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What is the clinical difference between a disease and a sickness?

What's the difference between addiction and disease?

  • Specifically, I’m talking about alcohol and drugs. An alcoholic is said to have a disease. People who have problems with illicit drugs like cocaine, marijuana, heroin, etc, and even legal drugs like pain killers are said to be addicts. What’s the difference? Isn’t alcoholism a form of chemical dependency (addiction). Why is illicit drug dependency not seen as a disease? Is the difference because alcohol is socially acceptable? I submit that an alcoholic is an addict and not necessarily diseased, though liver disease may be present or coming.

  • Answer:

    Terry, be patient with me, I am getting to my point in all caps below but I wanted to put some of this other info in also that I researched. If alcoholism is a disease (and it classified as a disease as you know), it must be a mental illness. The mentally ill often deny they are ill and the first identification of a mental illness is often when others notice that the afflicted person is behaving in unconventional, bizarre or self-destructive ways. Like other mental illnesses, there is no blood or urine test for alcoholism. There is no physical marker the healer can look for to identify the disease. All the signs are behavioral. There are blood and urine tests for other drugs. I can't find anything where there is something in alcohol that causes you to become addicted like say cocaine or nicotine, etc. Wow, the more I search the more unanswered questions! MAYBE IT IS BECAUSE THEY CANNOT PIN POINT WHAT THE ADDICITON FACTOR ITSELF IS (OR WHAT CHEMICAL CAUSES THE ADDICTION) WITHIN THE ALCOHOL SO THEY CALL IT A DISEASE??? AND THEY CAN PIN POINT WHAT THE ADDICTION FACTORS (OR WHAT CHEMICAL THAT CAUSES THE ADDICTION) WITH OTHER DRUGS LIKE COCAINE, HEROIN, NICOTINE ETC, SO THEY CALL THAT AN ADDICITON AND NOT A DISEASE???? This is my personal opinion, I cannot find any information to back this up, but to me it makes some sense. It is a disease because it has been declared to be so by the very ones who profess to have the cure for the disease. Actually, they don’t have a “cure.” They have a remedy. Again, not a black and white answer, I wish I knew definitely for sure also. Oh well, I/we tried. http://skepdic.com/sat.html http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030401/1529.html

Terry S at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Other answers

an addiction is optional! a disease just happens! forexample, alcohol! it is your choice to drink and the flu! you can prevent the flu, but sometimes, it just happens!

monte j

All substance abuse stems from feelings of dissatisfaction with one's self and fear of the world around you...drugs or booze...same ****, different pile...I type from my own addicted experience....rwfm

rwfm

They can treat a disease with medication,but an addiction can only get better with time off of the drug and not using it again ever. I stopped smoking cigs 2 yrs ago,I have not smoked a one since but sometimes I still have the urge to smoke. I always get my mind on something else and soon the urge will pass. So I sometimes wonder if the urge to smoke will ever pass.

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