Health Drug Addiction: Disease, Weakness or Both?

[legov]

I think some people are genetically more disposed to addiction. Things like dopamine and pleasure receptors(?) kicking in. Although I've heard people say they have 'an addictive personality' when in reality they just like getting wasted.

 

I think this is true as well. I often wonder why some people are able to smoke only very occasionally, while others get terribly addicted the moment they pick up their first cigarette. This is the best explanation I've found so far.

[Jimzk5]

Well its a choice before its becomes an addiction. I struggle to see what would drive someone to inject heroin into your own body, those who do it get no sympathy from me. deserve everything they get.

It's often trying to numb some other serious pain like child abuse or homelessness/abandonment. 

 

Perhaps you are not the best person to judge if you haven't experienced issues like that?

 

ive had issues, social services were involved during my upbringing for matters im not going to share on here, everyone has problems, i fail to see why anyone could think using heroin is the answer. that's just my opinion.

[chrisp65]

anybody that thinks a drug addiction is just a question of mind over matter and the individual should just sort themselves out.....should set themselves the task of not having a little tug on the little tiger for a month

[DiegoD]

I definitely think its both. There are definitely some that have the genetic make up to get addicted quicker and find it more difficult to stop but there are a large group of people that just don't have the will power to change.

[LondonLax]

I definitely think its both. There are definitely some that have the genetic make up to get addicted quicker and find it more difficult to stop but there are a large group of people that just don't have the will power to change.

Wouldn't that lack of will power be part of their makeup as well? Essentially the same thing in both cases.

[tonyh29]

Of course the downward spiral and the reasons can't be summed up in 10 words on a forum but its most definitely not a disease...

[Baselayers]

Having never even taken drugs before I found myself taking too many painkillers after major knee surgery.If certain things had not have happened I could have killed myself so all in all its an individual thing, and it really depends on the person and their situation. Whatever its not good for you lol

[rjw63]

Having never even taken drugs before I found myself taking too many painkillers after major knee surgery.If certain things had not have happened I could have killed myself so all in all its an individual thing, and it really depends on the person and their situation. Whatever its not good for you lol

That was a good post until the last 3 letters

[Baselayers]

Bah deal with it old man!

[Brumerican]

Just pretend it means lots of lube Rob.

[Baselayers]

Ha exactly!

Edited April 1, 2013 by Baselayers

[Juju]

And on a serious note, perhaps this might be the generation that through unfulfilled expectation of society, marketing and cheap availability, porn addidction is on the rise too Rob.  Pmsl.

 

Seriously though, how many people even unconciously, have self esteem issues, comapring themselves to the physically perfect specimins found on line, and who through those issues find themselves unable to maintain or even create satisfactory real world relationships, and so spend their weekends fapping away? May be millions?

 

I don't get gambling, money's too tight for me to spunk it on something fixed like the horses, and football is too random. But the rush must be there, the "will I, won't I?" Lets not forget one of our better players of recent times, Paul Merson, has seriously stuffed his life up through this.

 

It's not disease, to me, in the conventional sense, but that you are firing off pleasure seeking receptors, in the absence of somehting else in your life. And the problem is, life isn't like the brocures, its decidedly shitty on occasion, and as such, who's to judge? But the very idea that taking heroin is a great career move, means your either an idiot or a musician?

[Xann]

The smell gets on my **** nerves, weed I mean. Can't go anywhere without the pong hanging around

 

On still Summer days it's everywhere here in SW London.

 

Drug policy makers, no need for extensive and expensive research, just walk the streets.

 

Police on the beat must feel silly.

[maqroll]

In Massachusetts, you can smoke weed in public, and the worst that can happen to you is a $75 fine. No arrest. You can also carry up to one ounce of it w/o fear of arrest. Bunny Colvin would be pleased.

[TheDon]

I don't get gambling, money's too tight for me to spunk it on something fixed like the horses, and football is too random. But the rush must be there, the "will I, won't I?" Lets not forget one of our better players of recent times, Paul Merson, has seriously stuffed his life up through this.

 

As someone that spent a considerable amount of time earning a living playing poker, I can easily see why people get addicted to gambling.

