Rational Choice
Published by Rick on Monday, August 11, 2008.
The classical definition of drug addiction is a recurring psychiatric or medical compulsion to use particular drugs despite harmful consequences to the individual’s health, mental state or social life.
An alternative view denies that addiction is a psychiatric or medical problem at all, but one of rational choice that any rational adult would make if presented with the available alternatives. Normally, these choices are of stopping and feeling indescribably ill for several days, or repeating a drug induced wondrous euphoria and putting off the decision to stop for a few hours. Given these two alternatives the rational decision is to choose the euphoria.
People take drugs, not because of the pharmacology of the drug, but because they want to and because it makes sense for them to do so given the choices available. Consequently, the declaration, “I am addicted to drugs” is a functional statement, rather than a diagnosis.
An alternative view denies that addiction is a psychiatric or medical problem at all, but one of rational choice that any rational adult would make if presented with the available alternatives. Normally, these choices are of stopping and feeling indescribably ill for several days, or repeating a drug induced wondrous euphoria and putting off the decision to stop for a few hours. Given these two alternatives the rational decision is to choose the euphoria.
People take drugs, not because of the pharmacology of the drug, but because they want to and because it makes sense for them to do so given the choices available. Consequently, the declaration, “I am addicted to drugs” is a functional statement, rather than a diagnosis.
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