Is drug addiction a type of mental illness?

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Well, drugs and then their absence literally cause chemical imbalances in the brain. It's arguably more a mental illness than any social neurosis.

I think addiction is a type of mental illness. It's basically the perversion of the reward chemistry normally used for survival instincts. The drug/activity becomes more important than survival--a misprioritization.

OTOH, I think you could say that survival is no longer what our instincts are going after. Just staying alive doesn't cut it anymore. Making an ideological impact is the new way to go.

And it always was, really, it's just that surviving isn't so directly tied to making an impact anymore.

If you're talking about the current Heroin epidemic, that's just China getting back at the West for the Opium wars. All of the fentanyl that's cutting Mexican heroin and showing up in the US is coming from China. As a public health crisis, it's definitely more along the lines of mental illness-by-poisoning than just plain mental illness.

Although, to digress again, perhaps all mental illness is a form of poisoning, either through corrupt experience or corrupt consumption.

Yes. ALL addictions are mental illness. They represent a distortion of priorities which is pathological in that it is destructive to the person who has them.

nah, quite the opposite mate. Our society is so fucked up, its no wonder sensitive, sensible people need chemicals to cope with the craziness.

I'd say being well adjusted to such a sick society is a mental illness:
>Working long hours yet you can't afford a house.
>Get sick, go bankrupt.
>Try and be nice to girls for them to shit on you and go chase after Chad.
>Ingest more chemicals in a day through processed supermarket food than a 3rd world farmer does all year.
>sit hunched over a keyboard for hours on end with no human contact
>get to vote between a conman and a psychopath

I'll take the 'drugs' please, thank u very much.

Is mayonnaise an addiction?

Anyone who tries addictive drugs made a choice bottom line

>I'd say being well adjusted to such a sick society is a mental illness:

i'd have to concede the point.

WAIT A COTTON PICKIN' SECOND!!.....

so, you're saying that anyone who chose to try drugs... made a... choice??

THAT is fucking PROFOUND, man!!!!!!

tell me, what choices have YOU made, to acquire such incisive reasoning abilities?

If your asking this then you have serious mental illness

how do you know?? maybe he's just an addict.

Yes because its your brain reprogramming itself to only produce dopamine when you get the drug.

cocaine is literally only addictive the same day

if you wake up, you're okay - even if you use it every single day

Is (You) addiction a mental illness?

Yes. I am addicted to marijuana and it's ruining my relationships with those around me. Send help.

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wow... marijuana addiction, huh? that's a tough one.

luckily, there is an Australian who is willing to help.

youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y

so whats the cure for this "addiction"

Willpower.

the cure from addiction - from a strictly psychological point of view - is either or to stop the subconscious program that is running in the background, so to speak. hypnosis is the obvious and best way to bypass the conscious, critical factor of the mind and deliver a message to the subconscious. self-hypnosis is remarkably easy, though it takes a bit of practice. (use bittorrent to find Dr Lloyd Glauberman's HPP stuff. personally i find his method to be EXTREMELY effective at inducing trance. and talk to your subconscious mind beforehand about now being clean, free, etc. avoid statements made in the negative, e.g. "i will no use anymore")

from a physical point of view, most addictions - especially opiate - can be dealt with rather easily, by the administration of chronic, repeated, high doses of sodium ascorbate. (search for "The Hypoascorbemia-Kwashiorkor Approach To Drug Addiction Therapy," and "The Attenuation Of Heroin Withdrawal Syndrome By The Administration Of High-Dose Vitamin C". though aimed at opiate addiction, this will work for all drug addictions.)

of course, these should be used in tandem, taking a holistic mind/body approach.

>"i will no use anymore"

should be:

"i will NOT use anymore"