Again, the evidence supporting this assertion has been known in the scientific community for years (Table 2). To think clearly about this question, we need to make a sharp distinction between an activity and its results. And a foolish, self-destructive activity is not necessarily a disease.

Present-day criticism directed at the conceptualization of addiction as a brain disease is of a very different nature. It originates from within the scientific community itself, and asserts that this conceptualization is neither supported by data, nor helpful for people with substance use problems [4,5,6,7,8]. Addressing these critiques requires a very different perspective, and is the objective of our paper. We readily acknowledge that in some cases, recent critiques of the notion of addiction as a brain disease as postulated originally have merit, and that those critiques require the postulates to be re-assessed and refined. In other cases, we believe the arguments have less validity, but still provide an opportunity to update the position of addiction as a brain disease.

Is Addiction Really a Disease?

Addiction inherently and necessarily requires multidisciplinary examination. Moreover, those who suffer from addiction will benefit most from the application of the full armamentarium of scientific perspectives. Even though there is an unnecessary stigma surrounding addiction, the medical field has made impressive strides to make overcoming addiction attainable for many individuals.

NIDA provides encouraging reports about addiction treatment, stating that addiction can be successfully treated and managed. In many cases, a combination of therapy and medication is the most effective approach, but treatment should be tailored to meet each individual’s unique needs and situation. It is also important to keep in mind that when individuals seek treatment for an addiction, they are often diagnosed with a substance use disorder, which is the clinical term for an addiction. A substance use disorder comes with a set of diagnostic criteria or symptoms, adding additional support for the view that addiction is a disease requiring treatment.

What Is Drug Addiction?

A relapse is when someone returns to using a substance after having achieved a period of sobriety or abstinence. Relapses are very common; by some estimates, more than 75% of people with an addiction will relapse within the first year of their treatment. If you are coping with addiction, you could also reach out to your primary healthcare provider. They will be able to direct you toward the right people or organizations that can assist you in your treatment search. They say their studies of addiction in monkeys and rats show that addiction is a brain disease. The National Institute on Drug Abuse calls drug addiction a «disease that will waste your brain.» This is our government’s official policy.

• There have been attempts to develop mismatch accounts of mental illness.
• By doing so, the terminology is broad enough to satisfy all of those studying addiction.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 70,200 people died in 2018 from deadly drug overdoses.

Addiction constitutes a brain disorder that changes how the brain responds to situations that involve stress, rewards, and self-control. They can persist for months (even years) after the person has kicked their substance use problem. They can cause disturbances in the functioning of organs, lead to decreased quality of life, and increase the risk of premature death. How does this biobehavioral view of addiction relate to the tougher drug issues our society must face?

Addiction as a Disease, Not a Choice

Second, though cravings are unpleasant, experiencing them seems to fall very far short of any kind of mental illness or pathology. Subpersonal over-valuation of drugs plus intense cravings are not sufficient for the person to suffer from a defect of rationality. Nor are they sufficient for the person to suffer from a sufficiently serious impairment of agency or of their ability to pursue a worthwhile life. The neuroadaptations characteristic of addiction are longlasting; https://stylevanity.com/2023/07/top-5-questions-to-ask-yourself-when-choosing-sober-house.html it is for this reason that the Alcoholics Anonymous slogan “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic” has more than a grain of truth to it. Yet plainly the former heavy drinker or drug taker who has been abstinent for many years need not be suffering from any impairment (though she may have a vulnerability to suffering an impairment). All by itself, this fact shows that the neuropsychological dysfunction underlying addiction is not sufficient for disease.

Thankfully, successful recovery is possible for people with substance use disorders, and many programs have been carefully created to help rebuild the parts of the brain that were damaged by drug misuse. A common criticism of the notion that addiction is a brain disease is that it is reductionist and in the end therefore deterministic [81, 82]. As indicated above, viewing addiction as a brain disease simply states that neurobiology is an undeniable component of addiction. A reason for deterministic interpretations may be that modern neuroscience emphasizes an understanding of proximal causality within research designs (e.g., whether an observed link between biological processes is mediated by a specific mechanism). That does not in any way reflect a superordinate assumption that neuroscience will achieve global causality. On the contrary, since we realize that addiction involves interactions between biology, environment and society, ultimate (complete) prediction of behavior based on an understanding of neural processes alone is neither expected, nor a goal.

The primary figures on this side are behavioral scientists, and their belief is based on the idea that any activity capable of stimulating a person for pleasure or stress release holds a risk for addiction. This means that almost anything can potentially lead to an addiction, be it taking drugs, eating, or simply spending time on the internet. One of their most common arguments shines light on social media addiction. As social media has become a staple in modern society, many people have become hooked on this growing trend. Some people argue that it is a personal choice, and therefore anyone who is addicted to a substance has ended up there because of the lack of self-discipline or morality. Meanwhile others argue addiction is a disease, and as a result cannot be cured entirely or even resisted by discipline alone.