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POLE: Do you think addiction is a disease or a choice?

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Originally posted by: Schrodinger
Disease. Choice is an illusion. Every choice is physically based in your brain somehow or another, anyhow. Therefore any choice you are presented with is naturally already decided (you just don't know). This is somewhat symptomatic of a disease in that you have no real choice (along with it being biological and thus physical in nature), so I would suggest that is the best choice. Determinism, baby 🙂
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If I put you in a box with a vial of poison, does your wave function collapse?

ZV
 
Originally posted by: chrisms
I'm sorry I'm having trouble believing someone who has used coke so many times, even for a week straight, when they tell me they were never addicted. Either weak coke, a bad memory, or a resistence to addiction, because in my personal experience and what I have seen from those around me, you get physically sick without the drug. I'll admit it isn't as bad after the first time as it is after you've been doing it a while, but it is still there.
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id be inclined to think those people were doing way more than you knew about. i never met anyone that was addicted to anything, or got sick from not having it, after one use.

what about alcoholism? it runs rampant on both sides of my family, and my father chose to be one. from the ages of 19- 24, i was drunk damn near every night. now, i drink once a week, if that. if i was afflicted with a disease, how could i stop without treatment, or any ill side effects?
 
I'm not trying to offend anyone here, but honestly, someone who has not experienced addiction can not answer that question with any true knowledge. Their answer is simply a guess, or something they learned second hand. It's like asking a guy what giving birth feels like. How would they know? I'm sure it hurts, from watching the women, but I cannot say for sure.

My answer: It's both a disease and a choice. It's a disease that you can make the choice to fight.

I'm a drug addict. I celebrated 5 years clean back in October, but I will always be an addict until I die. I know for a fact that even today, just one beer or hit off a joint and I'll be smoking crack and sniffing heroin in no time. I am absolutely at the mercy of this disease. For me the choice is simple: life or death.
Last week, I caught a whiff of some reefer. My mind started screaming "GO FOR IT DUDE!!! JUST ONE HIT!!!", my palms got sweaty, and I could taste it in my mouth. I had to make a conscious choice to walk away. The calling of the disease is POWERFUL. But, it was my choice not to answer the call.
Most people are just not strong enough, or don't have enough weapons in their arsenal to fight back. Knowledge is power!

Edit- forgot my conclusion 😀

In conclusion, having a compulsive and addictive personality is not really a choice. You are who you are. Acting on your addiction is entirely your choice.
 
Choice, plain and simple.

It's started with the choice to do drugs, and you stop doing them (or not) by choice. If you stop doing them it won't kill you...in fact, other than cravings you'll be at whatever physical level you were at when you stopped for the most part, it doesn't progress on it's own.

I'm not saying it's easy, not saying there's not physiological changes as a result of it...but it's all a result of choice, and monitored and held at bay by choice.
 
I think there is a 'disease' element, that is someone might be predisposed to a certain type of addiction, but still one does have the choice to make, so I would say choice.
 
It is a choice to stop and how willing you are to stop. It is not possible to take away someones self control only their desire for self control.
 
i believe people are predisposed (genetically) to have an addictive personality.
what form that takes is up to the choices the person makes. for example, recovering alcoholics often times are chocolate or coffee fiends because they have an addictive personality. i believe this can be passed from generation to generation.
 
Depending on the addiction, sometimes choice can do it but I think for the more hardcore drugs it becomes a disease.
 
once heard it described as, "you can quit smoking, but you cant quit cancer"

i figure, when you can quit Alzheimers the same way u can stop drinking, then alcoholism/drug addiction/etc will be a disease.
 
Well, I never said my opinion on it. I think it is completely a choice. ONE makes the CHOICE to use that drug. One makes the CHOICE to keep using it. Sure, there is a very strong desire to do it (i'm a caffiene addict, FYI, ten again so is all AT). It all comes does to, "Do I want to stop doing this? It makes me feel soo good." I think people who are addicted just don;t have the will power to stop. Some people need help to stop, but I do not think it is a disease that the government should pay for or that healthcare should pay for. The end.
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
While ACTING on the desire to use substances is definately a choice, I believe that people are predisposed to carry the desire genetically.

🙂
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very well stated.
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Why, thank you!

My mom is a recovering alcholic (23yrs sober). And yes, I see that all of her children a genetically predisposed to addiction/dyfunction in one form or another.

I remember when she first dried up, she would get in a panic every time I so much as smelled a cork! hahaha!! But I do believe that we were born with the predisposition... it is only thru choices that we do not act on them to bring up to full addiction.

🙂

 
Originally posted by: illustri
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
No addiction starts immediately. Whether a person is predisposed or not, he or she still has to make the choice to start down that road. A person doesn't become an alcoholic with the first drink. A person becomes an alcoholic by making a series of choices, through weakness, to seek comfort from a chemical rather than from stepping back and looking at the problem.

It's a choice.

ZV
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Not all diseases start out immediately, AIDS from HIV is a result of action. Lung cancer, emphysema from smoking same deal.
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apparently you have no clue what this thread is about lol. its about addictions, not diseases.
 
All actions involve choice.

A disease is when you are involuntarily infected by a microscopic agent. Or born with a deficient genetic abnormality. An "addictive" predisposition is really just a type of obsessive/compulsive disorder.
 
Originally posted by: Vic
All actions involve choice.

A disease is when you are involuntarily infected by a microscopic agent. Or born with a deficient genetic abnormality. An "addictive" predisposition is really just a type of obsessive/compulsive disorder.
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Well that's not the way the dictionary defines disease. I define disease as owning a mac. Therefore influenza is not a disease.
 
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