Why Addiction Is a Disease - Not a Symptom

Any person who has ever lived through addiction can tell you first hand that addiction is a serious disease that requires intensive treatment. However, there are a host of "alternative" treatment centers cropping up all across the country that postulate that this is not the case. Instead, they view addiction as merely the symptom of an underlying disease or condition, and that if the underlying condition is treated, the addiction will be cured. But while dual-diagnosis conditions are common, most of these only serve to exacerbate each other and neither actually causes the other. This is an important consideration because it is only by approaching addiction as a disease that it can be successfully treated. When treated as a symptom, relapses are inevitable.

Addiction is considered a physiological disease because it meets the same requirements as other disorders and diseases, including a great deal of terminal illnesses. This is important to note because unabated addiction is 100% fatal. The basic requirements which clearly classify addiction as a disease include:

*The symptoms are the same across many different types of substances. For instance, whether your drug of choice is cocaine or alcohol, the general symptoms are always the same

*Addiction is chronic and does not subside without treatment

*Addiction symptoms are progressive, resulting in death

*Just as other diseases surface repeatedly, addiction results in an extremely high occurrence of relapse

*Addiction and alcoholism are treatable

Addiction is typically diagnosed by a series of behaviors as opposed to physical symptoms or any type of medical testing. These behaviors can be summarized as repeated failures to control the substance abuse despite severe consequences. This means that an addict will lose control over a substance, obsess over it, and continue even when they know that there is imminent danger or risk of life-changing consequences.

Many experts believe that addicts and alcoholics are genetically predisposed to the disease of addiction, and most are also in agreement that some environmental factor is usually required to trigger the initial addictive event. Once this process has begun, addiction truly becomes a neurological disease. This is because the process of developing tolerance, physical dependence and outright addiction builds neurological pathways in the brain that are permanent in nature. This means that even after a person stops using drugs or alcohol, those pathways still exist and they demand to be "fed".

Of course, the only thing that feeds these neurological pathways is active addiction - using drugs or alcohol -after all, that's exactly what they were built for. By the time addiction has reached this stage, the afflicted individual suffers from an uncontrollable urge to obtain and use their drug of choice. It is not an issue of free will or behavioral control; addiction is a physical, neurological disease for which there is no known cure - only treatment to manage it.

Just as a person wouldn't treat a terminal illness at home, an addict or alcoholic should be able to expect to get help at a professional facility just as they would with any disease. The most difficult part of the disease of addiction is that an addict will almost never get help on their own because the very nature of the illness will not allow the sufferer to believe they are afflicted by it.

That's where you come in. If you know someone who needs help for addiction or alcoholism, then please do everything that you can to help them get the right treatment as soon as possible. Their life may depend on it. You can start right here with our Florida drug rehab. For serious and fast action, use the links below now for our extremely successful residential inpatient treatment program.

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Hoarding Is As Much A Disease As Alcoholism: What You Can Do To Help

Hoarding is a sickness. It is a mental disorder. Hoarding is every bit as addicting as alcoholism. The hoarder cannot help it, and the hoarder normally cannot recover or get better without serious professional help and a support group that understands.

Just like there are many factors that drive someone to drink alcohol, there can be a multiple of factors that drives someone to hoard. Sometimes hoarders attach themselves to objects because those objects remind them of loved ones or friends.

In other situations, factors such as anxiety or fear can lead to hoarding.

Hoarding normally starts in one room, such as a closet or spare bedroom. Other times it can start in an automobile trunk or a corner of a basement. The hoarder will start stockpiling things in one area.

After that area becomes to cluttered to handle any more stuff, then the hoarder usually either spreads out from that area or starts a whole other area in which to hoard.

Hoarders also hoard a variety of items. These can range from new items that are purchased to items picked up out of the garbage or even off the side of the road.

Like alcoholics, hoarders always have good intentions and don't fully understand how bad they are hurting themselves and those around them. They don't realize the full extent of their actions and how they are causing danger for not only themselves, but for those who must come in contact with them in the area that they are hoarding.

Some of the dangers of hoarding include an unsanitary environment. Since it is virtually impossible to clean up, around, in, and under piles and mounds of stuff, things like mold, mildew and dust build up - not to mention rodents and insects as well.

Also, the area around mounds of hoarded items can be very dangerous. Hoarders and those they live with are often injured in their homes due to slips and falls because of all the clutter blocking doorways and pathways.

If you know someone who is a hoarder, the best thing that you can do is to confront them in the same way that you would confront an alcoholic -- firmly, and in a friendly environment.

It is best that this is done in a group setting so that more people can interject their concerns and offer help. Just like an alcoholic, a hoarder must first come to the realization that they indeed do have a problem before they can be on the road to recovery.

Also, it could be that just like an alcoholic is really never totally free of alcoholism, a hoarder is always prone to revert back into their hoarding state.

The 'Obsessive Compulsion Foundation' (which is a not-for-profit organization) claim that hoarders even have an abnormally function brain and that hoarders are not lazy, but suffer from a real mental sickness.

If you are a hoarder, get help by contacting some hoarding contractor services. If you know someone who hoards, confront them in a group setting with compassion, understanding, and love.

House to Home Construction offers hoarding contractor services in New Jersey, transforming homes that have been neglected due to hoarding. A good hoarding construction company can totally convert any home - no matter what the condition - into a safe, livable and comfortable environment.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Kirzno

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What Is An Addiction? Is Addiction A Brain Disease Or Is It Not?

Addiction is a huge problem that many people in our society have to deal with, but what exactly is an addiction? An addiction is the compulsive need that someone feels the urge to fulfill. In this article we will go over a variety of different types of addiction. Many people feel that it is a disease of the brain, others feel the exact opposite. Both sides make some good points, and both may be right. To some degree, addiction makes use of your brain chemistry, however, a lot of it has to do with your developed or learned personality.

Addiction Definition: To occupy oneself with or involve oneself in something compulsively or habitually no matter what negative consequences it may result in.

Why?

The primary reason why people do anything that's bad for them more than once is because they get some sort of enjoyment out of it.

Types of Addiction

- Addiction of Sex - People with this type of addiction exhibit a heightened sense of sexuality. They get uncontrollable sexual urges.

- Addiction of Gambling - People with this type of addiction can't fight the urge to place a bet. It is an impulsive urge that they get. Gambling is an impulse control disorder. They know the odds are against them;however, they still place the bet. People addicted to gambling keep pushing forward whether they're up or down.

- Addiction of Smoking - This is when someone has formed an uncontrollable dependency on cigarettes. Their are a couple of factors that go into forming this addiction but the main factor is the substances in cigarettes. Nicotine is the main chemical used in cigarettes and studies have found that it is a very addictive chemical.

- Addiction of Video Games - This is an excessive use of video or computer games. People who are addicted to video games tend to isolate themselves from the rest of society. They focus on their video game achievements more than anything else.

- Addiction of Food - This addiction deals with a persons obsessive relationship to food. People with food addiction typically have a series of binging episodes. These episodes are usually followed by feeling of guilt and depression. People who suffer from this addiction eat when they aren't hungry.

There are many types of addiction, the list is not limited to the ones listed above. The one's listed above are the most common, but they are not the only ones.

Many people ask the question, is addiction a disease or a choice? There has been a debate over the subject for many years by medical professionals. Still, a definite conclusion hasn't been reached.

For more information on types of addiction and what they are go to addictsapple.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_P._Cohen

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