I'm thinking Could Be, reading and hearing more about Matthew Perry and Ketamine, he had so much and gone so young...sounds like the drug but I've read too he had a lot of health issues...

I have addiction issues in my family and the FIRST and Most Important one must do is "Admit the Disease"....and get to the AA rooms...

My dad NEVER admitted the alcohol and had 2 beers a couple weeks before he died at 95... he had the life of Riley so to speak, but everyone in his family had a life of Misery. Today's modern wife, probably would not take what my mom's generation took....if they can help it....

I have no addictions and have questioned that over many years of foolish indulgences of alcohol and sweet stuff and I have not had a desire for a alcoholic drink in about 10 yrs or so. No Desire and sugar stuff I keep it to a minimum but lately treating myself to ice cream, but also keeping an awareness of what I'm putting in my body, as old as it is, I still want to keep as healthy as I can....NOT SICK.

Arthritis is my downfall and have dealt with it since 18 and I'm 85 and have had a lot of stuff going on thru my life, and at this point take low dose otc pain stuff every 6 hrs so I can continue to walk and do some life.

Your stories on this Disease...

No, addiction is 100% curable.

Just stop.

No, addiction is 100% curable.

Just stop.

Agree--and if it's to be called a disease, I'd call it a disease of choice. I saw a mugshot of an old friend who's now out of state, and it's destroyed someone who was a normal-looking person. She now looks like some other-world, nearly 70-year-old monster.

As someone who has overcome it - addiction is a choice, not a disease IMO.

Cancer is a nightmare.

I've heard so much about addiction over my life, and yes we choose and yes I believe some/many get addicted to the bad choices. I've heard strong craving words used, etc. I've heard "genes" some of us are born with. What would those in the AA rooms call "it".

Back in my young days and living with a big drinker, none of the old folks called them alcoholics, but said they drank too much.

I took some oxycontin for hip surgery and another rehab issue with knee and I could never get addicted to that Sheet as the side effects are horrid...

And then there is pharma who continue to push and shovel this poison into our bodies and then they can push more stuff to try to undo what has been done....

Drugs like oxycontin and hydrocodone--another matter--not a choice there. This may have improved over the years, but these were common painkiller prescriptions--after surgery, etc.

User beware--highly addictive

Thinking about what "it's" called.

Addiction is defined as a disease by most medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Like diabetes, cancer and heart disease, addiction is caused by a combination of factors.

From Indiana Univ.

https://iuhealth.org/thrive/is-addiction-really-a-disease

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Is Addiction Really a Disease?
Thrive
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JULY 13, 2023
Is Addiction Really a Disease?
Is Addiction Really a Disease?
Is addiction really a disease or a matter of choice? Ask the mother who lost her 19-year-old son — the laughing family prankster who earned a full-ride college scholarship as a solid student and star second baseman — to drugs.

The moody, angry dropout who survived overdoses to get caught breaking into cars wasn't the boy she raised. What she knew, like the families and friends of the more than 15,000 Hoosiers who've died due to overdose since 1999, is that addiction's not a life anyone would choose.

Most medical professionals agree. The American Medical Association (AMA) classified alcoholism as a disease in 1956 and included addiction as a disease in 1987.

In 2011 the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) joined the AMA, defining addiction as a chronic brain disorder, not a behavior problem, or just the result of making bad choices.

Research and input from top addiction authorities, addiction medicine doctors, neuroscientists and experts from the National Institute on Drug Abuse agree in classifying addiction as a disease. Like other chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, experts are still learning about how and why the disease develops. This blog post will help you understand addiction and how IU Health addiction treatment can help those struggling.

What is addiction?
Alcohol or drug addiction, also known as substance use disorder, is a chronic disease of the brain that can happen to anyone. Severe substance use disorder happens when substance use becomes an uncontrollable habit that hurts your day-to-day life, showing up as struggles at work or in school, conflicts with relationships, legal or money problems.


Thinking about the alcoholic father in my home, he worked 40 yrs at a blue collar job and rarely missed a day of work. He drank probably every day after work and not in the day times and was hjighly functioning. ????

And hardly ever heard the word pain from his mouth could be the hops in the beers kept him pain free...

Here is what is said about Hops

It has been attributed anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, as well as diuretic, digestive, sedative, progestogenic properties, even being considered a cure for insomnia. For this wide range of health benefits, it was regarded as a life prolonging plant ... Dad's heart just kept on and he said he was so ready to check out....so maybe the hops kept him going.

Thinking about what "it's" called.

Addiction is defined as a disease by most medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.


These are the same people that tell us that being male or female is a choice and 'fluid'. If you don't go along with it you are excommunicated from the medical field.

Why?

There's money in it.

It's a crock of ****.

I'll say it again, addiction is a CHOICE. I was addicted, the only way I could have stopped was if I accepted it was a choice I was making.

Cancer is a disease. No-one wants cancer and there is no easy way out of it. You can't stop cancer by going to rehab.

