The shouts from the rooftops are overwhelming: addiction is a disease, and no one can handle it without seeking medical attention.
People never refer to cancer as the disease of cancer. It remains to be cancer because we are all aware that cancer is a disease. It is proved that we cannot hide the symptoms of cancer with ordinary measures. Therefore, a qualifier is not needed in this case.
Additionally, drug addiction and excessive drinking of alcohol isn’t a disease. Calling it such would imply we are rubbing the whole issue the wrong way; otherwise, we may have to rethink the definition of the term disease. We are going to analyze a few key points to disapprove our notion of perceiving addiction as a real disease.
Real Disease versus the Disease Concept or Drug Addiction Theory
When we have some kind of disease, some parts of our body are not physiological functioning well, and this is what leads to symptoms. In the case of cancer, the physiological abnormality is simply the mutated cells.
For instance, when one is suffering from diabetes, the low insulin production or the inability of cells to utilize insulin properly is the physiological abnormality that leads to undesirable symptoms.
If a person happens to be suffering from either disease, it is impossible to stop the physiological functions or the symptoms. The only available alternative is to use medication and stop the abnormal physiological functioning.
For the case of diabetes, dietetic measures may be applied to stop the stop the symptoms. However, such measures are not a cure as compared to adjustments that are implicated by the permanent physiological malfunction.
There is no physiological dysfunction as Volkow NIDA Brain Scanlin addiction. Based on the disease proponents that have been put forward by the best physical evidence, nothing stands to the test of a measure representing physiological malfunction.
This is the evidence known as Brain Scan. The National Institute on Drugs Abuse and Addiction (NIDA) are the two organizations that have put forth these brain scans.
According to them, the definition of addiction is – chronic relapsing brain disease accompanied by compulsive drug seeking and use even when the consequences are harmful.
Addiction is considered as a brain disease because it affects its structure and how it works. Note that these changes can last for long and lead to harmful behaviors often seen among drug abusers.
NIDA has clearly stated that addiction is presumed to be an addiction because of the brain changes as shown in brain scans. These changes are characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use behaviors that we refer to as addiction.
There are three conditions that show a disease model is falling apart:
- The brain changes that show up as normal. People do change their behaviors in spite of the fact that a brain change has occurred as a result of repetitive substance abuse
- When evidence showing the behavior of addicts is compulsive is lacking. This article well applies to alcohol. You can comfortably replace the word addiction with alcoholism because the above-discussed theories and logics apply to alcoholism.
- Brain changes among addicts are not abnormal but are not in line with the Brain Disease Theory. In the first count, brain changes shown by scans of heavy substance addicts do not represent a malfunctioning brain.
Detailed neuroplasticity research shows that these changes are quite usual. Whenever we get used to thinking about something, certain changes occur in the brain.
Neuro pathways grow, are strengthened, and establish new connections. What determines how certain parts of our brain become activated or less activated is how much we use them.
Continuous use of various areas of the brain creates a norm. This is a continuous process in life, and there is nothing completely wrong with such.
Therefore, whenever NIDA Nora Volkow and other scans show brain changes of an addict and compare the same to a non-substance user, the difference is not as novel as portrayed.
These are routine and natural neuroplasticity changes that every single healthy person undergoes. The neuroplasticity changes are not exclusive for addicts, anyone with a brain disease, non-addict or non-depressed individuals can experience neural adaptations as well.