Why Addiction is Not a Disease
by Marc Lewis
I listened to this book and found it very thought-provoking. He reviews some of the historical research on addiction and treatments, showing how it doesn't really fit into the disease model that the medical profession has tried to cram it into. Treating it as a medical condition is helpful in getting people into treatment, and sometimes helps with the insurance coverage. But in most ways, it just doesn't act like a disease. For one thing, a surprising percentage of people recover without treatment. For another, saying that changes in the brain observed in addicts "proves" the disease model--but the brain changes all the time, for all kind of reasons. But he talks about a lot more.
Although highly technical and backed by a lifetime of research, the book is styled as a series of about six life histories told by various recovering addicts. Although he notes several times why the word "recovering" is maybe not a good way to describe them. He talks about prescription drug abuse, Heroin abuse, and alcohol, of course, but also takes a detour into anorexia, showing how it both does and doesn't match the same patterns as the others.
After presenting the first half of each life history, he steps aside to discuss topics demonstrated or discovered by the case. But he always returns to satisfy the reader with how it ended up.
No comments:
Post a Comment