I'll say it again, addiction is a CHOICE. I was addicted, the only way I could have stopped was if I accepted it was a choice I was making.

Cancer is a disease. No-one wants cancer and there is no easy way out of it. You can't stop cancer by going to rehab.

People don't want addiction either, and millions put crap in their mouths that can cause their cancers....this subject could go on forever, but I keep my mind open to that it's many names, that addiction stuff....

Yeah but cancer in many cases is just unpredictable. My mother lived the cleanest life ever and died at 64 from a weird form of cancer. My Dad was born with Type 1 diabetes and died early. It's different from addiction. Some diseases just happen and no-one can figure it out. Addiction, I knew exactly what I was doing to my body before I stopped. It's the same as smoking. People know what they are doing and they always have the choice to stop.

I'll say it again, addiction is a CHOICE. I was addicted, the only way I could have stopped was if I accepted it was a choice I was making.


Because you were able to overcome it, that makes it a choice for everyone? Ignorant. :rolleyes:

Please keep discussion apolitical and respectful. Thanks :thumbsup:

Please keep discussion apolitical and respectful. Thanks :thumbsup:

unnm, I just re-read thread and read nothing disrespectful or political here, but you seem to....hence your warning. :confused:

Because you were able to overcome it, that makes it a choice for everyone? Ignorant. :rolleyes:No your right,some things are hard to stop...... Like Smoking for one.......

Smoking I've heard is the Killer one to kick...a good friend was born into a family with mom, dad, sis and bro all smokers and her too, they are all dead and she is still alive at 86. as she made it a new year's resolve many yrs ago, she did it...she deals with respiratory and some cancer stuff but she deals and manages as best she can.

Im glad she was able!!!!!!

Addiction is not a disease. Never has been. Diseases are biological or genetic. Neither holds true in addiction (putting alcoholism with addiction since it is a part of addiction).

I had a nasty addiction to a street drug and went to a long term “treatment” center and two shorter term places. All of them classified addiction as a “disease”. I was told that it was genetic, and I have had it since birth. One thing they did was made me do a family chart and lost people in my family that were addicts. I put down my paternal grandfather was an alcoholic, a man I never knew was an alcoholic (and so was his younger brother at least) and a much older cousin (who died in his early 60’s). This showed that the “disease” was genetic, although my parents were not alcoholic and rarely drank.

This is nonsense. For one thing, addiction is a learned behavior. We learn how to use drugs and drink from peers who may or may not be family members. Second, almost everyone has an addicted family member. It might be in your nuclear family or some relative you had little to no contact with.

To show what I mean, I use the Presidents the past sixty years. From Kennedy to Biden. All of them had addicted family members!

Biden. His son Hunter is a drug addict.
Trump. His older brother died of alcoholism.
Obama. His father was an alcoholic.
Bush. Various. One is a niece of W who was a crack addict.
Clinton. Half brother, alcoholic/drug addict.
Reagan. His father was an alcoholic.
Ford. His wife famously was one.
Johnson. Alcoholic brother.
JFK. An alcoholic younger brother.

All of these men came from different backgrounds. Some were born quite wealthy while others not so. Do all of these various men have the genetic “disease of addiction”?

Some drugs, for example, heroin, cocaine, meth, alcohol and nicotine and in and of themselves addictive. Heroin for example is famously addictive. Many people have done heroin, and the only people who have gotten addicted to it were unfortunate enough to have the “disease”? What about other addictive things? Food (watch My 600 pound life), cigarettes, even sex. Gambling. Are behaviors genetically addictive?

There is a man in Wisconsin by the name of Don Gorske. Since 1972 by his own admission he has eaten almost nothing else literally besides McDonalds Big Mac hamburgers. He eats two or three a day. This guy even buys extra ones to put in his freezer just in case he can’t get to McDonalds that day. Is he addicted? If you ask a doctor of someone should just eat Big Mac hamburgers and nothing else, is that healthy? So, does Goeske has a genetic “disease” of Big Mac hamburgers?

What few seem to “treat” is not the addiction, the addiction is just the end result of the problem. The problem is what is behind the addiction. What is the cause? It can be trauma, depression, negative past events or something like a real neurological disorder like bipolar disorder (saw some of that in “treatment”). Very little is done in these treatment places to help the patient with their psychological needs. I for one feel I had a psychological issue, more than likely depression. Not some phantom “disease”! I needed help (if there is such a thing) on my life issues, to cope and live life without the drugs. Never got that.

I hate the “disease” concept because so many addicts have died from their addiction thinking they have a “disease” and this is the reason they have failed to stop. “I have a disease, I can’t control myself.” That was my thinking. So many of these “treatment” places make their patients go to 12 Step meetings which are of little use. To find a “God of their own understanding”, chanting prayers and saying out loud for the rest of your life that you are an alcoholic. Or worse someone saying “I’m in recovery.” for the rest of their life. If you haven’t done a drug/drink in over a year, five years, and especially longer than that, you probably have learned coping skills and life skills and moves off of what you did. You recovered. “Diseases” have nothing to do with it.

