Is Addiction a Disease?
People ask us all the time if we think addiction is a disease or a choice. Because it is a controversial topic we try to remain neutral, however what we do believe is that whether or not addiction is a disease, drug addiction and alcoholism is 100% treatable for those who get help. A professional intervention is designed to allow people with addiction problems to become accountable and responsible for that choice to get well and willingly surrender to enter treatment. One huge drawback to the disease model theory is that when an addict or alcoholic is told that they suffer from a disease, they immediately are able to pass the blame elsewhere and lose the accountability and responsibility needed to change. One of the most important elements to getting an alcoholic or addict sober is for them to become accountable and responsible for their addiction however, because addicts and alcoholics are all about lacking accountability and responsibility, the disease model concept unfortunately is counter-productive to them getting well. We do not believe in suppressing people into believing that they suffer from a disease in which there is no known cure as some groups want you to believe. Some of the most successful forms of treatment are ones that do not focus on the disease model and make the person accountable for their behaviors and actions.
Disease & Addiction
Did you know that no where in the original big book of Alcoholics Anonymous does it say that alcoholism or addiction is a disease. So where did the concept come from and how did it change 12 step groups and their success rates? The success rate of A.A. prior to 1960 had a success rate of sobriety for members of around 75% to 80%, far different than its present day success rate of 5%, so why such a drastic change? Around 1956 the A.M.A, or the American Medical Association, classified addiction as a disease which then allowed them to treat addiction and bill insurance companies to pay for office visits and treatment creating a huge avenue for profit. Shortly after this, the American Psychiatric Association then began to add codes for insurance billing purposes to the DSM or Diagnostic Statistical Manual that allowed them to treat and assess addiction with mental illness medications. As a result of the medical community and insurance companies getting involved, it decreased the overall success rates of treatment centers because now everyone entering treatment was just given medication by a doctor or psychiatrist and asked to leave in 28 days or less because that is all insurance companies were willing to pay for. The answer to people getting well is by becoming accountable and responsible for their problems and by working with others with similar problems and knowledge to get to the underlying issues of why they abused substances in the first place. Today, solid one-on-one therapy and professional counseling has been replaced by doctors, psychiatrist, large doses of medications, dual diagnosis theories and mental illness labels. Although there are times when medications are helpful and mental illness is present, the goal of our intervention group and the treatment centers we work with is to help people get well, not just treat their symptoms with medications and label them with a disorder shortly after arriving in treatment. After all, isn't that what they were doing in the first place, medicating their own symptoms with alcohol or street medications; what's the difference?
