RE71: Alcoholism and Addiction is a Disease and I Shouldn't Still be Talking About it.

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Kevin, in remission for 13 years, shares his story and why he created We Face it Together.

Here are some of the bullet points Paul discusses in the podcast today. This information comes from Learn About the Disease on the We Face it Together website.

This disease is complicated because it’s physical, mental, biological, environmental, physiological, social and spiritual.
23 million Americans suffer from addiction. 90% don’t get the treatment they need leaving 20.7 million Americans living with untreated addiction.
100 million Americans have serious health issues due to addiction. This is the nations and the worlds number 1 public health issue.
Addiction sufferers are not bad people who need to get good. They’re sick people who need to get well.
It is an illness that causes lasting changes in brain function that are hard to reverse.
Research points to structural and functional differences in the brain and to genetic factors that may predispose some individuals to this disease.
In nature, rewards usually only come with effort and after a delay. But addictive substances shortcut this process and flood the brain with dopamine.
When the disease takes hold, these changes in the brain erode a person’s self-control and ability to make sound decisions, while sending highly intense impulses to take drugs. Taking drugs becomes a matter of survival.
Someone who is sick with this disease will engage in risky and dangerous behaviors despite serious consequences because of these profound changes in the brain.
“…addiction is not about drugs, it’s about brains. It is not the substances a person uses…; it is not even the quantity or frequency of use. Addiction is about what happens in a person’s brain when they are exposed to rewarding substances or rewarding behaviors, and it is more about reward circuitry in the brain and related brain structures than it is about the external chemicals or behavior that “turn on” that reward circuitry.” –American Psychiatric Association
^Sources:^{The Addicted Brain (Harvard Health Publications),} ^{Understanding Addiction (National Institute on Drug Abuse),}^{Drugs, Brains and Behavior: The Science of Addiction (National Institute on Drug Abuse)}