Crystal Perales
ENGL 1302
March 8, 2018
Addiction as a Disorder of Choice that Develops into a Brain Disease
I believe that addiction is a disorder of choice in which then develops into a brain disease. It is a disorder of choice because you voluntarily choose to do drugs and continue to do them, knowing that it can lead to addiction. It then develops into a brain disease because you make your brain become drug dependent.
Heyman and Satel argue that, “the biological component of addiction is the result of incremental choices that were voluntarily made but led to “drug induced brain change.”” The main reason I believe that addiction is a disorder of choice is because you voluntarily choose to use drugs, alcohol, etc.… knowing the risk of becoming addicted. As stated by the current director of NIDA, “I have never come across a single drug-addicted person who told me [he or she] wanted to be addicted.” (Heyman) Nobody wants to become dependent on drugs, it is the addicts’ choice to continue to use. I strongly believe that addiction is a behavior. Unlike someone not having control over Alzheimer’s disease, an addict can choose to have control over their addiction by getting help like going to AA meetings. Philosopher Daniel Shapiro of West Virginia University says, “You can examine pictures of brains all day, but you’d never call anyone an addict unless he acted like one.” (Scoblic and Scoblic)Although every behavior has a biological correlate, it is not whether brain change occurs, it is these changes block any influence to the factors that support self-control.
Addiction develops into a brain disease by triggering “intracellular biochemical events that eventually modify brain circuits t...
