Kent Dunnington's Definition Of Addiction Essay

How does one define addiction? Is it a conscious choice in which the addict chooses to divulge in drugs, or is it a biological disease in which the addict has no choice in the matter at all and must take drugs as an involuntary necessity? Kent Dunnington tries to solve this discourse by denying the validity of both the disease method and the choice method by introducing a third choice, habit. He explains that addiction is a habit because habit “explains how the will can act consistently and successfully without being worn down by the weight of desire or tripped up by uncoordinated desires because habits qualify and coordinate desires (Dunnington, 61). His definition of habit as the true cause of addiction comes along with a rejection of both

These explanations validate Dunnington’s definition of addiction as a habit since it is a middle ground between disease and choice, involuntary and voluntary, but I believe the definition is none of the three.

Dunnington’s denial of disease and choice are stemmed from the aspects of each that better support his own beliefs in the definition of addiction. They do not however, encompass the entire idea of what each is respectively. Dunnington’s belief that a disease is defined as “a chronic physiological disorder and… it therefore can be most adequately treated through medical intervention” is based in falsified assumptions (Dunnington 24). His basis that addiction cannot be a disease because people can overcome addiction without the help of medication assumes that all diseases are cured through medications and that there is no scenario where a disease is cured through means other than medication. His

Jack London describes in John Barleycorn, his experiences with drinking by saying “…I discovered what a good stomach and strong head I had for drink--- a bit of knowledge that was to be a source of pride in succeeding years” (London 155). He drank and continued to drink as he explains because he felt pride in the action, felt pride in his ability to drink those older than him under the table and still maintain consciousness; this was his cause of addiction. On the other hand, In A Bartender Tells What Man Did to Booze, and Booze to Man, the second hand experience of why a bartender, who sees people drink all day everyday, describes why he believes people drink. His answer is “it was for the alcohol alone, what it did to them, that men drink” (Anonymous, 119). This bartender witnessed young men go form timid to brave, watched the quiet speak volumes all under the influence of alcohol. It was because of these traits, these lacking characteristics that only alcohol could grant that made men drink in the eyes of the bartender. This idea that addiction stems form the ability of granting the characteristics people long for is further solidified in Confessions of an Opium- Eater, by Thomas De Quincey, who says “Thus I have shown