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In the United States, people with substance use disorders are often blamed for their disease, which is often seen as a moral failing, due to a lack of public understanding about substance use disorders being diseases of the brain with 40-60% heritability.
Chemistry, not moral failing, accounts for the brain’s unwinding. In the laboratories that study drug addiction, researchers have found that the brain becomes conditioned by the repeated dopamine rush caused by heroin. “The brain is not designed to handle it,” said Dr. Ruben Baler, a scientist with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
A way to destigmatize substance use disorders and shift public perception from viewing them as a moral failing to understanding them as a chronic medical condition which requires treatment. Provide those who are struggling with addiction assurance and encouragement of healing, and let them know that they are not alone in their struggle.
Throughout history, addiction has largely been seen as a moral failing or character flaw, as opposed to an issue of public health. [54] [55] [56] Substance use has been found to be more stigmatized than smoking, obesity, and mental illness.
Showing that a medication can help someone stop taking drugs makes it easier to communicate this and helps people to understand that addiction is a mental health disorder, not a moral failing ...
The stigma surrounding addiction can heavily influence opioid addicts not to seek help. Many people view addiction as a moral failing rather than a medical condition, which can lead to feelings of shame and isolation. This stigma can also affect family members, making it difficult for them to support their loved ones effectively. [178]
Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has developed within the individual from psychoactive substance consumption that results in the experience of withdrawal and that necessitates the re-consumption ...
An addiction is, by definition, a form of compulsion, and involves operant reinforcement. For example, dopamine is released in the brain's reward system and is a motive for behaviour (i.e. the compulsions in addiction development through positive reinforcement). [19] There are two main differences between compulsion and addiction.