28. Addiction definitions simplified

By Tom O'Connell

Health professionals tend to create their own languages. But the average person isn't likely to toss around the word "etiology," which means "cause," or "pathology," which relates to "disease." And most of us say "feeling" instead of "affect," which is used by the psychologists. Also, we're more likely to say "thinking" than "cognition."

My goal in this particular essay is to help readers get to the root of the addiction process by using terms that can be easily understood. This is not easy to do because addiction is a complex affliction. It's about as complex as the human condition itself.  

What is addiction anyhow? When I began writing about this subject in the late 1970s I learned that there were at least fifty different theories about addiction. And it was challenging to wade through the theories in search of simplicity.

Here's what I came up with: "Addiction is a condition of unhealthy dependence on behaviors that impair a person's ability to function to his or her potential." This resembled the medical definition of "disease," which is "a disorder with a specific cause and recognizable signs and symptoms; any bodily abnormality or failure to function properly..."

In simple terms, addiction is an attempt to change moods, feelings, or thinking patterns, by repeatedly using substances or behaviors that lead to dependence. However, instead of gaining freedom, freedom is lost. The addict who is caught in the grip of addiction lives in bondage to obsessions and compulsions stemming from the inability to process thoughts and feelings effectively.

When hooked, the addict turns to various forms of dependence in order to adapt to life. But this dependence impairs the person's ability to function to potential, and so we describe addiction as a disease process. It's self-destructive. It's unhealthy.

What are the characteristics of addiction? Defense of the behavior, denial, tolerance (needing more to get the original effect), and withdrawal symptoms. Addiction  also includes craving, compulsion, loss of control despite attempts to stay in control, and continuation of the behavior in spite of life-damaging consequences. Those consequences are physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. The whole person is affected.

As my understanding of addiction has progressed, I have come to treasure the definition of addiction offered by alcoholism pioneer Dr. Stanley Gitlow of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York: "Addiction  is a disease in which any technique for adapting to life is used other than interpersonal relating."

In other words, addiction is a relationship problem. When we're addicted, whatever we're addicted to becomes our primary relationship, and we're unable to relate in a healthy way to self, others, and God. We're blocked. We're isolated. We're impaired. And that's why recovery from addiction is no simple matter.

It may be simple to stop drinking, drugging or gambling. But it's not easy to recover because it means changing one's whole outlook on life. And that's why support in mutual help groups is so important, not only for addicts but also for their loved ones who have been affected by addictive disease.

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