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Is drug addiction a disease?

One question asked many times by drug addicted individuals is, "Is chemical addiction really a disease?" The answer to this question is, "Yes it is, very much so." Before going any further, lets break down the word disease. It is formed of two words, dis meaning "away from" and ease meaning "comfort". Research has suggested that it is also a "mental illness". When you combine these two definitions, we have drug addiction as a "disease of the mind". It is also a sin. Some say that chemical addiction is only a sin problem.

Sin encompasses the world today, and has ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Sin manifests itself in many different ways. I do not believe drug abuse is a sin problem only. I do however, believe it is a sin problem which manifests it self in the form of a mental disease. A mental disease that must be dealt with accordingly.

In my years as a active drug addict I was involved in church, and it alone was not enough to keep me from using. It was not until I began going to programs like Celebrate Recovery, Christians in Recovery, and Narcotics Anonymous that I began to get a handle on my sobriety. I was an addict who needed God and steps in order to have success in sobriety. Now, I am not saying God couldn't do it for me alone, I am saying that God introduced me to steps in order to help me with my recovery. I believe God is the strongest agent in recovery and have even found that AA was originally to be named the James Club as they used the entire book of James, the Sermon on Mount, (Matthew 5) and 1Cor. 13 as their foundation for recovery.

Chemical Addiction is a disease that will kill you - and not just physically, but spiritually, mentally and emotionally. I don't think one will ever be able to say, "I am no longer and addict" because addiction is a fire that burns within us. Over time the flame may get smaller and smaller but it will always be there, and if you use again it will make that flame grow. I do believe God can, and will take the desire to use away from you, but never forget, we still posses free will. God did not make us robots, he made us free so that if we come to serve Him we do so out of our love for Him.

In closing, I will say I thank God daily for never letting go of me while I was in active addiction. I also thank him for replacing my desire to use drugs with a desire to help others recover from the disease of addiction.

God Bless,
Kenneth Michael Cundiff
The Exodus Project - Recovery Director

 

For more information on the disease of drug addiction see:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/treatment.html

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/278/5335/45

http://www.drugfree.org/intervention/wherestart/understanding_addiction