There's a huge rush when you're waiting on the outcome of something, the adrenaline really gets going and it feels like your heart is going to jump out of your chest. Then if you win a big bet the euphoria is something else.

I used to love making big bluffs because when they come off it's one of the greatest feelings ever, especially if it's something you've been setting up for a while to outplay someone.

 

It takes an awful lot of control to be able to avoid getting addicted to the rushes of gambling. There's a reason why a hell of a lot of professional poker players have gone bankrupt many times over, and usually it's not from playing poker.

Poker is a game you can master and make money from, and because of that the rushes stop coming. When you've played millions of hands and you know you're playing correctly, the feeling isn't the same. The adrenaline goes away and is replaced by expectation, you expect to win some and lose some, and you know that it doesn't matter what the result of any one hand is. I stopped caring about the outcome of any one session, as long as my profit graph was moving up each month I didn't care if I had a winning or losing session.

 

What makes poker players successful is ultimately what drives them to gamble on anything but poker. You'll see all sorts of crazy prop bets from poker players. They'll bet on anything and everything, and it's simply to get back the rushes they had when they first started playing poker, and combined with the complete disconnect you need from the money you're betting to make money from poker, it's a dangerous combination that will lead a hell of a lot of people into going broke.

[BOF]

It's not the dictionary definition of a disease so in that sense, no it is a weakness of sorts. Not using the term weakness in a critical sense or anything, but it takes a set of circumstances that you struggled to deal with or failed to control, in order for you to let yourself get to the point that you became dependent upon a recreational drug. If calling it a disease means the victims get treated more seriously by society and by the health system then fine, we can call it that, but it doesn't make it one.

[Rugeley Villa]

I started using cocaine when I was 18, by 19 I was using it every week several times a week, from the age of 19 to 26 I used it every week with out fail, from 27 to 30 which I am now I've been on and off it purely because I settled down with a girl and that calmed my intake but I still used regulary, we have a 9 month old baby and that did not stop me using, its got to the point where she went to the solicitors and had an agreement written up saying if I use cocaine again I lose my son, I signed it and now I will not take cocaine again I hope, I don't see myself as an addict but just a weak person, I've spent 50k on the shit over the years

[maqroll]

Good post, Don. Once upon a time, I was a decent poker player. I'd consistently cash in tournaments, and do well at cash tables. But there were a couple of times when I'd go on a losing streak that things got a bit scary. I'd go back to the ATM, and then lose it all again. I could see how easily I could simply lose everything. It was a sobering thought, so I decided to stop playing. And I'm happier now, to be honest. That anxiety is lifted. 

 

The thing that really scares the piss out of me though is sports betting. I've only dabbled, but I could see right away that it could be my downfall.

[Rugeley Villa]

Good post, Don. Once upon a time, I was a decent poker player. I'd consistently cash in tournaments, and do well at cash tables. But there were a couple of times when I'd go on a losing streak that things got a bit scary. I'd go back to the ATM, and then lose it all again. I could see how easily I could simply lose everything. It was a sobering thought, so I decided to stop playing. And I'm happier now, to be honest. That anxiety is lifted.

The thing that really scares the piss out of me though is sports betting. I've only dabbled, but I could see right away that it could be my downfall.

I like a game of cards and a little flutter but I can take it or leave it but I totaly agree about sports betting because I have to limit myself on betting on the footy or horse racing because I would simply get dragged in completely, very easily done and also very appealing,

[PompeyVillan]

Addiction, is neither a weakness or disease, in my opinion. It can become problematic for some people to gamble, drink or take drugs recreationally, but it doesn't mean that they are weak.  Addiction is a mental health issue, a lifestyle issue and a societal issue, not a disease. 

 

If alcohol didn't exist, for example, would all alcoholics necessarily become addicts of another vice? If you removed the trauma that is the catalyst for the addiction from an alcoholics past, would they still become an alcoholic? 

 

I certainly don't blame anyone that has become an addict, it's not as if they would rationally choose to live their life as an addict. At it's worst, it can ruin lives, and I don't think that is something that anyone really wants.