Is Drug Addiction A Disease Or A Choice Essay

Trying to decide my feelings on whether or not drug addiction is a disease or a choice is complicated. There are so many different opinions surrounding this argument it is to feel overwhelmed with the information. My feelings surrounding the topic get even further clouded because of a personal situation. When you’re close to the situation it becomes harder to be objective. My cousin was 34 when he died due to a heroin overdose. He was found in his bathroom by his wife. I remember the events leading up to that night so well. It was just before Thanksgiving when we got a call from his wife, she had gotten a call from the police that my cousin had had a seizure and was being taken to the hospital; he had taken their only car and she needed a ride. My parents picked up her and the kids – the kids stayed with me while they went to look for the impounded car. After they tracked it down, they brought it back to our place to clean out the

We watched him go from a hard working family man to someone who stole from his parent’s business and left his family without money for even the most basic things. If addiction is a complete choice I cannot imagine how he could choose to spiral so out of control. I don’t know how he could keep going even after his wife told him couldn’t be trusted with the children anymore – his kids were his world. Those things make it so hard for me to say addiction is a choice – something you can choose to start and choose to stop so easily. I have a much easier viewing drug addiction as a kind of continuum type of situation – sure people may choose to do something that leads them to starting drugs, but once you reach a certain level of dependence it becomes more of a disease. Just like poor choices lead heart disease, poor choices lead to drug use. Both are maintained by those poor choices until getting help. Basically, at this point in the semester I feel that choices lead to a