Position Paper

First things first and here we must understand what addiction is “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” After such statement we need to think if we are familiarized with those descriptions. Here a deeper look is necessary to fully understand and reach its meaning. When stated being slaved, what can be understood from that, a person that does not have a choice in the matter, something or somebody else is in control and here the control is to a habit or practice or something. It can be either physical or psychological habit-forming, it’s a cycle that needs to be done every day and it gets to the point it can be harmful. Another statement might exemplify a little better what I’m saying here. “Anything any person does more often than is thought reasonable from the reference point of the describer is ‘‘addicted’’ to the behavior in question.” Everyone knows someone to be doing something more often than is thought reasonable. Some people can’t stop working out, other eating, getting connected to Facebook, phone texting. Is it harmful? The answer is yes; think about those that died or killed somebody for texting while driving, or eating so much that health problems starts to emerge.

And when the word addiction is pronounced the first thing most people have in mind is alcohol, drugs, cigarettes. They sure are chemically known as addictive products but they are not the only thing somebody can get addicted to. Stating that society should view addiction as a disease also mean that this same society suffers from this disease. Everybody would need to start treatment to live a life with freedom and balance on everything they do. But that does not sound much of a freedom choice everybody wants to live. Addiction is not a disease, but a habit-formed cycle that each person does to make their scheduled lives more enjoyable on each person point of view. Addiction is still a big concern, because as stated before it can be dangerous and life threatening. Consequences such as time in jail or treatment for those with severe addiction problems are an option that should be taken. A person might need to do the treatment more than once in their lives since addiction can be something psychologically hard to manipulate, but is still an option of help if a person is ready to understand and consent to their addiction.

Reference http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/addiction, 11/09/14
Ross, D., Kincaid, H., & Spurrett, D. (Eds.). (2010). What Is Addiction?
Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com