Among addiction experts and researchers, there’s been a long-running debate as to whether drug or alcohol addiction, and even “behavioral addictions” such as compulsive gambling, are actual diseases or not. It’s not just a matter of semantics — if researchers can trace addiction’s root causes to an actual medical malfunction in the brain, perhaps that disease could be directly treated.
Who am I to disagree with a “four-year process with more than 80 experts actively working on it?”
Their result? Addiction is a “chronic brain disorder and not simply a behavioral problem.”
I suppose if we wanted, one could argue that all mental disorders can be viewed as “brain disorders” and not “simply behavioral problems.” After all, where does thinking and emotions come from, if not the brain?
But does this change anything? Does it help us in really getting to the heart of addiction? I’m not so sure.