The Mystique of Addiction

The meaning of addiction has been hotly debated among many researchers and practitioners in the mental health and substance abuse fields.  While many maintain that addiction has biological roots, others maintain that it is largely a psychosocial problem.  From a neuroscientific standpoint, certain brainwave patterns have been detected in the brains of those individuals who suffer from drug and/or alcohol addiction.  But are those brainwave patterns the result of psychological, social, and environmental causes, or were those brainwave patterns existent before the person developed an addiction?  This, indeed, is a perplexing question, and the ramifications of a response to this question are significant.  If addiction is biological in origin, then the pharmaceutical industry should be able to find the answer.  If addiction is largely a psychosocial problem, the problem is of such a complexity because there are so many factors that play a role in the psychosocial experience of an individual.  Unfortunately, we all know the adverse consequences addiction has on the individual's family, social, and work life.  But could these aspects of life be driving the individual's addiction?  After all, do not affected individuals say that life becomes so much easier after a drink or two or more?  How many times have we heard individuals say that they feel they need a drink because they feel they deserved it after a hard week?  These are all questions that must be answered on an individual basis, especially by those in recovery.