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Able To Change Recovery :: Drug Addiction :: Facts and Figures
The Disease of Addiction
addiction and alcoholism are believed to be a learned behavior that is masking a person's emotional or physical pain. There are almost as many treatments as there are addicts and alcoholics.
Educate yourself before making any type of life-changing decison regarding alcoholism, addiction and substance abuse treatment.
The Disease of Addiction
1. THE DISEASE CAN BE DESCRIBED.
A disease can be described across a population. A symptomatology - a list of distinct characteristics of the disease is available, enabling us to recognize its presence and affects.
2.THE DISEASE IS PRIMARY
Rather than being a symptom of an underlying emotional or physical disorder, chemical dependency causes many such problems or aggravates those that already exist; and cannot be treated effectively unless the chemical dependency is treated FIRST.
3. THE DISEASE FOLLOWS A PREDICTABLE AND PROGRESSIVE COURSE.
Like many diseases chemical dependency symptoms run a predictable course, from onset to late stage. Unlike many diseases chemical dependency is also progressive. This means that left untreated the disease always gets WORSE. The disease affects all aspect's of the human condition; PHYSICAL, MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, AND SPIRITUAL.
4. THE DISEASE IS PERMANENT, OR CHRONIC.
Once a person becomes chemically dependent, they remain so for life. It is contracted like any other disease, and it never goes away. It can be arrested, as long as a person abstains from all mood and mind altering drugs. A single slip can precipitate a return to the active stages of the disease.
5. THE DISEASE IS FATAL.
A person whose disease is not arrested will eventually die from it, and die prematurely. On average the life span is 12 years shorter. Premature death may be PHYSICAL, (heart disease, liver disease, gastric intestinal disease and cancer.), ACCIDENTS, (car, boats, on the job, overdose), EMOTIONAL, (depression and related suicide, anger and related homicide).
6. THE DISEASE IS TREATABLE.
The disease is PRIMARY, PREDICTABLE, CHRONIC, PROGRESSIVE, and FATAL, but it is TREATABLE. Chemical dependency has a predictable response to a specific form of care. The proof is found in thousands of meetings of ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS with the recovering members. There is NO known cure for chemical dependency, but it can be arrested. RECOVERY is a PROCESS and a life long commitment, done one day at a time.
Alcoholic Anonymous.......an obsession of the mind and an allergy of the body.
American medical Association..........an illness characterized by significant impairment that is directly associated with persistent and excessive use of alcohol.
American Society of Addiction Medicine................Alcoholism is a primary, chronic, disease with genetic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by continuous OR periodic; impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the DRUG alcohol despite adverse consequences.
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