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Great Info
by girlybuff, Jul 31, 2008 12:03AM
I posted this back in Dec 2007. It sees relavent as of late. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves. LOLOOLOLOL
Dec 20, 2007 5:50PM
From PBS:
Most Americans have been affected in some way by addiction to drugs of abuse such as alcohol, nicotine, and illicit substances. Yet addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a phenomenon that has been clouded by myth, misunderstanding, and moral judgments. The very nature of the problem -- what addiction is -- has long been debated. Most people probably continue to think of addiction -- particularly to illicit drugs -- as primarily a moral or character problem, something caused by degeneracy or lack of willpower.
Scientific research into addiction, however, has led experts to conclude that addiction is actually a disease, a chronic illness like diabetes or hypertension. The American Medical Association broke new ground approximately forty years ago when it declared alcoholism to be a disease. And in the past decade, dramatic advances in technology have allowed scientists to examine the brain itself in search of the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of addiction. Today, scientists and physicians overwhelmingly agree that while use and even abuse of drugs such as alcohol and cocaine is a behavior over which the individual exerts control, addiction to these substances is something different. Scientists have begun to understand why addicted people may sacrifice everything that's important to them -- their jobs, their families, their homes -- in the quest for a chemical fix.
"When you get into an addicted state, it's a disease of the brain," says Alan Leshner, Ph.D., director of the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Leshner says the stigma associated with alcohol and drug addiction is one of the biggest problems experts continually face in dealing with it. Leshner says that the public has little sympathy for addicts, but he adds that "whether you like the person or not, you've got to deal with [their problem] as an illness."
The so-called disease model doesn't mean that addicts cannot stop using drugs -- only that doing so is difficult and often requires treatment and major lifestyle changes. Addiction is a disease that causes changes in the brain, which then drive certain behavior -- taking the drug compulsively -- but addicts can learn to change the behavior. Treatment of and recovery from addiction are possible. Steven Hyman, M.D., who directs the National Institute of Mental Health, compares the disease of addiction to heart disease, which may also necessitate major lifestyle changes. "Take heart patients. We don't blame them for having heart disease," he says, but we ask them to follow a certain diet, to exercise, to comply with medication regimes. So it is with the addicted person -- WE SHOULDN'T BLAME THEM FOR THE DISEASE, BUT WE SHOULD TREAT THEM AS HAVING A RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR RECOVERY."
Dec 20, 2007 5:50PM
From PBS:
Most Americans have been affected in some way by addiction to drugs of abuse such as alcohol, nicotine, and illicit substances. Yet addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a phenomenon that has been clouded by myth, misunderstanding, and moral judgments. The very nature of the problem -- what addiction is -- has long been debated. Most people probably continue to think of addiction -- particularly to illicit drugs -- as primarily a moral or character problem, something caused by degeneracy or lack of willpower.
Scientific research into addiction, however, has led experts to conclude that addiction is actually a disease, a chronic illness like diabetes or hypertension. The American Medical Association broke new ground approximately forty years ago when it declared alcoholism to be a disease. And in the past decade, dramatic advances in technology have allowed scientists to examine the brain itself in search of the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of addiction. Today, scientists and physicians overwhelmingly agree that while use and even abuse of drugs such as alcohol and cocaine is a behavior over which the individual exerts control, addiction to these substances is something different. Scientists have begun to understand why addicted people may sacrifice everything that's important to them -- their jobs, their families, their homes -- in the quest for a chemical fix.
"When you get into an addicted state, it's a disease of the brain," says Alan Leshner, Ph.D., director of the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Leshner says the stigma associated with alcohol and drug addiction is one of the biggest problems experts continually face in dealing with it. Leshner says that the public has little sympathy for addicts, but he adds that "whether you like the person or not, you've got to deal with [their problem] as an illness."
The so-called disease model doesn't mean that addicts cannot stop using drugs -- only that doing so is difficult and often requires treatment and major lifestyle changes. Addiction is a disease that causes changes in the brain, which then drive certain behavior -- taking the drug compulsively -- but addicts can learn to change the behavior. Treatment of and recovery from addiction are possible. Steven Hyman, M.D., who directs the National Institute of Mental Health, compares the disease of addiction to heart disease, which may also necessitate major lifestyle changes. "Take heart patients. We don't blame them for having heart disease," he says, but we ask them to follow a certain diet, to exercise, to comply with medication regimes. So it is with the addicted person -- WE SHOULDN'T BLAME THEM FOR THE DISEASE, BUT WE SHOULD TREAT THEM AS HAVING A RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR RECOVERY."
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I believe that it is a disease and people should be given the opportunity to make things right following their decision to get clean. Just as alzheimers is a disease that messes with people's minds, I believe that most addicts will tell you that they are not themselves when they do some of the things they do. We have to ask ourselves, "would we forgive someone with alzheimer's for the things they did and said after they were diagnosed with the disease or would we totally shun them for how they hurt us.