She was only twenty-two and had her whole life ahead of her. Dana Reisman was a member of her high school swimming team, a junior high and high school cheerleader, a great student, and a wonderful daughter. Dana Reisman had everything going for her until she lost her courageous battle. Diane was a victim of addiction, lost in a tornado, followed by treatment and relapses before succumbing to an overdose. Diane left in her path heartache and pain for all who knew and loved her. Diane’s story is much like the story of countless other young men and women, who daily struggle with the surmounting setbacks of addiction. According to Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, a website helping families grappling with substance abuse, “Twenty-three million Americans are currently addicted to alcohol or other forms of drugs. Only one in 10 of them (2.6 million) receives the treatment they need”. The Center on Addiction, a science-based, nonpartisan, non-profit organization, defines addiction as a complex disease that involves the compulsive use of one or more substances. Addiction works by disrupting regions of the brain that are responsible for reward, motivation, judgment, learning, and memory. Addiction is destructive and can cause many problems in the workforce, school, families, and friends. Addiction affects the ability of someone to be at their full capacity. Addicts eventually exist to find their next fix, instead of flourishing and intertwining in the life around them. Addiction drives the addicted deeper and deeper into the dark abyss, regardless of the consequences of their loss. Addiction requires treatment, and the struggle is for life. While many people believe that addiction is a choice since no one forces them to partake, they can stop whenever they like. Research proves that addiction is a disease that impairs regions of the brain associated with pleasure and rewards and requires treatment.
The history of addiction dates back thousands and thousands of years, as far back as 350 B.C. with Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia. According to Claudia Black, Ph.D., a senior fellow and addiction and trauma program specialist at The Meadows, Alexander the Great stayed away from intoxicating beverages during battles, however, following a great triumph, he indulged in copious amounts of intoxicating drinks. After only two short years, Alexander the Great became addicted and even killed his own best friend. Alexander the Great was only thirty-three years old when he drank himself to death in a drinking game.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, alcohol and drugs were also used in many different medicines. These medications were highly addictive, some having alcohol content as high as ninety-five percent; addiction rates were skyrocketing. In the 1840s the first large temperance movement was formed. The temperance movement was the first social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants spoke out against intoxication and pushed the idea of abstinence. This movement eventually leads to prohibition in the United States from 1920 to 1933. A story is rumored that at a drinking club of about twenty men, two of their members were sent to a temperance lecture to see what it was about. When the two men came back with a favorable report of what happened at the lecture, it sparked an argument about abstinence. The argument went on for four days, ending in six of the members supporting the abstinence society. This movement became huge and very popular and had a membership with several million Americans by 1845. This marks the beginning of what today would be addiction recovery.
When somebody has a disease, they do not choose to get it. Opposite my viewpoint, The Fix, an online website, provides reports, essays, and blogs on sober living and lifestyles, stating the definition of disease is a “disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, that provides signs and symptoms or affects a specific location and is not merely a direct result of physical injury”. Steven Slate, a researcher at the Baldwin Research Institute, explains that a disease causes some parts of the body to be in an abnormal state, not functioning correctly, and causing undesirable symptoms. Someone with cancer does not choose to have cancer. Cancer is due to mutated cells which have evidence to be psychologically abnormal. The only choice to treat the disease would be with medical treatment. When someone becomes addicted to something, they choose to start. They decide to pick up the substance and continue to abuse it. No one forces the user to take the substance, and although peer pressure may be part of the problem, no one is being forced. Slate uses the example: “If you offered a cancer patient movie tickets as a reward for ceasing to have a tumor, it would make no difference, it would not change his probability of recovery”. Slate is saying that no matter if the patient with the tumor took the reward or not, they will still have the tumor regardless. While on the other hand, if they offer an award to an addict, they will have the choice to stop and recover. An article by Elisardo Becoña, Ph.D., talks about a study of Vietnam War veterans where North American soldiers used heroin in the Vietnam War in the 1970s. The results of this study showed that the soldiers significantly increased the consumption of heroin in Vietnam, but almost all of them stopped when they returned home. The Vietnam study shows they had a choice to stop abusing the substance and they did.
