Addiction; Disease or Not?

[Belsnickel]

(09-03-2019, 01:35 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Not sure where you get that.  I was physically addicted to alcohol.  I no longer am.  I drank all day every day.  I no longer do so.  

(09-03-2019, 01:47 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Yeah, I was going to say I disagree with that, as well. As a former smoker I was physically addicted to nicotine and I went cold turkey.

It ain't the norm, but it does happen.

(09-03-2019, 03:01 PM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: I get that from education, training, and experience.

Physical dependence and addiction are not the same.

I'll use pain management patients as an example.  Most pain management patients are prescribed opioids to control their pain.  One hundred percent of those patients will eventually become physically dependent upon the opioids if they take them long enough and will go through withdrawal if they stop them abruptly without weaning off of them.  Some of those patients may progress from physical dependence to addiction, but not 100%.  If you're physically dependent upon a medication such as an opioid to treat pain, but you are taking it therapeutically, aren't abusing it or taking it for non-therapeutic reasons, and it isn't causing other problems in your life then that patient isn't addicted, but they are physically dependent. 

This may help in this discussion: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/frequently-asked-questions/there-difference-between-physical-dependence

Quote:Addiction—or compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences—is characterized by an inability to stop using a drug; failure to meet work, social, or family obligations; and, sometimes (depending on the drug), tolerance and withdrawal. The latter reflect physical dependence in which the body adapts to the drug, requiring more of it to achieve a certain effect (tolerance) and eliciting drug-specific physical or mental symptoms if drug use is abruptly ceased (withdrawal). Physical dependence can happen with the chronic use of many drugs—including many prescription drugs, even if taken as instructed. Thus, physical dependence in and of itself does not constitute addiction, but it often accompanies addiction. This distinction can be difficult to discern, particularly with prescribed pain medications, for which the need for increasing dosages can represent tolerance or a worsening underlying problem, as opposed to the beginning of abuse or addiction.

There is also a site from the Addiction Center on this: https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/addiction-vs-dependence/

Here is one section I pulled out:

Quote:Addiction is marked by a change in behavior caused by the biochemical changes in the brain after continued substance abuse. Substance use becomes the main priority of the addict, regardless of the harm they may cause to themselves or others. An addiction causes people to act irrationally when they don’t have the substance they are addicted to in their system.

Those biochemical changes would move the situation into disease territory.