addictions? - Democratic Underground

northamericancitizen

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Sun Feb-20-05 06:35 PM
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addictions?

compulsive gambler

alcoolic

ex-cocaine addict

dexedrine

Is addiction a mental illness or auto-medication?

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steve2470

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Sun Feb-20-05 09:10 PM
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1. IMO it's a form of mental illness and also self-medicating nt

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Droopy

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Sun Feb-20-05 10:01 PM
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2. Many people

are addicts because they are mentally ill. They self medicate with street drugs and alcohol. But not all addicts started out self medicating because of mental illness. A lot of them started using drugs as a part of having a good time. I think that addiction is caused by a personality disorder, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

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rockedthevoteinMA

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Mon Feb-21-05 01:03 AM
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3. That's like a which came first the chicken or the egg

type of question. I think addiction is a mental illness, but I also think it's used for many as a form of self medication.

I read this great book called the "Heart of Addiction" by Lance Dodes.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060958030/qid=1108965605/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-0476183-7085556?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
He is from Harvard, and he studies addiction/psych. He talks about how addiction stems from emotional helplessness, and that we need to address that first, and on an individual basis.

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