Addiction: Disease or Choice?

Dr. Somov grapples with the question as to whether addiction is a disease or a choice.  He summarizes his position by saying:

“The key humanistic challenge of recovery from substance use and other compulsive spectrum disorders is the Recovery of one’s Sense of Freedom to Choose, to act freely, to determine one’s behavior, and to control the controllable aspects of one’s life.”

This discussion keeps recurring it seems to me.  I have always wondered what is wrong with the position that addiction is a disease AND a choice.  Is it not useful to arrive at the position of:  “If I continue this behavior it will become out of control (as it has many times before), thus the correct course is to choose not to use and to pursue what I need to recover from my illness.”

Dr. Somov later states: “Open your mind to the possibility that you are not sick with an incurable disease – but just stuck in ineffective coping.”

I think this argument is a false dichotomy, but I would enjoy hearing the views of others…  I would tend to speculate that with addictions that have not had a chronic course, Dr. Somov’s approach may have merit.  Data would be useful in clarifying this, though.

iggydonnelly

A Conservative Sewer Clogged up with Feces of the Most Acrimonious kind

I used to refer to the blog that many of us came from as TBTSNBN (The Blog That Shall Not Be Named).  Today we are naming them.  Some of us still post over at that place, though I would say our visits there are less than in the past.  I am betting that it would not be difficult to identify who from here posts over there.  (It does amuse me how often those people miss on our dear Lilac).

The conservative posters at the WE Blog are pretty interesting folk.  One could not convince some of them that fire is hot, even after you set their pants on fire.  They’d respond, “that’s NOT my underwear going up in smoke and my pubic hair emitting cracking sounds, No!, by God!, that is some liberal lie!”

This blog is mostly unmoderated.  They have ‘bots that identify profanity, but these are not hard to work around.  It is the “Old West” in terms of lawless anonymous blogging.  An environment that attracts the most “honorable” of characters.

Conversing with people with whom one has no shared reference of reality can be fun for a little while.  For me, it grows old very fast.

Here’s the address:  http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/  “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter There” – apologies to Dante’

I think I have been reasonably fair and accurate about the “Blogging in Hell” experience, but  I’d love to hear comments from veterans of that campaign (and any incredulous others).  I anticipate fnord will remind me that I have met many people whom I’ve liked from that encounter – which is true.  “Sometimes there are some roses amongst the thorns” (copyright – iggydonnelley).

iggydonnelly

Tuesday, 09/22/09, Public Square

The September Equinox

On the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. This is true for both the fall and spring equinoxes. So on two days of the year you can find the exact cardinal directions of East and West by using the sun. The ancients did this when they set up their calendars at Stonehenge and the Mayan pyramid, among others.

The autumnal equinox for the northern hemisphere is the vernal equinox for the southern hemisphere.  This must mean our friend Loon is welcoming Spring!

fnord