Is drug addiction

I personally think its a lack of self control or discipline. I used to be addicted to dipping Skoal. Probaly since the age of 15 which I hear has 10xs more nicotine than a cigarette. I played baseball in high school and in college so its a common thing to be around. Man the first time I did it my coach told put a can of dip on the bench and said he was going to walk out of the dugout and not look. Kind of letting me know you should take a dip. I got so dizzy and buzzed it was crazy. It got to the point where me and my friends would pull this thing we called a "Hey Mister" which was waiting outside a gas station for someone over 18 or 21 that would go buy us dip or beer. This is where my spanish classes came in handy. My friends and I knew when the landscapers would come to chevron and I would use my spanish to get tobacco or beer. Well I kept dipping throughout highschool and in college and the little time I was in the army. It wasnt too long before I graduated to Copenhagen, probaly the strongest one out there. I liked it, enjoyed it and never cared about the health risks. One day I noticed my gums were receding around my teeth and a pocket of my gums were eaten away where I would always put a pinch in. I bought two more cans and quit right then. I was addicted physically and mentally but I was in control if I dipped again, no one else or some fictional disease.

I had a alcoholic step mom and she went to A.A. Well when I started drinking in highschool at parties on the weekend which I feel is what an average highschooler will do from time to time my step mom told my father it was a good idea for me to go to A.A. This was completely ridiculous, but I was forced to go. This is where I first heard of it being called a "disease". People would share and talk about how long they have been sober and once they had one sip they wouldnt stop til they passed out in their own vomit. I silently thought to myself, wow this isnt a disease but a lack of self control. They also forced me to go to some N.A. meetings too where I hear people use this same term disease. I have never once seen this disease bacteria or virus. I feel ulitimately its up to the individual whether they do whatever it is they do again.

My personal feelings are that saying it is a disease is an excuse for not having enough discipline or self control to not just say enough is enough. Before my car wreck I loved drinking. I kept it within reason, I liked going out with friends and drinking socially. I probaly really abused it when I was younger, drinking to the point I vomited or even sometimes before work when I was in my late teens. Well I grew up, matured and took control of MY actions. I am sure some people are more prone to being addicted because of genenics, but I just think these people might need a little more support from a group to help them get in control of themselves.

Everything I said is my opinion, there is no right or wrong answer to this poll. I feel from my life experiences this is why I feel its all up to the individual and not a disease that makes them light up another cigarette, drink another drink or insufulate whatever. I saw a pretty funny South park episode about one of the boys fathers got arrested for DWI. Well the court ordered him to go to AA. At AA they told him he had a disease so then he went on all these drinking binges saying its not his fault because it was the diseases fault. Like it made him worse and gave him an excuse to overdrink.

I think addiction is very complex.  I, unlike a few of you, think it can be a disease.  I think that a chronic alcoholic father can possibly alter/damage his DNA in his semen.  The same thing can be applied to a woman's eggs.  I think you can plug in any addiction to the above statement.  I think addiction can also be taught.  As far as lack of control, many addictions are about control.  Someone who is anorexia controls exactly what they eat, starving themselves. Not to be confused with bulimic, they will binge and purge.  But its all about being in control.  I think most addicts have mental and physical disorders.  Those who have past mental and physical abuse, the reward for escaping the real world is what drives them.  But whatever makes the addict, is complex and can fit in many different categories.   I have watched the show Intervention for many years.  It's a very interesting show that follows addicts and gives you their backgrounds.  Most go to rehab, some are successful and some go back to their addictions. There is a new show that comes on right after Intervention called Obsessed.  It follows people with OCD.  I have never had an addiction to anything.  But find it all very interesting.  Good poll!!!  Take care, htmom

I think it is an amalgmation of psychological genetic and social factors, and as such is a biopsychosocial disorder .   An individual could for example in their teens take a few tokes on a joint , find  it pleasurable , mildly euphoric and relaxing , they may occasionally have a few tokes through their teens but could take it or leave it.  Then fasforward to about eight years that person is in an unhappy marriage a job they don't like and they are depressed, they may not have smoked a joint since their teens, but one evenig a few peole get together and he/she has a few joints and again they feel midly euphoric and relaxed,  they then may ask one of their friends can they buy a gram or whatever and they begin to have a smoke whenever they feel stressed , down and/ or depressed. And so the ball of addiction dependence begins to roll.  Now I personally don't think that having a toke for the person that feels the sedating / mildy euphoric effects is too much of a problem unless that person feels they HAVE to have a smoke or to have a certain amount around all the time or more ominously a person who may be genetically predisposed to schizophrenia or social anxiety disorders and agrophobia , all of which can be triggered off by using hashish , grass , sensi e.tc.

Also take the above situation and repace the grass/ hash with heroin and the teen done some sporadic chasing the dragon , but moved on and by circumstance was re - introduced to it, if they are down and depressed but don't recognise that they are the same scenario may follow were they will ask were they can get a supply, basically although to most people it seems like the person is pleasure seeking through drug use, actually what they are doing is self medicating for underlying psychological problems with a higly adictive substance, two or three months down the line they have unwittingly dug themselves into a hole that tey cannot get out of and  their condition becomes worse , they feel more depressed and out of control and they continue to seek the heroin for a six to ten hour respite period from their despair.

Then there are the people who were started on an opiate and / or benzo medication regime after going through a bad accident , disease,  or assault and they are being given an opiate for pain relief and a benzo for possibly a number of reasons as a muscle relaxant and as an anti anxiety medication for the anxiety and stress that anyone who has been in a bad accident has a disease or was assaulted will usually experience, as their lives have been turned upside down and they no longer feel the sense of control or security that they previously did due to their physical ailments.  So they may have been started on an opiate and benzo regime by their doctor and things may work out for a period of time, but inevitably something changes, maybe the doctor retires or moves, or you have to move and you see a new doctor who feels that you do not need what was being prescribed to you , or they are not prepared to prescribe the medication because they are more interested in covering themselves against a possible mortality and litigation . And then they switch your medication to something that is probably ineffective  and your pain and anxiety returns , probably with insomnia as well. And if your not wealthy your options may be limited, and this can and is causing people an their relatives to source adequate medication from the street. and while it is easy to say you can work something out with your doctor , if your dealing with a doctor who is not an emphatic listener and is capable of looking at their patients in a olistic sense , the doctor will not move on their decision.  And despite the indivdual or their relatives aqquiring the medicaton they need for the quality of life of the individual / patient , that person may FEEL like an addict because they are gettin what they need from clandestine sources. When in reality the problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the doctor.  So that is an example of someone who may perceive themselves ( or people aroud them might perceive ) as addicts , when in reality they are not.

Also as JJmillertime pointed out very well recently there are the cases of pseudo-addiction were patients presenting with genuine chronic or acute pain are treated as indivduals presenting drug seeking behaviour and are not given adequate analgesia as a result.  And can often leave the patient ( despite being in pain ) wondering are they an addict or becoming an addict. So pseudo - addiction is something that I hope most healthcare workers are aware of.

So I think it would be fair to say thatthe majority of those individuals who began taking medication for an initial injury are just dependent on their medication.

And those individuals who began to take prescription or black market medication/drugs  for pleasure initially but continued to blunt emotional pain are both dependent and addicted to their medication / drug.

All of the above is my opinions on the matter, I have a lot more thougts on the matter but would take me too long and probably bore you to tears or worse drive you to drugs if I went in to all of them here.  All the best .  M.