Summary Of Addiction Is Not A Disease By Michael Craig Miller

Superior Essays
Lydia Chakalos
Professor J. Hughes
English 120
16 October 2016
Rough Draft of Pro/ Con Essay The topic, addiction, is very stigmatized. In the article, “Addiction Is Not A Disease” By Gene M. Heyman, he takes the opposing side of Michael Craig Miller’s, “Addiction Is A Brain Disease”. Heyman’s article concludes his beliefs on how addiction is not a disease. He writes about his opinion on why he believes such, and sometimes backs up his claims. Miller believes that addiction is in fact a mental disorder. The article, “Addiction Is a Brain Disease”, is by Michael Craig Miller, who is an editor in chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. Miller believes that addiction is not a shortcoming of your character, yet it is something wrong with
…show more content…
For instance, he goes into detail when he talks about dopamine in the brain when using drugs such as heroin. He understands that addiction is all in your head, and it isn’t a decision you willingly make. Miller had researchers from Harvard helping him expand his research and his knowledge on the subject, so this is a very credible article. Miller also states that not only the neurotransmitter, Dopamine, is released when on drugs, but also others. Naltrexone is brought up in the article, and how the drug works to reduce the use of heroin. He also mentions another drug that’s called Acamprosate and adds that it aids in reducing the craving of drugs. His mention of the drugs and how they work gives the author credibility. His research is precise and to the point. There aren’t any comments implying the author’s opinions or …show more content…
Heyman, although a doctor, doesn’t necessarily meet all the requirements of being a completely credible source. He uses phrases such as, “My hunch”, implying that that is his opinion. If you’re using an opinion in a factual article, that defeats the point of being factual. He also uses statistics in his article, but doesn’t conclude where those statistics came from. He states that he did research on whether addicts are usually long-term users and if anything helps them stop using drugs. He doesn’t include how many people he researched on. His results may not be as accurate since he is potentially working with such a small group of addicts. A small number of people cannot be credited toward all addicts

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    As some people develop addictions to drugs, and not others, it’s interesting to think about why. Robinson and Berridge go into many complex neurological explanations for this issue, mainly involving animals, but that can, however, carry over into humans. Why certain people can start taking an addictive drug and stop when they so choose, and why others cannot, is interesting to think about. As no two people are the same, there’s obviously not a single, distinctive way to determine a definite cause. It is interesting that both negative and positive reinforcement had been considered as possible descriptions for drug addictions, as they would appear to be opposites.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    arc Lewis, a developed neuroscientist, was once an addict himself. At certain points in his life he had addictions to cough medicine, alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, LSD, heroin, nitrous oxide, and forms of opium, so with good reason, the topic of addiction, its definition, and its causes are very personal and dear to his heart. Lewis’s biggest point he wanted to share during his talk was that addiction is not a disease, not a person with wrongful morals, and not a dichotomy. In the rest of his speech, Lewis shares his reasoning for his claim, comparing his work with the work and speeches of the other Nobel Conference speakers, in attempt to shed light on the many differences and similarities of their works. Addiction is not a disease.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The main goal for Alcabes is to get his audience to think about the truth behind our nation’s dependence on medication. By providing powerful evidence regarding drug use in the United States, he is able to deliver logical reasoning behind his…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Addiction: one’s inability to control the need/use of a substance in which they soon become reliant on. In Robert Louis Stevenson's’ book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it shows an outside perspective on how addiction affects others and the duality of good and evil. Addiction is a hard thing for someone to come to terms with and realize it is evident in their own life, it affects others more than one can think. There are 4 stages of addiction, Drug Experimentation, Regular Use, Problem use/Risky Use and Addiction (Chemical Dependency). In the book Dr. Jekyll experiences all of these, in the beginning of his story he says, “But the temptations of a discovery...at last overcame my suggestions or alarm...…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    However, as we learn more about the science of addiction, the disease model takes a firmer hold as the correct model. It is a model I firmly believe in, both from my readings and my clinical experience. Another model is that addiction is narcissism. The need to get “high” is a means to reduce the insecurity that…

