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It’s a ploy by the Rehab industry and big pharma to collect that sweet, sweet insurance money. That’s all.

I do Smart recovery and I disagree. Had a gambling addiction for 30 years. If its not a disease. Then it's the only thing that you can die from that's not an illness. I don't know how many times I burnt my life down to the ground. Lost jobs. Money that came my way. Went hungry. Couldn't pay my bills. Ruined my mental and physical health. And felt at times that I would never regain my sanity. I get the point that the stigma is not helpful. And neither is the label. But that's in every day life. Its our choice to make whether or not to tell people about it.

There is no such thing as addiction. There is a such thing as a weak mind. God gave us free will. Use it wisely. 🙏💯

I am unable to give a truthful and informed medical opinion about people I have never met.

Cancer is a disease, NOT alcoholism. Get your shit together.

I'm doing my white collar match in July for Smart Recovery ❤

Say it isn’t a disease at an AA meeting is like showing a swazstica to a bunch of Jews.

USA insurance companies, public and private rehabs, lobbied to get alcohol addiction labeled a disease. Not all addictions (like cig smoking is not listed as a disease though cancer as a result of smoking is) are listed in medical books as diseases. By labeling alcohol addiction and dependance in medical journals as a "disease" is a cynical, non medially based, capitalist decision, that opens the door for insurance companies and rehabs to--- collect money. AA has tight connections to justice system & to most rehab programs, markets itself as "free" treatment but many psychological and some physical strings attached to those "free" meetings. For one, you have to admit at every meeting you have no "power" over yourself and agree to attending meetings weekly, even nightly...forever. Medical effects of alcohol were never ever discussed in any of the wide and varied meetings I attended for 3-4 yrs in an effort to learn more/help my alcoholic sister.

The freedom model explains all of this. Addiction is not a disease and that idea is killing many people.

This is what a scientific explanation sounds like. Addiction is NOT a disease. God and gobbledy-gook disease talk are only helpful when one wants to place the blame on something outside themselves. Take ownership, get disciplined, and move the f***on with life.

Nonsensical jibber-jabber. Good luck skirting through life. Pansies.

Thank you Marc Ex alcoholic, habitual drug user, cigarette addict. Anti depressant user. 20years off all those substances. Did AA for 7 years Was beneficial to keep me off substances for the first few years then AA membership become another addictive behaviour that was as destructive to me and others as substances had been. Your work has greatly helped and sustained my mental and spiritual health over last decade. Thank you sir.

I understand this is 8 years ago. However, when you treat addiction as a case of morality or upbringing, people die. When you treat it as a disease, people get well. This "scientist" was probably pro vaccine?

Unfortunately, the facilitators have very little training and are ill-suited to counsel anyone in recovery from addiction, mandatory confinement, etc. I thought it was just tosh by requiring forcible attendance in order to further data mine attendees.

Cancer is a "disease." If you have cancer, you cannot wake up one morning and just say "I'm not going to have cancer anymore." Addiction is 100% a CHOICE!!! An addict DOES HAVE the choice to wake up one morning and say "I am no longer going to be gutless and mentally weak and continue to use drugs." It's just that simple. And rehab is not the answer. 1)Quit using the shit 2)Stay the hell away from anyone that does use the shit. Congratulations...you just graduated rehab!

Lewis contends he is a neuroscientist but from this book it appears that his knowledge of such is either minimal or far out of date. Yes, the disease model as used by addiction counselors and social workers treating addiction has been shown to be wrong for over 30 years, but reading Lewis' book indicates that he is out of date by at least 25 years. When I studied experimental psychology, I learned that a short cut to see the validity of any scientific paper was to read the biliography or footnotes to verify if the work was limited to one viewpoint or not ( Popper's anti-verification hypothesis). This book has no real information of the genetics of addiction ( a full issue of NIAAA's research journal on alcoholism in 2008 devoted the entire issue to the genetics of alcoholism) and research over the past 15 years has shown that the genetic susceptibility to addiction is between 59% and 60% - a very high percentage. He also does not show any research from either George Koob or Eric Nestler, who have been at the forefront of the neuroscience and neuropharmacology of addiction. This is just another I'm right and everyone else is wrong approach. He reminds me of a nurse I worked with on a hospital inpatient detox unit. He felt that when he was addicted to drugs, he stopped on his own without treatment, so he spent his time abusing the patients on the unit for not helping themselves. He was ultimately fired for his involvement in a patient suicide on the unit. Lewis needs to read a good work on Phenomenology to learn to bracket his experience when studying another's addiction. Yes, the so-called Disease Concept is wrong and 98% of current addiction counselors and social workers treating addiction are completely ignorant of the basics of addiction and its treatment, but Lewis has put forth no thing other than "I'm right and everyone else is wrong"

Marc is extremely well versed here and the only thing I would contest is being overly concerned (it seems) of being "yelled at", for lack of a better term, by progressives who will want to call him heartless or similar for wanting to remove what I consider an "excuse" that addiction is a disease. Of course there is a "decision" component in drug use. Noone is told at birth to use drugs, no matter what the liberals want to dream up. There MUST be accountability if there is to be full recovery. It is the same as saying certain people will resort to theft to survive certain conditions and they have no control. Hogwash.

