The Biology Of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not A Disease

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug abuse can be a cause of other diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS. Addiction to a substance can lead to those diseases or worse, death. Globally, the misuse of legal and illegal drugs kills around 200,000 people annually (Drug Abuse Kills). Addiction should not be taken lightly or treated like the addict’s own fault. As such, substance abuse should be considered a disease and treated as such in order to effectively rehabilitate addicts.
Substance abuse “is a dependence on a legal or illegal drug or medication.” Despite the legality of alcohol and nicotine based products, they are considered part of the spectrum of drugs that can be abused (Drug Addiction). Oftentimes,
Lewis, a former addict and current psychologist, wrote a book on the subject entitled The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease. In his work, he discusses his past addiction and how he believes it truly is not a disease. He claims that scientists who call substance abuse a disease fail to take in the plasticity of the human brain (Miller). Plasticity of the brain, or neuroplasticity, is the way the brain processes information between its synapses, which are the junctions between nerve cells. Factors that impact neuroplasticity include psychoactive drugs, genetic factors, and growth factors, among other things (Brain Plasticity and Behavior). Lewis’s whole argument is based on the concept that emotional wounds are what prompt someone to become an addict. He discusses a shy man becoming an alcoholic because of his introverted nature, as well as other stories of men and women who had some sort of emotional reason for being an addict. While an emotional dependency to a substance may provide reason for continuing one’s addiction, it does not mean that addiction is not a disease. Typically, mental illness and addiction are associated with one another, hence the idea of an emotional dependency on a substance. Professionals call the treatment of mental illness and addiction together dual diagnosis (Mental Illness and Addiction Go Hand in Hand). Another reason why Lewis’s argument
Slate believes that substance abuse does not take over the mind of the addict, but rather the addict’s own thoughts do. Those, like him, who oppose the treatment of addiction as a disease typically use the argument that it is the addict’s choice to become an addict. While it is true that the first sips of alcohol or the first pills taken by an addict are of their own volition, the following drinks or pills are not. The opposition does have it right that addiction begins with a choice, but addiction does not continue that way. Taken from his personal story with addiction, one man called George recounts his time as an addict and attests to the way his addiction controlled him and made it compulsory for him to drink. “My life was one hundred percent dominated by alcohol. I had to drink all the time, even though it now gave me no ‘kick’. By this time, even I realised that I had to stop - but hadn’t I tried dozens of times - and failed? I couldn’t stay sober and fell off the wagon quickly.” His story and so many others like it act as proof against the idea that substance abuse is not a compulsion. His fight and success with his later time at a detox center that used Librium to stop his delirious state as he detoxed, as well as three times weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to eventually help him kick his compulsive addiction, his