Addiction is ranked “among the most inheritable of mental disease” (Wallis). According to Webster dictionary addiction is the chronic and compulsive dependence on a substance such as alcohol, drugs, or nicotine. There are also other kinds of addictions that involve behaviors such as self mutilation. According to an article titled “Addiction”; scientist have discovered that most addicts became addicts because they have moral failures, and then were blamed for their own conditions. Becoming addicted to something can happen at any time and to anyone. One thing can push anyone over the edged. Advances in neuroscience have improved the understanding that addiction is a brain disease. Addiction is currently recognized as a disease. But the issue of whether it is actually a disease is still being debated among millions of people.

A major organ of addiction is the brain. The brain is structured to make sure that individuals repeat the behaviors necessary to survival and well being. The brain associates the behaviors with a “reward,” with the feelings of being satisfied or being filled with pleasure. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that is most closely associated with the “reward system.” This chemical is a neurotransmitter that sends message cells from or to the body from the body. When the dopamine is released into the brain, the levels of the “addictive substance or object” are so high the brain over flowed with the chemical. So when an addict is smoking, drinking, using drug or the thing that they are addicted to, their dopamine levels are extremely high, providing them with instant comfort. Therefore the user would want to stay comfortable for as long as possible. After using the substance for a certain period of time the brain then becomes use to feeling normal when the dopamine levels are really high. And that’s where the addiction to the substance or substances comes in. The addict’s tolerance becomes heighted. They begin to feel lifeless and depressed when they aren’t high, drunk or something to do with other addictions out there in the world.

There are many types of addiction in the world. The most common addictions are alcohol addiction, drug addiction and tobacco addiction. Alcohol addiction is when a person feels the need to drink anything that has the chemical makeup of alcohol. The substances that have alcohol could be beer, rum, and so on. When a person is addicted to tobacco they tend to smoke cigarettes, cigars, chewing products. Tobacco is a plant that gives the smoking or chewing products their flavor which is the main part of the addiction. Drug addicts are people who find it necessary to shoot up, inhale, smoke, or take a drug orally. Some common drugs are Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, Crack Cocaine and Methamphetamine.

People make millions of choices in their lifetime. And when it comes to doing something that “you could potentially become addicted to be completely your choice” (Netherton). “You have a choice, a choice to do something stupid repeatedly or to even start doing something at all” (Netherton). Each individual person has a decision making process in their brain, that begins in the frontal lobe and extends out to the rest of the brain; combined to make a full decision mechanism. How you train it to react is completely up to you. Dale Netherton says that “you can train it by learning and following the good rules in life (Netherton); or “you can train it to learn by the bad rules in life” (Netherton). Your brain is your own; you teach it the way you want to. The brain does not have a mind of its own; it just helps you with the process of doing things you want it to. People often the words “I can’t help how I think!” when in fact you do. Making that statement only declares that you don’t have control over your life (Netherton).

The debate on whether addiction is a disease is completely based upon your decision. There have been over hundreds of experiments to determine whether