Old Ideas About Addiction – Conclusion

I haven’t covered all the old ideas about addiction that don’t square up with facts and experience, but hopefully this will cover the major old ideas. Sticking with alcoholism as the addiction example, alcoholics come from all walks of life, and their backgrounds and mental states before drinking are as diverse as the non-alcoholic population. The only difference is that alcoholics have more alcoholics in their family tree, so the genetic link is real, but this has to do with brain chemistry rather than behavior, psychology, will-power or socio-economic factors. The brain chemistry of some people is such that they’re susceptible to addiction, and it tends to run in families, but other than that the families and the alcoholics are as diverse as the rest of society. Many people see the effects of alcoholism and confuse these effects with the cause of alcoholism. Yes, once alcoholics reach the middle and late stages, there are many similarities in behavior and psychology, but these are the effects of alcoholism.

Some experts claim that the cause of alcoholism is likely multi-faceted — environmental, psychological, genetic, etc. — but they appear to be covering all bases, although with little proof. They also appear to confuse cause and effects. The studies I’ve read that stick to science suggest that brain chemistry is the culprit. As I’ve written, people drink for many reasons, and some people drink when they have stress or problems that are difficult to handle — they might or might not be addicted to alcohol. Alcoholics present with particular signs and symptoms, and merely drinking to deal with problems is not enough to diagnose alcoholism. This doesn’t mean that the “problem” drinker doesn’t need some form of counseling to learn how to deal with problems, but the “problem” drinking doesn’t necessarily make the person an alcoholic. The alcoholic will drink insanely and compulsively regardless whether he’s going through bankruptcy or making a $50,000 a week. The alcoholic will drink insanely and compulsively regardless whether her father died or her favorite sister just had a beautiful, healthy baby. Some alcoholics might have co-occurring psychological disorders or socio-economic conditions that complicate addiction, but they don’t cause addiction — they exist with addiction.

The alcoholic drinks because the alcoholic is driven to drink by a compulsion, a physical and mental craving, that few non-alcoholics can understand, if any can fully understand. Addiction is a chronic brain disease that gets worse without treatment and is fatal in many cases causing premature death. Some professionals who deal with alcoholics, although they themselves aren’t alcoholics, have dealt with and talked to enough alcoholics that they have a fairly good understanding regarding the insanity of alcoholic drinking, but most people don’t understand — they have no way of understanding — so they make up reasons to explain the insane drinking. We all want logical reasons to explain what appears crazy, especially if the alcoholic is a friend or family member. All the reasons for the insane drinking that people make up to help them deal with the madness are the false ideas that get passed around, but, if you really want to know about alcoholism, read the scientific research. It’s tough reading, and most people don’t like to read about dendrites, brain chemicals and synapses and such, but this is the best way to understand addiction.

Treatment of addiction, though, is not just about adjusting brain chemistry, because, as I’ve written, the effects of addiction cause relationship problems, psychological problems, financial problems, job problems, physical problems, etc. The recovering alcoholic has to deal with all these problems and learn how to live without alcohol. The recovering person has to develop a plan for long term recovery management.