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However, willpower is often not enough. Once the brain has been changed, rewired by addiction the choice and willpower to be able to stop becomes impaired. According to MentalHelp.net, a leading power of both residential and outpatient addiction treatment services says that the brain is the most dynamic and complex organ in our bodies. When the brain functions well, humans are alert, well-oriented, and in control. Addiction causes changes in the brain's natural balance, called homeostasis. MentalHelp.net explains that “chronic overstimulation of the brain, like that which occurs in addiction, interferes with the maintenance of this balance”. Elizabeth Hartney, Ph.D., a registered psychologist with extensive experience in research practice, and Steven Gans, MD, an attending psychiatrist who leads an approach to the management and recovery of serious mental illness patients, explain that drugs can interfere with the process of homeostasis maintaining a healthy and functional system. The brain has changed because it adapts to the way that addiction affects its functioning. Addiction makes the brain change to adjust to the addiction. Once the brain adjusts to the addiction, it requires this substance to maintain the new balance. The behaviors would be the need to continue abusing substances, despite how it may harm and affect everyone around them. Sharon Begley, who has her bachelor’s degree in combined sciences, explains: “Addictive drugs alter the brain's pleasure circuits. Activating this circuit, also called the reward circuit, produces a feel-good sensation”. It also makes it difficult to stop abusing a substance and makes someone obsess over it. Rhea Faye D. Felicilda-Reynaldo, Ed.D., RN, an associate professor in the Department of Nursing, says that “as the substance’s active chemicals disrupt central nervous system processes over time, the individuals' self-control is challenged and he or she becomes unable to resist the urge to use the drug”. Nothing in life matters other than getting the substance. Steven Melemis, who is the vice-chair of addiction medicine for the Ontario Medical Association and has his M.D. and Ph.D., states that if someone repeatedly abuses drugs or a substance, it can permanently rewire their brain. The more abusive substances are used, the stronger the wiring gets, which will make them crave the addiction even more.
In 1978 there was an experiment by Bruce Alexander, Ph.D., called the ‘Rat Park Addiction Study’. During this study, a device called a Skinner box is used, where rats could push a tiny lever and be rewarded with pellets of food. This Skinner box would also administer little shocks on the floor of the cage, then the experiment turned into punishment rather than reward. In the 1960s, some psychologists who did experiments on rats believed that the Skinner box could be an excellent experiment to study drug addiction. In the new experiments to study drug addiction, the rats would receive doses of drugs, rather than the pellets of food, when they pressed the tiny lever. This required the psychologists to bind the rats to the ceiling of the box and insert a needle into the jugular vein. When the rats pushed the lever, the drug almost immediately went into the rats' bloodstream and reached the brain quickly after. The results of this experiment showed that the drugs seemed to be irresistibly addicting, but there was a catch to this. In the past, these lab rats are friendly, sexual creatures, and when they are put by themselves and in solitaire, they are going to go crazy. Like any average person, being set away in a room all by yourself with no one to talk to or interact with will drive them insane. Alexander explains that there was no effort at all for the rats. Pushing the lever and getting the drug was no problem at all. It was the only thing to do in the cage. Alexander wanted to test the studies they had found about the Skinner box. A small group of colleagues and himself compared the intake of drugs from regular house rats to the ones that were kept in solitary confinement. The rats would be of both sexes in a typical environment. They created a big plywood box and filled it with things for the rats to do, including places to climb, a wheel to run on, and places to hide in. They ran several experiments to see which rats would consume the drugs more, and in almost every experiment the rats who were in solitaire would consume more, and not just a little more, a lot more.
