Is addiction a disease, a choice, a sin
a moral failure? What
the heck is it?
Well, for the past whole bunch
of years, I've been teaching and telling people that
it's a disease and unfortunately
I'm going to have to backpedal on that
just a bit, so stay tuned and find out exactly why I'm having to recant
some of the things that I've said previously
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Amber Hollingsworth
and you are watching Put the Shovel Down, the YouTube channel dedicated to
teaching you the psychology of addiction
so you can recover yourself or a loved one and get
back to living the life that you want to live If that's something that you're trying to do
make sure you subscribe to this channel and I'll make sure you have
tools, resources, and support to make that happen.
Okay, onto the big confession. So, I've
been teaching that addiction is a disease pretty much
since I've been a counselor and
part of that reason is, because that's what they taught
us in school.
It makes perfect sense in a lot of ways
One of the big things that stick out in my mind is that it
must be a disease because you can pretty much predict and count
on exactly what's going to happen
to all
different kinds of people. What I mean by that is,
You can take a teenager or an adult
or a person with a lot of money or a person with no money
and you can almost predict what they're going to do so there's got be something
to this whole thing it can't just be a choice
or a coincidence or some other random thing
that keeps happening to people. There's something there
If you want to, you can look back on our YouTube channel and find lots
of videos where I
call it a disease where I talk about the brain part of the disease
But it's just al little
bit more complicated than that. You see, the theory
that addiction is a disease comes from this guy named Jellinik
who talked about addiction being a disease and there's
a lot of good reasons to call it a disease
There's a lot of good reasons why I continue to use
that language the biggest of all is that
understanding that it's not a choice
addiction is definitely not a choice and so when
we label it as a disease, it helps us to make better decisions on how to
deal with someone on how to treat it and
all that kind of stuff and it helps to reduce the stigma which
means a lot more people get help which
means a lot more families are more compassionate and willing to help someone
and that is much needed thing
when dealing with addiction, but the truth of it is,
it's just a little bit more complicated than that
and you know, I've put a lot of
thought into doing this video I've been
really hesitant about it not sure If I want to come out
and just confuse the whole situation all up
or not, but I've decided in the end that I really want to get my opinion out there
because understanding the differences in
all these things is going to help you make better
more strategic decisions about how to
fight addiction and you know our mission
here is to keep you five steps ahead of addiction at all
times and to do that, I want you to understand
it inside and out. So here's
my theory on the whole thing. I do think addiction
usually starts with a choice to ingest a
substance, engage in a behavior, do something
but the way the brain responds to that choice
is different in some people than it is in others and it's
not a person's choice how their brain responds to a
behavior or a
chemical or substance, so addiction is
definitely not a choice
although sometimes a choice can be the
beginning point for where it turns into
a disorder so I think addiction
is a starts with a little choice
and the way the brain starts responding
to that choice and that becomes a disorder because
addiction really is about obsession
You hear it said all the time in recovery meetings
and from therapists and we say "addiction is a thought
disorder" it's about the way that someone's thinking
being very different or abnormal or sort of
off spectrum, because people with addiction
don't respond to the consequences of their choice
and under normal conditions when the consequences get big enough
we stop doing whatever it is that they're doing
but when you're dealing with an addiction, it just doesn't work that way
Now if your addictive disorder involves using substances
like drugs and alcohol
that can then lead to the
disease of chemical dependency
because when you use those drugs long enough
it begins to change the way that your brain
operates and I do have a lot of videos on that if you
would like to hear all that nerdy science for yourself.
So far you can see we're going from choice to disorder which can
lead to the disease of chemical dependency but I
Think it's really important here to pull apart the pieces
between addiction the disorder
and chemical dependency the disease
Even up until recently in the
diagnostic statistical manual which is like the
big book that we use to diagnose all kinds of mental
health illnesses and disorders it labels
addiction doesn't call it addiction doesn't use that word
chemical dependency was the term
Now I think chemical dependency is actually can be
the result or the symptom of or
a disease process
of a larger problem, because if you're
obsessively using this substance for long enough your
brain changes and then you begin to need that
substance for your brain to function right
and then now you have the disease of
chemical dependency but here's why I say chemical dependency
is not addicition because
we can treat chemical dependency fairly
easily when you go in and you detox
someone off a substance and you get
them down and keep them off, their brain goes back to normal
So you can treat and heal that disease but guess what?
That obession, craving, desire
can stay there even after
you've fixed the chemical dependency portion
We all know people that have been clean and sober
for long periods of time and they go back out there and
use. Number one, the question is why in the world did you go back out
there and use it's because you have an addiction
to drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling,
shopping, whatever it is
Once you do that you can reactivate
the chemical dependency in your brain
So I guess it's all complicated
Why is it important to pull apart these pieces?
It's important that you understand that just treating chemical dependency
does not cure addiction. That's the main
reason that I decided to come out with this video
because so many people and families feel like
if they can get detoxed if they can get the drug
out of their system and their brain back to functioning normal
then they've got this thing nailed and here's what we know
that is absolutely not true, think about it
why is it that we treat a disease after
the detox part. why is it that we would treat a disease
with therapy?
Is it possible to talk someone
out of a disease? No, it's really not.
Is it possible to talk to someone and help them through
and help them learn to think differently and
make choices differently yes it is.
why is it that if it's just a disease of chemical dependency
would we send people to 12-step meetings
would people get better through going to church? you see that
doesn't make sense. Those things, therapy,
12-step meetings, religion, church, all of those
other things
could help the person realign that thought disorder
which is essentially the addiction
So the biggest point here from this video that you really
need to take home is to separate chemical dependency
which is sort of like a symptom
of addictive disorder
If you're still not convinced, think of it this way
there are lots of things other than drugs and alcohol that
other people get addicted to right? Sex,
shopping, gambling, you know
all of that other stuff. Exercise even.
And without that chemical introduction, you can see
that there's some predictable disorder going on here
What about the issue of is it a
moral failure or sin? Well you know, addiction is
definitely not a moral failure or sin I mean come on,
lots of great people from lots of great
families develop addictions
but here's a little truth for you, this might be one of those hard
truths to swallow
Addiction leads to
a symptom which is a
moral failure. People that are addicted to drugs and
alcohol often
make decisions that aren't
very moral, like how they treat the people around them like stealing
and lying and manipulating
without this disorder, this person that has
it would never make So i'm not saying that this person
is morally bad
or sinful. I'm saying that this disorder
leads you to make morally bad
decisions. I mean think of it. A lot of
what happens in therapy and in 12- step is
the healing of those relationships. it's teaching people how to
get back their integrity, how to make
right decisions, how to know when they're
being dishonest with themselves and the people around them.
Essentially, one of the symptoms that we're working on is the
ability to make moral good social
decisions it's the ability to heal your relationships
and maintain and carry on good relationships
So that is waht addiction is and that is
how you treat addiction. Now remember that's separate from
chemical dependency. Now
I know this may be complicated
and a little frustrating for you to hear and I probably wouldn't have gotten in there
and muddied up all the waters had I not
thought it's really important for you. Primarily, so that you
understand what the treatment for
addiction really is
Now just in case, I've left you thoroughly confused
or you just want to understand a little
more about what I"m telling you, I'm going to link
up here to a playlist which includes
some videos from some of the top scientists
out there working on this issue. To help explain it to you
even better than I can