IS ADDICTION A DISEASE OR A LIFESTYLE CHOICE?

Someone recently asked me if I thought addiction is a disease or a choice.

It is neither. 

I don't buy into the so-called "evidence" that an addict's brain is formed differently from birth than a normal brain. The fact that active addict brains were used in studies, rather than PRE-active addict brains, proves the study was flawed.

An addict's brain certainly can become DE-formed from the damage caused by alcohol and drugs, but that comes after decades of drug or alcohol abuse. So, apart from withdrawal symptoms, which are easily treated, addiction is not a medical disease at all, in my experience. 


Addiction is a case of spiritual dis-ease (dis-ease as in unease) with every addict I've ever met, meaning that emotional wounds caused by emotional trauma (abuse or loss) are the common thread with all addicts, whether the wounds are caused by some type of mental, physical, or sexual abuse or wounds caused by loss, such as the death of a loved one or a divorce in the child's family, to name a couple of examples.

Addicts use alcohol and/or drugs to escape emotional pain. As far as addiction being a "choice", it's kind of like having untreated poison ivy and choosing whether or not to scratch your arm or leg when the itch is driving you crazy. You can tell yourself you won't scratch it, but the itch will tell you different. Guess which one is going to win. The obsession to drink or use is the same. Until the source of the problem has been addressed, the urge to drink/use will whisper in your ear constantly, just like the voice that tells you to scratch your poison ivy. 

Addiction is a symptom of emotional wounds and not the source of the problem. Heal the wounds that drive a person to drink/use and the obsession disappears for good.