Still training.

First. Fine breakdown. Are you still facillitating?

I've never believed it is a disease I think it adds to the person thought process as they fight addiction

There is more than one reason why someone would be coping with reality in the first place. Institutions are not going to replace the value of a best friend, or lover. Drugs have been harnessed as a weapon against society, and connection and/or purpose is necessary to move on for most. As they fragment society more and more into addicts and non addicts due to destructive cultural norms the problem will continue to stay bad or get worse. Addiction is a way to strip identity as well. All of this is profitable in conquest through philanthropy. Society has professionals harnessing these problems in the first place, so they will be much more complex. China+corporate national security state=accelerated domestic control and change.

Wow. An expert talking sense. Power to you sir.

Some can take drugs and their lives don’t fall apart, some cant. Wether disease is the right word i don’t know but theres a big difference between those 2 groups of ppl.

Damn straight

I think it is better to think of addiction as desire rather than disease because it means we have control over it.

AA says it's a "spiritual malady'", consequently a lot of people don't recover in AA. Got nothing to do with any spirit

Thanks Prof, thanks for the presentation. My input here is that addiction is a disease through and through. Obviously, the fact that we fail to decisively and comprehensively treat addiction means we haven't decisively and comprehensively described its pathology and therefore can't make such definitive conclusions that it is not a disease. What needs to be done is revisit, reenquire, reinterrogate every theory, unpack and dismantle every definition in neuroscience, re engage research findings and build neurology theories anew. Otherwise we will end up with feel good definitions and theories that do no good to the subject of medicine.

"Addiction" is just habituation

I don't fully agree with Prof. Addiction is a disease that hasn't been fully described. In Medicine there is a term "idiopathic" that we shouldn't shy away from cause we don't know everything. Indeed any input in the brain causes brain changes and that doesn't mean that every input is not a disease. Addiction is a chronic disease, and that doesn't mean that sufferers are helpless, it means we the medical fraternity must find a full description of Addiction and find definitive treatment. Because we are falling short in this we mustn't dismiss the disease model of Addiction.

Thank you, this has helped me understand patterns that I have been struggling with.

Addiction does not meet the criteria specified for a core disease entity, namely the presence of a primary measurable deviation from physiologic or anatomical norm. Addiction is self-acquired and is not transmissible, contagious, autoimmune, hereditary, degenerative or traumatic. Treatment consists of little more than stopping a given behaviour. True diseases worsen if left untreated. A patient with cancer is not cured if locked in a cell, whereas a junkie is automatically cured. No access to drugs means no drug addicts. A person with schizophrenia will not remit if secluded. Sepsis will spread and Parkinson disease will worsen if left untreated. Criminal courts do not hand down verdicts of “not guilty by virtue of mental illness” to drunk drivers who kill pedestrians. At best, addiction is a maladaptive response to an underlying condition, such as depression or a nonspecific inability to cope with the world.

A human challenge that is likely better served by a more human solution. “There, but for fortune, go you or I.”

Addiction is about Will and accessibility. We can debate the neuroscience and medical research but in all reality, If you stop yourself from having access to it, you can overcome it.

I reckon undiagnosed/untreated neurodiversity/mental illness and/or trauma can cause people to try and self medicate. We NEED to ADDRESS these things in childhood to PREVENT addictions. Struggling families NEED support.

Can myself and my boys (ages 10 and 12) join?

He's just the worst kind of pseudo intellectual

Half cops women now and this what expected to deal with. Trans should be in women's sport as long as quotas spots in firedepartments...especially since public obese so lowered strength requirements a bit ridiculous. Should be raised.

Smart Recovery is so much better than AA!!!

Thankyou for taking time to talk to us!

Are there Smart Recovery mtgs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada?

AA is a cult!!!

Addiction is a chronic disease that must be managed on regular basis just like diabetes. People who have been sober for decades can still relapse, it takes constant effort to maintain sobreity.

Treatment? So your saying going through withdraw the stage pf withdrawal thats not treatment.? What exactly is treatment? the manner in which someone behaves toward or deals with someone or something.

Josef Barsi - the man who killed his daughter and wife before doing himself in - tried to blame the alcohol for making him abusive. I'm not buying it.

Waleed is right, he is discussing evidence based methods that will help deal with our drug issues.

Early diagnosis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders like adhd and autism, as well as other mental health conditions and trauma. We have to support our community, look after the vulnerable, reach out and connect with each other. Understand each other. Kids need to feel heard and validated and loved. We need to support engagement in healthy activities. If someone is suffering from addiction, they need connection and compassion. Believe me, I've tried EVERYTHING with my family. I've had a parent and siblings die, go to jail, you name it. I've tried tough love, cutting them off, but what they need is LOVE. You can love someone without enabling their drug use.

Finally someone making sense

You rack disciprine

As an ex-addict I agree with Marc Lewis. Thinking that addiction some chronic illness that you're powerless to do anything, is extremely harmful.

I was on opioids for a long time and then moved to heroin and I came looking for this cause I've been through recovery and got clean but I dont understand nor do I agree with most recovery processes.