The Dynamics of Addiction

In this booklet we'll be looking at some of teh history of addiction and some of the underlying factors in the problem.  As a ground rule let's agree that we'll use the terms "addiction," "alcoholism," and "chemical dependence" interchangeably.  Why we can do this will become clear as we proceed

We'll be examining addiction in two basic areas.  First, we'll see what the problem of chemical dependence has been in the past.

Then we'll take a look at the individual and see what happens psychologically and physically to the addict.  We'll see the behavioral changes that take place and then see what happens to teh particular cells affected:  how the cells react to addictive medications or compounds, and how this produces addiction.

From the usual shocked reaction we notice when we use the words "addict" and "addiction," one would think there's something new about the problem of addiction.  Actually, we've never known a culture that hasn't used addictive chemicals.  Nor have we ever known a drug-using culture in which a certain percentage of drug users haven't inevitably had serious trouble with drugs and become addicted.

In our Western culture, the addicting drug of choice has usually been alcohol.  Our society has always been, and still is, oriented toward alcohol.  That's why we know more about alcohol and its effects on persons addicted to it than we know about what happens to people addicted to other drugs; and that's why the marijuana or cocaine problem, for example, seems relatively new to us.  Yet in Mohammedan countries, where the Koran has strickly forbidden the use of alcohol, marijuana has been troublesome for hundreds of years.  Similarly, Hindu countries have had their own chemicals of choice.  We know that Far Eastern peoples have used opium, despite all its attendant problems, since earliest history.