Drug Addiction Is a Disease
Drug Addiction is a Disease
Sabrina Hinds
Axia College of University of Phoenix
Drug Addiction is a Disease
Drug addiction is a disease because addictive personalities do not have control over their addictions. To prove this claim, the reader will learn about how addictive personalities become addicted; how dopamine contributes to the addict’s addiction; how society treats addictive personalities; and how drug-addiction is a mental illness just like any other mental illness. This paper will give the reader a better understanding of an addict’s life, and how we, as a society, can help them to become drug free. I chose this topic because on April 3, 2009 my 21-year old daughter Sarah passed away from a drug cocktail. She had injected morphine, cocaine and heroine. She went to sleep and never woke up again. Sarah had started using drugs at the age of 16. She had been in and out of treatment for drugs and for mental illness. Nothing we did helped her. Sarah grew up in a loving environment. At the age of five I married my current husband. He treated her as if she were his biological daughter. We were not overly strict nor did we allow her to do whatever she wanted. When she was 13, we allowed her to visit her biological father in Florida. That is when her life changed. We did not find out what went on in Florida until about six months before she passed away. This tragic accident in our lives has led me to learn as much about addiction as I can. I cannot change the past, but I have to learn to live with the loss. “Addictions are the same as any other form of mental illness. People who have addictions bear an illness, as is evident in the hundreds of medical, psychiatric, and sociological complications that can result.” (Lieber 1982; Jellinek & Jolliffee 1940). Addictions are a byproduct of genes, environment, and lack of maturity. “Indeed, addiction looks very much like a disease (admittedly definitions of “disease” remains somewhat fuzzy).
Sabrina Hinds
Axia College of University of Phoenix
Drug Addiction is a Disease
Drug addiction is a disease because addictive personalities do not have control over their addictions. To prove this claim, the reader will learn about how addictive personalities become addicted; how dopamine contributes to the addict’s addiction; how society treats addictive personalities; and how drug-addiction is a mental illness just like any other mental illness. This paper will give the reader a better understanding of an addict’s life, and how we, as a society, can help them to become drug free. I chose this topic because on April 3, 2009 my 21-year old daughter Sarah passed away from a drug cocktail. She had injected morphine, cocaine and heroine. She went to sleep and never woke up again. Sarah had started using drugs at the age of 16. She had been in and out of treatment for drugs and for mental illness. Nothing we did helped her. Sarah grew up in a loving environment. At the age of five I married my current husband. He treated her as if she were his biological daughter. We were not overly strict nor did we allow her to do whatever she wanted. When she was 13, we allowed her to visit her biological father in Florida. That is when her life changed. We did not find out what went on in Florida until about six months before she passed away. This tragic accident in our lives has led me to learn as much about addiction as I can. I cannot change the past, but I have to learn to live with the loss. “Addictions are the same as any other form of mental illness. People who have addictions bear an illness, as is evident in the hundreds of medical, psychiatric, and sociological complications that can result.” (Lieber 1982; Jellinek & Jolliffee 1940). Addictions are a byproduct of genes, environment, and lack of maturity. “Indeed, addiction looks very much like a disease (admittedly definitions of “disease” remains somewhat fuzzy).
References: Feltenstein, MW & See, RE (2008) The neurocircuitry of addiction: an overview. British Journal of Pharmacology (2008) Hyman, Steven E. (2007, August). The Neurobiology of Addictin: Implications for Voluntary Control of Behavior. The American Journal of Bioethics, 7(), . Miller, Norman S., & Giannini, A. James. (1990, january - March). The disease Model of Addiction: A Biopsychiatrist 's View. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 22(1)(Nakken; Jaffee), Nash, Madeline. (1997, May). Addicted: why do people get hooked> Mounting evidence points to a powerful brain chemical called dopamine. Time, 149(18), 68(7). National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) http://www.nida.nih.gov/about/welcome/aboutdrugabuse/magnitude/ Rodgers, Joann E. (1994, September/October). Addiction: A Whole New View. Psychology Today, (1994)