Addictions

The debate about whether drug abuse is a choice or a disease has been ongoing for decades. The stigma attached to that debate and to addiction itself, often keeps people from getting help for themselves or their loved ones. This shouldn’t be the case.

At GH Recovery Solutions we accept the findings listed in the DSMV, a manual that describes disorders and conditions for diagnostic purposes, that conclude addiction is a disease and it can be treated.

The American Medical Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine classify addiction as a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive use of mind or mood-altering substances despite harmful consequences to the suffering individual and to those around.

Scientists have yet to fully explain the physical causes of addiction. Addicts tend to have desensitized reward circuits in the brain, higher conditioned responses to specific substances and lowered decision making and self-regulation functions in respective brain regions.

Now that scientists have identified specific regions of the brain that impact addiction, they are able to conduct more focused research on addiction causes and addiction prevention.

Taking that first drink or using a drug for the first time is a choice. What ensues is an affected brain can remove the ability to choose whether to continue or stop. At that point the use of alcohol or the drug ceases to be a choice and becomes a brain disease.

It is somewhat akin to a cigarette smoker who develops lung cancer or an unhealthy eater who develops diabetes. Yes, the original choices to smoke and eat poorly may have led to the condition, but that doesn’t mean we don’t treat that condition.

We can help

GH Recovery Solutions can help individuals struggling with addiction manage their condition and avoid relapses. We allow you to build a new life focused on sobriety and recovery by providing peer group support and help from expert professionals in the field. You will find inspiration to launch the recovery process and make sobriety a way of life.

Please contact GH Recovery Solutions today for yourself or a loved one seeking long-term recovery from addiction. Call us at (888) 345-2025.