I don’t care what the American Medical Association says about it. They are wrong. Medical science and doctors are absolutely arrogant and play god. Around two hundred years ago and before, “doctors” put pond leeches on people to cure fevers. Absolute nonsense. If someone back then went “Hey doc, you sure putting blood sucking leeches on someone does anything?”, the doctor will retort “Who are you to ask me? Are you a doctor?” so they have license to push their nonsense. The “disease of addiction”
is the modern day deadly leech.

Addiction is not a disease. Never has been. Diseases are biological or genetic. Neither holds true in addiction (putting alcoholism with addiction since it is a part of addiction).

I don’t care what the American Medical Association says about it. They are wrong. Medical science and doctors are absolutely arrogant and play god. Around two hundred years ago and before, “doctors” put pond leeches on people to cure fevers. Absolute nonsense. If someone back then went “Hey doc, you sure putting blood sucking leeches on someone does anything?”, the doctor will retort “Who are you to ask me? Are you a doctor?” so they have license to push their nonsense. The “disease of addiction”
is the modern day deadly leech.


Exactly what I say.

How could cocaine or heroin additions be 'genetic'? They've only been around for a few generations. The reason there are so many overweight people is that genes haven't yet caught up to the fact that in the modern first world you aren't going to starve to death, because there's basically unlimited food available.

Two people drink to excess and one stops. They are magically cured? What cured them. I'm not going to have cancer or diabetes today? Wow, it's gone!

Oh, don't feel bad. It's not your fault. It's a disease.

That's a joke.

https://iuhealth.org/thrive/is-addiction-really-a-disease#:~:text=Alcohol%20or%20drug%20addiction%2C%20also,that%20can%20happen%20to%20anyone.

What is addiction?


Alcohol or drug addiction, also known as substance use disorder, is a chronic disease of the brain that can happen to anyone. Severe substance use disorder happens when substance use becomes an uncontrollable habit that hurts your day-to-day life, showing up as struggles at work or in school, conflicts with relationships, legal or money problems.

Addiction changes the brain
Addiction changes the way the brain works, rewiring its structure. Drugs and alcohol hack into your brain's communication system and interfere with how nerve cells send, receive and process information.

The brain’s reward system activates when we do something we like—eating a piece of our favorite pie, hanging out with friends, or going for a run, for instance. That reward comes in the chemical dopamine. Drugs or alcohol trigger the release of dopamine.

Addiction causes the brain to ask for more
Dopamine makes us feel good and want to keep doing what we're doing. It also teaches the brain to repeat the behavior. Cues trigger the reward system, fuel cravings and create a habit loop. The smell of pie baking can make you salivate in anticipation of the taste. Addiction fuels habits too—craving a cigarette every morning with coffee or wanting a hit when you drive past the house where you used to do drugs.

When you take a drug, your brain releases a flood of dopamine, much more than it would when you're eating your favorite pie. Your brain overreacts and cuts back on dopamine production to bring it down to a normal level.

As you continue to use drugs, your body produces less dopamine. Things that brought you pleasure—that pie, friends, and even drugs—don't anymore. Once you're addicted, it takes more and more drugs just to feel normal.

One thing the experts above on this is they don't mention the Dopamine issue.....ok....

There is a man in Wisconsin by the name of Don Gorske. Since 1972 by his own admission he has eaten almost nothing else literally besides McDonalds Big Mac hamburgers. He eats two or three a day. This guy even buys extra ones to put in his freezer just in case he can’t get to McDonalds that day. Is he addicted? If you ask a doctor of someone should just eat Big Mac hamburgers and nothing else, is that healthy? So, does Goeske has a genetic “disease” of Big Mac hamburgers?


I am surprised he has not dropped dead of a Heart Attack yet!

Quote…

Alcohol or drug addiction, also known as substance use disorder, is a chronic disease of the brain that can happen to anyone. Severe substance use disorder happens when substance use becomes an uncontrollable habit that hurts your day-to-day life, showing up as struggles at work or in school, conflicts with relationships, legal or money problems.

Problem with that is that there are some drugs that are addictive in and of themselves. For example, heroin is addictive. People have known this for a hundred years. I dare say over 99 percent of people who have ever did heroin once will fall into addiction. It isn’t a “disease” that causes that. The brain likes the drug and releases pleasure chemicals called dopamine in excess which causes the user to really want that drug again, and the cycle begins. It’s like someone who eats 10,000 calories a day because their brain has an imbalance of dopamine giving the person pleasure causing mass obesity. Is obesity the disease? Or someone who smokes cigarettes, that gives off the same feeling of pleasure. Do people have a disease of cigarette smoking?

Can someone give themselves a disease? I do not believe that someone is born a drug addict or an alcoholic, they chose to do these substances and have been caught up in addiction. That’s different than “disease”.