect of this is the range of what addictive behaviors are considered acceptable in our society where it is viewed as extremely deviant behavior to have an addiction to crack it is very socially acceptable to be addicted to ones work. Where is the line drawn between varying kinds of addiction and who decides what is an acceptable addiction. Also there seems to be a changing view on addiction and what is a negative addiction within a changing society where 30 years ago smoking was a socially acceptable behavior and is now viewed more as a socially problematic behavior.

Addiction is defined as the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming. The problem with this definition is that many behaviors that individuals engage in within our society that are considered to be an addiction under this definition but the person is viewed as a highly motivated member of society. If this is the definition of addiction how can there be varying degrees of addiction and some addictions that are acceptable within our society or considered problematic behavior but still socially acceptable. The idea of being enslaved by something which is the working definition of addiction goes completely against what society considers to be a trait of an ideal citizen which is a “free” person.