Drug Addiction=Disease?
Current Topics in Health
26 November 2012
Drug Addiction a Disease?
Drug addiction, a new major phenomenon in our society today. The dependence, compulsive craving of a drug which becomes priority over all other issues in one’s life. We recognize that this issue of drugs and addiction is a growing problem now affecting most in this world. The physical characteristics of addiction would trembling, sweating, loss of appetite, and seizures. Psychological characteristics are harder to define because the person addicted is the one who knows the real struggle. Anyone is susceptible to drugs and becoming addicted. The main people involved in drug addiction is just the individual indulging in the substance and the person who supplies the one partaking in the matter. The individual involving his/herself with drugs has no thought or speculation as to who they can affect. Once involved, they affect their families, friends, and their community. It may only begin with the family but then spreads to carless crimes to obtain more, drug addiction is a problem that affects society as a whole. We need to understand where this problem comes from in order to solve it, the root cause as to why people favor drugs.
There are two predominant approaches to understanding this issue, the medical/physiological and the behavioral/social/moral approach. This paper will attempt to place the phenomena of drug addiction into a classic disease model as an exercise to encourage critical thinking, discussion/discourse, to reveal pathways and new approaches to understanding and solving the very issue of drug addiction as a possible disease. To evaluate the value of this framework, to know if we should continue to have more disease modeling or find another path, spiritual/cultural.
First lets classify what a disease is, disease is an interruption, cessation, or disorder of body functions, systems, or organs, which can arise from the following: inherent weakness, lifestyle, and the
26 November 2012
Drug Addiction a Disease?
Drug addiction, a new major phenomenon in our society today. The dependence, compulsive craving of a drug which becomes priority over all other issues in one’s life. We recognize that this issue of drugs and addiction is a growing problem now affecting most in this world. The physical characteristics of addiction would trembling, sweating, loss of appetite, and seizures. Psychological characteristics are harder to define because the person addicted is the one who knows the real struggle. Anyone is susceptible to drugs and becoming addicted. The main people involved in drug addiction is just the individual indulging in the substance and the person who supplies the one partaking in the matter. The individual involving his/herself with drugs has no thought or speculation as to who they can affect. Once involved, they affect their families, friends, and their community. It may only begin with the family but then spreads to carless crimes to obtain more, drug addiction is a problem that affects society as a whole. We need to understand where this problem comes from in order to solve it, the root cause as to why people favor drugs.
There are two predominant approaches to understanding this issue, the medical/physiological and the behavioral/social/moral approach. This paper will attempt to place the phenomena of drug addiction into a classic disease model as an exercise to encourage critical thinking, discussion/discourse, to reveal pathways and new approaches to understanding and solving the very issue of drug addiction as a possible disease. To evaluate the value of this framework, to know if we should continue to have more disease modeling or find another path, spiritual/cultural.
First lets classify what a disease is, disease is an interruption, cessation, or disorder of body functions, systems, or organs, which can arise from the following: inherent weakness, lifestyle, and the