Medical experts point to genetics to define addiction as a disease. Melemis explains that addiction is fifty percent genetic. In a study with identical twin pairs and fraternal twin pairs, when one identical twin was addicted to alcohol, the other twin would have an increased possibility of also having an addiction to alcohol. When they did the study on the non-identical twins, it showed that when one twin was addicted to alcohol, the other twin will not necessarily have the addiction. The study ended up showing that fifty to sixty percent of addiction was because of genetics in another study to show if children of addicts are more likely to become an addict. It looked at 231 people who had drug or alcohol addiction. This was compared to 61 people who did not have an addiction. It looked at the parents, siblings, and children of those people. The study showed that the children of addicts are eight times more likely to be an addict. Dr. Anna Lembke, a medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, explains: “A child with a biological parent or grandparent with a substance use disorder has two to four times increased chance of developing an addiction when compared to the general population, even when raised outside the substance using home”. An article by Harvard Mental Health Letter, the publishing division of Harvard that brings the most current health information, states that “at a given dose of alcohol, the sons of alcoholic parents feel less intoxicated than average, and their posture and gait are altered less”. This can show an early sign of being more vulnerable to becoming addicted to alcohol. Everyone has a genetic predisposition for addiction as there is an evolutionary advantage to it, some more than others. Addiction is hardwired into the brain.
The physical symptoms of addiction start to decrease significantly once someone gets sober and gets treatment. However, the psychological effects of addiction linger and last for several years after an addict is clean. Addicts require treatment to help them recover. Addicts cannot just decide to stop being addicted to a substance. There are many different treatment plans for addicts. Treatment plans are different for each person. It is not that one size fits all. Support groups can be one of the most prominent and most helpful forms of addiction treatment. They are encouraging and supportive of each other throughout a person's recovery process. There are several different types of support groups. One is the twelve-step program. The twelve-step program follows a twelve-step model of recovery and the twelve-step traditions. This allows people to adapt the steps to personalize their needs of themselves. Alcoholics Anonymous is another form of support group. They provide a group of people to talk about their addictions that some can even relate to. These meetings take place in a local setting and can be found almost anywhere. A story by The Cabin, a leading behavioral health and addiction treatment center, gives us a story about how Ryan Harder could not have gotten over his addiction without help from support groups. Ryan Harder began his struggle with addiction at the early age of fourteen years old, but it did not get extreme until he was in his twenties. Harder began using meth and was in a very dark place. He even attempted suicide. This was when Harder turned to addiction treatment to help save his life. He went into addiction recovery and started living in a sober house, and is now on his way to a better life. Sharing his story is beneficial not only to the addict but also to the ones listening to the story. Sharing a story helps the addict remember and relive the darkest times in their lives. The more they remember how bad it was and how it made them feel, it makes they do not want to ever be in that place in their life again. Sharing a story not only benefits the addict but also benefits others listening to the story. It encourages others to see what they have gone through. It encourages those who are feeling helpless and in a downward spiral in their life to keep going. Sharing their story about how they are recovering gives others hope. Opening up to strangers can be a scary feeling, but it can help in benefitting someone else's life. These support groups have helped millions on their path to recovery. Without them, many addicts would not have been able to recover as well or if at all, and this shows why treatment is required to help an addict in their recovery process.
In conclusion, addiction is a controversial topic among medical experts, psychiatrists, and laypersons alike. Addiction can be perceived as a choice by the uneducated, however, addiction is a disease, not prejudiced by socioeconomic status. Addiction affects everyone, not just the abuser, including friends and loved ones. Addiction treatment services state the brain is the most dynamic and complex organ in our bodies. Research shows that addiction impairs the brain, changing the brain's natural homeostasis, and permanently rewiring the brain. It causes the abuser to crave the substance even more. Addiction is a disease, not a choice. Addiction is a tragedy, difficult to overcome, with peaks of success and valleys of relapse. Addiction takes lives and loved ones away from us. Addiction robs us, stealing our minds, money, and morals from us, leaving a wake of destruction in its path. Addiction is like a tornado that touches down, and never knowing which direction it is going or where it will end, only looking back at the path it has left behind. Addiction leaves behind the shambled pieces to be picked up by all that love them. Addiction is a disease.
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