Why Addiction is Not a Disease: Into the Debate
Why Addiction is Not a
Disease!
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One of the main proponents
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Stanton Peele
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http://www.peele.net/
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http://www.peele.net/lib/oreilly_0
00706.html
Main Messages
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A host of addictions may be understood as disease, but they are not
diseases
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“Addiction is an experience people can get caught up in but that
still expresses their values, skills at living, and personal resolve –
or lack of it”.
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Upon stopping use – peoples’ problems don’t disappear
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Addiction has become a marketplace
Sit with this…
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We will never, ever treat away drug abuse,
alcoholism, and the host of other behaviors
that are now called addictive behaviors…
Main Messages (cont.)
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No biological urge to form addictions that will one day be found
under the microscope
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We are creating more addictions ever year / generation (who we
often tell will never get better)
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CHILD OF A PERSON WITH A DISEASE OF ALCOHOLISM
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Mix up moral responsibility with disease diagnosis
Peele’s idea of treatment / helping
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Nurturing communities can protect and support the individual and
family reduce an entire range of illness
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Here people learn that can control their destinies = Self Efficacy
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But we have not capitalized on self-efficacy, connection, support,
and education instead we find it easier to…
The Disease Timeline
First Generation Diseases: AIDS
Measureable
Physical
effects
Preventative
Inoculations
Specific
Microbes
Clearly connected with the functioning of the body
Second Generation Diseases:
Mental Disorders
Disordered
thinking /
feeling
Derived from
what we are
told
No Brain
Scan / No
Microbe
Third Generation: Addictions
If I stop behaviors(s)
no disease
Known by
behaviors they
describe
Disease =
compulsively seek
DOC
Convincing Ourselves the Impossible
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Mental problems as “diseases”
broadly accepted by 1950’s
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Mentally people are sick like those
suffering from sore throats…Medical
science knows neither specific
causes…nor specific ways of
preventing them (World Book Encyclopedia,
1961)
• Are we closer today?
Szasz, Foucault, Bateson, Laing
Presumed
disease
because
declared so
A problem does
exist – but it's
misunderstood
Medical Garb
Middle
Class
Morality
Control
behavior we
don’t like
Demand
conformity
Szasz, Foucault, Bateson, Laing: Explanations / Answers
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Family and the double bind
Community
Deep Understanding / Safety and Support
Spiritual Journey
Accountability
Taking responsibility
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Today for good and bad, greater public seduced by enthusiasm in
neurosciences.
No doubt great increased understanding of brain, which has
helped reduce suffering from 1st generation diseases…
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But why then have 1st and 2nd generation disease rates climbed?
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Why so many pills?
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Why are a great deal of “so called” addicts now dually diagnosed?
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It is obvious that medical and pharmaceutical breakthroughs for firstgeneration diseases have not been forthcoming in dealing with our
second and more noticeably 3rd generation diseases.
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Medical community has itself contributed to increase in
addiction?
AA Becomes Institutionalized
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Private fellowship now co-opted into mainstream medicine and
psychotherapy (1970s)
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Linchpin for services (widespread in U.S. and Canada)
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We become convinced (lay public) millions of people are in need of
services (just not acknowledging)
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Thus AA moved away from an anonymous program; one where law,
medicine and the like now coerce people into a one size fits all
approach.
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An approach that suggests once and alcoholic always an alcoholic
Diseasing of America
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AA/Medical view is popular and is being applied to every-kind of
behavioral problem
o
Gambling
o
Overeaters
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Compulsive shoppers
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Relationships addicts, love addicts, and sex addicts
o
Suffers from agoraphobia to severe anxiety to eating paint chips
o
ADCOA
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Depression
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PMS
o
Video Game Addicts
Can We Escape Being Diseased?
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Worse yet, disease according to its own
tenets - is biological in nature, and yet
sufferer(s) are told they are incurable!
Conclusions: Peele’s Final Stand
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Disease conceptions are bad science
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Biology is not behavior
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People’s belief that they have a disease makes it less likely that they will outgrow
the problem
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We also most guaranteeing relapse
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Lastly, the pseudo-medical and treatments of new diseases increasingly
determine our feelings, our self-concepts, and our world views – defining our
culture and who we are.
Draw Backs: Unpeeling Peele
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Let’s Chat!