Addiction – MedScreens, Inc

Providing an accurate description of what Drug Addiction is has proven to be a controversial topic debated by medical doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, psychologists and scientists. Thus, it would be unacceptable to presume that this blog is an all-inclusive or conclusive definition of Drug Addiction.

Most professionals do agree that addiction is a brain disease. If you would like to know more about the specifics of this, please read the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s definition of addiction. Perhaps it may be easier for some families to understand what Drug Addiction is not, as opposed to what it is scientifically, medically or technically speaking.

This is a pretty basic list of some of the common misconceptions:

Addiction is NOT:

Something that you or your loved one chooses

– Although initially it is the individual’s decision to pick up a drug with no intention of developing an addiction to it

Something that you can stop on your own

– You may feel like you can and you may even develop strategies like only drinking one six pack of beer or just two glasses of wine or only one shot at the bar or only using drugs on weekends. If your strategies do work even for a little while, chances are you will not be able to maintain these using patterns for very long.

Something that you can force anyone else to stop just because you want them to stop

– No matter how much your child, parent, friend or other loved one may want to quit using for you – once they have developed an addiction, not just casual drinking or drug usage, it is virtually impossible for them to quit on their own no matter how much they may want to or how much you want them to and believe that they should be able to.

Something that is impossible to recover from

– Although it should be noted addiction is not “curable” as other diseases, such as cancer – once an addict always an addict – and the person must continuously work on their recovery for the rest of their life to prevent their addiction from taking over their lives again.