Did you know that when you engage in pleasant activities, your brain sends signals to a reward circuit? It explains why enjoying your favorite meal, a certain perfume, or social activities makes you feel good.
When your reward circuit is engaged, it will cause euphoric feelings. Alcohol and drugs contain chemicals that impede this normal process. Drugs can activate the reward system by producing artificial signals from their chemicals.
The body will begin to accept these fake signals as the normal process and begin to trust them. It will eventually have an unhealthy drug dependence that frequently results in substance use disorder.
When a person suffers from substance abuse, the initial reaction of society is, “They suffer because of their choices.” This thinking is somewhat of a subjective mindset because, like other diseases, addiction is also a disease.
Why Addiction is a Disease
Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease caused by obsessive drug desires and consumption, even when it has negative consequences. Because it involves functional changes to brain structure related to reward, stress, and self-control, it is considered a brain disorder.
Even after stopping drug use, a person’s behavior may change, and these changes may endure for a very long period.
While the American Medical Association identified addiction as a disease in 1987, the validity of this categorization is still up for question today. The detractors of the disease model strongly believe that addiction is not a disease, because a person’s decisions caused it to develop.
They think that labeling addiction as a disease is just an excuse for people with substance abuse disorder. But, these debates seem to be fueled by feelings of resentment and hatred directed at the person.
The evidence suggesting addiction is a disease is relatively strong, but concluding categorically that addiction is a disease is difficult considering the emotion-driven nature of the illness and the complicated social and biological elements that contribute to it.
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