Is it a Disease?

I recently had a young teen ask me in session, “Do you think addiction is a disease?” A conversation ensued, and at the end of it a great exchange of ideas and processing had occurred. I obtained permission to share his question with the masses, client identifying information excluded of course.

His question was one I’ve gotten before, mostly from teens who tend to be more curious and open to hearing different views.

“Do you think addiction is a disease?”

Whenever I am posed this question, I often give careful thought as to how my response might impact the person asking it.

If I say I do believe it is a disease, for example, the person may lose all hope that their loved one or they themselves can recover since disease is sometimes thought of as ending in only one possible terminal outcome.

If I say I do not believe it is a disease, the person might then experience more self-blame, or anger towards a loved one for “choosing” it.

If I refrain from answering at all, a level of trust can be breached as my guardedness then changes the energy in the therapeutic alliance.

The truth is it doesn’t matter what I believe. What matters is what my client believes.

Still, I feel pressured to have an authentic answer whenever this particular question is posed.

As I’ve pondered it over the years, I've oscillated in how I've responded until arriving at what I now consider to be my most authentic, honest response I can give to the question of "Is it a disease?" and that is this: why does it matter?

Why does it matter if it is, or it isn't?

Is the impact of addiction on a person’s life any less significant if it is, or isn’t, a disease?

Does it hurt any less watching a loved one suffer, if it is, or isn’t, a disease?

Do consequences go away? Is the destruction it causes any less severe if it is, or isn’t, a disease?

If you’ve lost a loved one to addiction, is it less painful to bare if you viewed it, or didn't view it, as a disease?

However you wish to conceptualize substance abuse, it results in the same suffering.

And so for me, I’m not terribly interested in asserting my stance on whether I believe addiction is, or isn’t, a disease.

What I’d like to spend my time on is figuring out how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Prevention is where I believe our power lies.

Helping people, kids especially, to never start.

How do we prevent kids from starting in the first place? This, in my opinion, is the more helpful question to be asking.

Ok then.

Out.