    • 2077 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Addiction is not a disease. This is something Marc Lewis touches on frequently in his talk during the last day of the Nobel Conference. He points out that the people calling addiction a disease are not the bad guys, they probably do not understand what addiction really is. And that is what Marc Lewis wants to help clear up; what exactly is addiction? One of the problems that causes misconception about addiction is that there are many different models of addiction.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In October of 2002, The Psychiatric Times published the article “Addiction is a Choice” by Jeffrey A. Schaler, PhD. In the article he asserts that addiction as a disease is empirically unsupported by science, an addict can monitor and control his or her use, and the therapy used to treat such affliction only leads patients to believe that they cannot control their behavior because of the belief that they have a disease. He contends that the idea of addiction in not a disease, rather a choice, because it is merely foolish and self-destructive behavior. Schaler’s first point that science does not support the disease philosophy of addiction continues on to state that because of the lack of scientific backing, addiction is more a behavior and…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Carl Fisher, a professor of clinical psychiatry, writes passionately concerning those who come for help for their behavioural addictions, that they “sincerely want to stop, but feel powerless.” Defining a behavioural addiction as “an overwhelming, repetitive and harmful patter of behaviours apart from drug or alcohol abuse, Fisher hypothesizes a relationship between substance and behavioural addictions. Not only do the “two types of addictions tend to occur together,” he explains, but research seems to show that both addictions affect the same part of the brain; the reward center, as shown by fMRI scans, and can consequently be treated in similar ways. Because researchers have shown that most behavioural addictions have “underlying depression…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Those additives in the already dangerous drug are irresistible to addicts. The reforms are all in the spirit of creating a better situation for addicts, but that should not be the only concern. The issue is not just being an addict, but the option of becoming an addict. Former National Institute on Drug Abuse director DuPont comments how the…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotyping addiction sufferers as immoral characters is not helpful. It is a shame-based concept that perpetuates the addiction problem and discourages a person from reaching out for help. Who would choose to feel worse about themselves than they already feel? This is why it can be so hard to enter recovery programs. It is deeply disappointing and disingenuous to see again how the media, professionals, and members of our society repeatedly demonize, marginalize and even re-criminalize a chronic, recurrent, progressive and ultimately fatal brain disease.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His work in the harm reduction center has exposed him to large numbers of addicts. Making his claims believable. By experiencing it in such a personal matter he’s sees and hears the stories people experience. By being able to prescribe methadone to control the sickness. He still see how these people are hurting.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gore Vidal Drugs Summary

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The name of article I am going to summarize is Drugs written by Gore Vidal in 1970. In the article, author showed the possibility of legalizing the drugs, labelling each drug with its effects and selling drugs at cost to stop most drug addiction in America. Gore Vidal argued in the article, drug addiction is similar to alcohol addiction, once forbidden by the government, the situation would turn worse, which cased his belief in that if everyone knows what would drugs’ effects in advance, he or she would not become a drug addict as long as he or she is “reasonably sane”. To prove that, he took himself as an example, he admitted that he had tried “once—almost every drug” and insisted on “like none”. What’s more, Gore Vidal suggested the…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The statement “Addiction is a Brain Disease” is applied to the way our brain are affected by drugs. When the humans attack the neurotransmitter dopamine: the pleasure center, the brain will miscommunicate with dopamine and the person will become addicted to that drug. Once a person is addicted to a drug, then it is hard for them to stop the craving. Therefore, the addiction becomes a disease to a person’s brain and expressed in the form of compulsive behavior.…

    • 79 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    She looked at me when she was done with the story, and she told me, " I was either going to die on that road for the mistakes I made in my life, or I was going to be reborn and never make those mistakes again." The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered is completely different than I anticipated and a serious thought to consider. The author offers a very different view on addiction than we are originally taught. I was told from the moment I was educated on what drugs were that the reason people become addicted is more or less the fault of the person addicted to the drug. The addiction comes from a chemical hijack in the brain, and the person who takes the drug the first time automatically becomes addicted, at least, that is what we are told.…

    • 1303 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Brain changes in addicts are not abnormal, and do not prove the brain disease theory which is the first argument that drug addiction is a choice and not a disease. The overall argument in this essay is whether…

    • 1696 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays