A Radical New Definition of Addiction Creates a Big Storm

[cleanhippie]

If you think addiction is all about booze, drugs, sex, gambling, food and other irresistible vices, think again. And if you believe that a person has a choice whether or not to indulge in an addictive behavior, get over it. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) blew the whistle on these deeply held notions with its official release of a new document defining addiction as a chronic neurological disorder involving many brain functions, most notably a devastating imbalance in the so-called reward circuitry. This fundamental impairment in the experience of pleasure literally compels the addict to chase the chemical highs produced by substances like drugs and alcohol and obsessive behaviors like sex, food and gambling.

The definition, a result of a four-year process involving more than 80 leading experts in addiction and neurology, emphasizes that addiction is a primary illness—in other words, it’s not caused by mental health issues such as mood or personality disorders, putting to rest the popular notion that addictive behaviors are a form of "self-medication" to, say, ease the pain of depression or anxiety.

Indeed, the new neurologically focused definition debunks, in whole or in part, a host of common conceptions about addiction. Addiction, the statement declares, is a “bio-psycho-socio-spiritual” illness characterized by (a) damaged decision-making (affecting learning, perception, and judgment) and by (b) persistent risk and/or recurrence of relapse; the unambiguous implications are that (a) addicts have no control over their addictive behaviors and (b) total abstinence is, for some addicts, an unrealistic goal of effective treatment.

The bad behaviors themselves are all symptoms of addiction, not the disease itself. "The state of addiction is not the same as the state of intoxication," the ASAM takes pains to point out. Far from being evidence of a failure of will or morality, the behaviors are the addict's attempt to resolve the general "dysfunctional emotional state" that develops in tandem with the disease. In other words, conscious choice plays little or no role in the actual state of addiction; as a result, a person cannot choose not to be addicted. The most an addict can do is choose not to use the substance or engage in the behavior that reinforces the entire self-destructive reward-circuitry loop.


http://www.alternet.org/drugs/152102/a_radical_new_definition_of_addiction_creates_a_big_storm/

[villager]

1. Isn't that what 12-Step has been saying all along? That you're never *not* an addict

...but you can choose to stop using?

[Psycholitics]

2. This isn't that groundbreaking

It's been known that addiction is bio-psycho-socio-spiritual. Bio being the neurological pleasure payoffs. Psycho being the avoidance of emotional pain. Socio being societal/social influences. Spiritual being the implications of an individual's addiction on their moral sense. The question of choice still remains on the table. What is choice?

[Odin2005]

3. You can get addicted to anything, that's how the brain's dopamine system works.

This is something Buddhists have harped on about for over 2000 years when they talk about "attachment" and how it creates suffering.

[eridani]

4. Anecdotal story from a bulimic I once knew who was helped by some kind of

--psychotropic meds. Not only did she find it easier to avoid throwing up, but she also stopped shoplifting.