Myths of Addiction

This is a recent talk I presented at the South African College of Applied Psychology Festival of Learning and at the University of Cape Town Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health addictions forum.

In it I dispel the myths that: 

• Addiction is caused by drugs, 
• once an addict always an addict, 
• addiction is progressive 
• abstinence is required to initiate treatment or for remission.

I feel strongly that if we allow these myths to continue, we will not develop practical and helpful treatment modalities or public policies. At the end of the talk I made some suggestions regarding treatment. Comments and criticisms are welcome!


All around us, on a daily basis, we find news about addiction. We are exposed to a variety of messages, but most of them seem to carry a common theme. Many treatment programs and websites define addiction as a primary, chronic, relapsing, progressive disease of the brain usually caused by the uncontrolled consumption of alcohol or other drugs. What this means, among other things, is that addiction is:

• a separate entity on its own – it is a disease in and of itself, not a symptom;
•  a lifelong disorder from which recovery is unlikely;
•  that stable remission is unlikely;
• the longer you have it the less likely you are to remit;
•  that the alcohol and drugs are the cause of addiction.

What we do know, for certain, is that addictive disorders are complex. They result from a confluence of confounding and poorly understood factors and yet the field of addiction treatment is full of categorical statements, such as those I have mentioned, that the data does not support.

No matter what you have heard or been told, there is no unitary proven model that explains addiction to any degree of satisfaction. 

Addiction is hugely stigmatised, but even so most people have some sort of addiction-like behaviour. Rather than see ourselves as being on the addiction spectrum, we prefer to examine those that are the worst sufferers of addictive disorders – those that are on the extreme end, the one’s accessing treatment.

 

Read Full Article Here:  Myths of Addiction