Jennifer Faulkner
English 101
Dr. Leslie
29, March 2015

Addiction is interesting and important because that is what I am majoring in and I am very passionate about it. Addiction has touched my life in one way or another since childhood via friends and family, after seeing the devastation it causes I vowed to myself that I would try to help those people instead of turning my nose at them. Try to understand what they are going through. A good definition for addiction is; a total loss of control over normal daily functions, no longer able to maintain relationships personal or professional and morals go away as if they never existed. Maybe addiction starts out as a choice in the beginning usually related to some type of trauma or undeveloped emotional state; it doesn’t stay a choice for long and turns into a want, need and obsession that is a flaw in the brain just as any other type of mental illness or disease. So that is what will be discussed addiction is a disease/syndrome, it is not a moral failing and also what it feels like to be a family member of an addict and how we as a society need to find more available treatments and treatment centers for these people to seek help. Addiction has long been viewed as a choice and not a disease, we are finding now that it is a very powerful disease process with a very high mortality rate. Addiction is more than just a bad behavior; it’s a chronic brain disorder, according to a new definition released this week by the (American Society of Addiction Medicine). “At its core addiction isn’t just a social problem, or moral or criminal problem it’s a brain problem” (American Society of Addiction Medicine Aug 17th 2011 Elizabeth Stuart Deseret News). For many years a lot of people believed that addiction was a choice so why don’t they just stop? Thankfully a lot of open minds and great research have found that just is not the case, nobody wants to be a heroin addict or anything like it, there is an under lying issue they are trying to mask and prevent from causing them pain. A moral failure? The traditional view of addiction, and one that still holds considerable sway, is that addiction is a moral failing, a failure of the addict to muster up the willpower to cease destructive behavior ( The Vancouver Sun March 31st 2009 pg.A8) In a addicts family the roles they take on are very noticeable and a way to protect themselves. After reading this next article I was in tears, so very powerful and so typical of what the family goes through. “I question if you have ever thought about it at all, the hell you’ve put our family through, or whether you have ever felt genuinely bad. I’ve started to believe that the pain that comes from your heroin abuse is only on us, not you. As naïve as it may sound all you suffer from is the urge everything else were forced to deal with (This is What It Feels Like to Be An Addicts Sister, Nikki Murray ) Even though I am trying my best to help and support addicts, never discount the way that the family feels after years of lies, theft and sadness. This is never an easy road to travel, the hope that things are turning around a little is promising as far as research and opinions. “I find myself mad and angry that I still care. Love certainly isn’t enough for you to give up this death ridden lifestyle you chose (This is what it’s Like to Be an Addicts Sister, Nikki Murray). I can only hope that families can find comfort in knowing that it is never their lack of love for the addict, or the addict for the family but it’s a disease that has to be treated by a professional. Treatment is now and always will be the most trying part in the process because the lack of available centers and then the lack of money to