Is 'addiction' the real disease and alcoholism a symptom?
August 25th, 2008 by
i have been diagnosed 'alcoholic' but is 'addiction' the real disease? if i have the addictive gene why did i choose alcohol, why not sex, gambling, food, crime etc.if you are predisposed to alcoholism are you more likely to become alcoholic? i'm confused as to whether alcoholism is a disease or just a state of mind or do people have an addictive gene and discover their obsession through circumstance?
August 25th, 2008 at 10:36 am
alcoholism is a symptom.but lifestyle is the real problem.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:43 am
There's not just one addictive gene. There's thought to be several mechanisms including one or two that are specific to alcohol.
there's genetic and environmental contributions.
alcoholics for instance can easily switch to marijuana. It's not quite a state of mind. It's more of a 'how your mind is put together' sort of thing. Someone is set up by their genetic history and their development to be an addict (or so goes the dominant theory in addiction medicine). They're basically addiction waiting to happen bring them into a substance that's a good psychological fit with them, in your case alcohol, and then they get going with it.
seems to be some sort of alteration to how the brain perceives pleasure and reward in an addict. That's part of why addiction is so difficult to treat. Essentially you have to alter a behavior that is very biologically driven, and why twelve step programs tend to do better than other forms of recovery there's constant maintenance and constant attention.