Is addiction a disease or a mental disorder?

I second mental disorder.

I thought a mental disorder is a disease

I’d have thought disease as alcoholism is treated as a disease & that’s an addiction :-/

Addictions are termed ‘diseases’ because they are progressive and potentially life threatening.

Any ‘disease’ is a ‘dis-ease’. A lack of well being.

When I inderwent hypnotherapy to quit smoking my therapist whom I greatly admired and who was very educated and diverse in his philosophies said to me ’ all problems are psychological and all solutions are spiritual.’

I agree.

Addictions are a disconnected persons way of coping with their disconnection from life, a relationship with god/the universe.

If one heals old wounds and fills the empty spaces with love, peace and a sense of infinite connection, along with abstinence to re-program the brain, the desire for the addictive substance fades away.

Maybe my definition of disease is incorrect. I have considered a disease as a physical condition over which you have no control i.e. cancer. Although I can see your points as to why a mental disorder can be classified as a disease. You have no control over whether or not you are bi-polar or prone to addiction. I guess, in my opinion, calling an addiction a disease alleviates some of the burden off the addicted and allows excuses for destructive behavior.

It’s not a disease in that you might wake up one morning addicted to cigarettes although you’ve never smoked in your life, in the same way as you might wake up one morning with cancerous cells developing somewhere in your body with no apparent cause.

That’s based on a limited definition of “disease”, though. This definition from Merriam-Webster’s Medical dictionary (via dictionary.reference.com) is broader:

an impairment of the normal state of the living animal or plant body or one of its parts that interrupts or modifies the performance of the vital functions, is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms, and is a response to environmental factors (as malnutrition, industrial hazards, or climate), to specific infective agents (as worms, bacteria, or viruses), to inherent defects of the organism (as genetic anomalies), or to combinations of these factors.

By that definition, mental disorders (including addiction) should be classed as diseases.

I think you would be hard-pressed to provide an example of any treatment for an addiction which does not involve a heavy helping of “taking responsibility for your actions.”

But depending on what you’re talking about, there are physical components to many addictions that are outside the control of the addict. Addiction is inevitably tied to the increased usage required do to tolerance increases, and in substance cases is eventually associated with withdrawal symptoms that may make it intolerable to live without the substance (dependence).

Addiction as a disease is, of course, initiated by use (in the vast majority of cases) of the substance (or starting the behavior)...but it’s appropriate to raise cancer as lung cancer is no less a disease because it was caused by someone’s smoking. The only issue with addiction as a disease is that continuing to engage in the addictive behavior after “diagnosis” (e.g., relapsing) is understood and often expected – however, although addicts will often try to excuse such behavior through talking about having a disease, no one truly interested in that person’s health accepts it as one.

It’s not necessarily either. Some personalities include an addictive trait which makes addiction easy to manifest.

In my opinion, addictions are self-medications. They are there because of some other deep pain or problem or mental illness the person has, and they have no idea how else to deal with the pain. In a way, they are side effects of an underlying problem.

It works to some degree, but it brings a whole host of other problems with it. So it’s better to learn to deal with your problems without using addictive substances as medications.

I think it’s a mental disorder. Many people have issues they find extremely painful to deal with but don’t turn to drugs. They may cry, read, get therapy, turn to God but something, some kinds of character traits prevent them from turning to drugs. I don’t know what those traits are but genetics probably play a critical factor.

I would say disease, even though they are most of the times self-inflicted (if you had a syringe that contained hiv and you knowingly injected yourself with it you still have the disease, even though you gave it to yourself). Granted there is a highly mental component to it, many of these drugs will have physical effects on the body as well (especially withdrawal). I also don’t believe it is a mental disorder because anyone can become addicted (whether some are predisposed to it or not). For example, cigarettes. You start as a teenager because of peer pressure, then you find that you can’t stop because you’re hooked (addicted). Does this make susceptability to peer pressure the precursor to a mental disorder or even a mental disorder itself? I think not. just imho

Mental disorder is a weird description for me, because what is order, it is someones definition of order.
A shaman, in an aboriginal culture, uses intense drugs for spiritual quest, healing and enlightenment, and is not a “mental”, but has been, and still is a highly reverent and benevolent person among his people.
Addiction as said, is a brain that has been repeatedly subjected to pleasure in a biochemical sense, and the mind enjoys it, remembers it and repeats it. Unless the grass is beaten down for new neural pathways to be created to replace the old, the addiction persists.
The tug of war between the sub-conscious and the conscious part of the mind, the subconscious will always win. That is where, I believe the battle must be won. Hypnotherapy, and many other means are at many peoples disposal if they so choose.

I believe addictions are a mental disorder that can lead to diseases developing.

What is addiction?
Is it only something that will cause physiological decline, or can it also be an incessant mental needs that must be psychologically met at all costs.
This to me, is equally as detrimental, and mentally and sociologically non-productive and potentially harmful to others they neglect. i.e. porn, telephones, tv, gambling, gaming, social internet.

Is it important which it is? Alcoholism or abuse of alcohol ruins more lives than any other singular disease or addiction. I hope someday alcohol, drugs, etc. will all be looked upon with the disfavor that tobacco is today.

I think it can be important what it is in terms of how you treat it.

I partially agree, but I must note that there are some diseases that can be somewhat controlled or contained with life style changes, diabetes being the first one to come to mind. I know many who control it with diet. So too is it with alcoholism and drug addiction, it can be controlled with lifestyle changes.

It is a very fine line and I still don’t feel it is overly important to quibble over which it is, the important part is that the sick person must want to change in order for the solution to be most effective.

Thank you all for your opinions. I was not trying to ‘quibble’. I wanted clarification as to me it seemed people who called it a disease were less likely to take personal responsibility. However, I guess plenty of people do not acknowledge addiction at all which would be an even worse situation than either of the other options.

I’m a former alcoholic who just decided one day, after decades, to quit being an alcoholic. I never thought of it as either. It was really a lifestyle choice. This is based on personal experience, and as always, other experiences may differ.

@12Oaks – I think that your experience is dependent on whether you actually were an alcoholic. There’s a difference, after all, between “drinking too much” and “being an alcoholic.”

@iamthemob All I know is a doctor made that diagnosis. He prescribed some 7 step thing and some sort of group meeting things. That just isn’t anything I am in to so I declined. I quit being an alcoholic on my own on my terms. Of course that doctor could have misdiagnosed as some, like most jobs, ain’t that good at it.

Generally speaking, if you think you might be an alcoholic, you are!

AA provides these guidelines and they seem pretty accurate to me.

A disease; of mind, body and spirit.

im a addict from way back in the day.xdrewe is right. A disease; of mind, body and spirit. i once thought it was just fate or choice, i was wrong. i cant speak for everyone but for me mental pain drove the addiction. 30 years and allot of suffering later and i got diagnosed with ptsd from childhood trauma. mental, emotional pain can cause many disorders.addiction gets all the attention. it would be no different than giving a person with heart disease a pain pill and repeat that treatment until death.

It is neither. Something you consciously cause yourself I can hardly call an addiction. Furthermore, I can’t call it a mental disorder, people know full well what they are doing when they slam back that drink, or shoot that needle in their arm; if anything, the addiction (if not caused by the bodies dependency on the chemical). is a byproduct of a separate mental lacking of sorts, which might be the actual mental illness.

there are 3 orders: disorder, syndrome, and disease