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  • Essay / Addiction is a Disease - 1513

    Addiction is a DiseaseSpecific Objective: To educate my audience about how addiction works in the brain, how it relates to survival, why some people are more vulnerable to addiction than others. others and why addiction should be treated like a disease. Central Idea: There are distinctly underactive areas in an addict's brain that cause a need to "self-medicate" to feel normal. By definition, a disease is any abnormality relating to the dysfunction of a specific organ. Addiction is created in the “central brain,” which has no free will, giving the addict very little choice in deciding what constitutes rational and irrational behavior. Addiction is therefore a disease. The most affected areas in the brain of addicts are the (1) prefrontal cortex region, the (2) and the central brain. The midbrain is responsible for memory and learning, so it is in the midbrain that addiction is created. The areas mentioned above are underactive when sober, but when the addict "uses" these regions of the brain are stimulated and flooded with massive amounts of dopamine and serotonin, creating an instinctive "reward system." Unfortunately, because the drug increases dopamine to an abnormally high level. At different levels, the addict discovers that the only way to achieve balance is to continue using the drug. This changes the hierarchy of important survival needs that release dopamine, like food, water, sex, the mid-brain is literally telling the addict that they need the drug to survive more than anything else. Drug addicts seem extremely selfish, destructive, and looked down upon by society. Maybe you know someone who acts the same way. They steal, cheat, lie and worse. But a huge misconception is that this behavior is a choice, ...... middle of paper ......ortex3. First published December 12, 2011, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.111957CMAJ February 7, 2012 vol. 184 no. 2 155 » Full textVI. Full text (PDF)VII. All versions of this article: VIII. cmaj.111957v1Thursday, April 22, 2010Kevin mccauley: unwoven pleasure: a new look at the pathological model of addiction 2. Grant Collins: acupuncture 3. Beth Rutkowski, promoting awareness of motivational incentives 4.caade.org/Schedule%20of% 20Speakers%203-30-10.pdf | Open pdf document| MoreAlso on pageIX. Thursday April 22, 2010 Registration and registration 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PRE-CONFERENCE 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (up to 5 CEUs) 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.: Training of clinical supervisors (Lynn Delvaux)(Free lunch from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.) - OR - 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. - - Emotional intelligence: taming your anger (Dr Steve Wolf) (2 CEU) Free lunch from 12:00 p.m. to 1: .5.