Is Drug Addiction a Choice?

Many people today debate whether people choose to suffer addiction or if this condition is a legitimate disease. So is drug addiction a choice? Or does modern science prove disease causes addiction?

Past Beliefs about Addiction

In the past, Americans and people throughout the world believed addiction was a choice. That is, you choose to push your drinking or drug abuse too far. This way of thinking promotes the description of substance use disorder as a “habit.” Under the claims of being a habit, this assigns further claims like that of addiction being a character flaw.

Treatment long focused on breaking the habit of addiction. But to get into rehab at all, many also claimed you needed to hit rock bottom. This idea of rock bottom exists because people believed that desperation helped to break the bad habit.

Is Drug Addiction a Choice?

So is drug addiction a choice? Is the old belief of a “habit” correct, as an explanation for substance abuse and addiction? Actually, no. Drug addiction is not a choice, nor is it a habit or character flaw. No one decides to put themselves on the road to addiction.

Instead, some people experience greater vulnerability to becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol. They develop the disease after extended substance abuse. According to scientific evidence, addiction is a disease starting early in drinking or drug use. It is a condition that advances gradually.

But the choice model of addiction exists because many people believe addiction is not the same as other chronic, relapsing diseases. They think that addiction takes place because you made a choice to drink or use drugs. Most still see you did not choose to suffer ultimate addiction, but your choices put you on that path.

The choice model of addiction considers your thought processes that led to your disorder. This model examines how you learned to “cope” by drinking or using drugs, likely from someone in your household. This learned behavior works with environmental factors like poverty, to put you into a mindset of choosing to abuse drugs.

Getting the Help You Need

Regardless of how you answer that question of, “Is drug addiction a choice,” you can choose to gain recovery. By entering rehab treatment, you learn how and why your disease of addiction began. You use this insight to develop coping skills and relapse prevention skills for a better life in lasting recovery.

Important rehab treatments, therapies, and programs include:

• Medically supervised detox
• Inpatient, IOP, PHP and OP programs
• Aftercare, extended care, and sober living
• Holistic healing methods, such as art, music, fitness, and mindfulness
• Behavioral therapies, including CBT, DBT, and EMDR

Beaches Recovery is an addiction treatment center in Jacksonville FL that provides all of these crucial therapies and treatments. At Beaches, you learn your own answer to the question, “Is drug addiction a choice?” You also learn recovery is your personal choice, one you make for better days ahead. Call Beaches Recovery now at 866.605.0532.