Posted by Deus_Abscondis on September 8, 2007, at 3:00:37
In reply to Not popular beliefs..., posted by medhed on April 25, 2005, at 21:46:47
Medhed,
I'm tempted to say the only bad addiction is an unsatisfied addiction.
To qualify this: an addiction becomes problematic when:-
- it causes dysfunction in the life of the user
and
- the user cannot cope with or stop the dysfunction as a matter of choice
and
- the addiction has adverse and unacceptable impacts on health and welfare
and
- the addiction is antisocial in that it has
adverse health or welfare effects
or the potential to create adverse health effects in others (this means that USE may need to be private or restricted)Some people who are unaware that they have a latent addiction to a substance function better
when using the substance in a responsible and
sustainable manner. I believe this is called a
pseudo-addiction.It is being discovered that some people are genetically predisposed to favor the use or
abuse of substances. This may be due to an abnormal reward mechanism in the brain.Rather than treating these people to some form
of abstinence program, which could be viewed
as a form of mis-treatment, it is being realised
that controlled use of the substance brings
their brains closer to normal and improves
the persons life and function in the community.It is also being discovered that some illnesses
can bring about irreversible changes to reward
and pain systems and that a justifiable
medical treatment might include the use of
medicines that were one available but have stopped
being used for political rather than scientific/medical reasons.D
poster:Deus_Abscondis
thread:489538
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20070626/msgs/781556.html