addiction is a choice

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
I read the conclusion and see no reason why someone who can control their 'compulsion' to drink should be called an alcoholic.

You're joking now, right?

Originally posted by avalanchethecat
You're joking now, right?

Twitehead said, "He is only an alcoholic if he still experiences compulsion for alcohol. If he is drinking the fizzy drinks in order to control his compulsion for alcohol then he is still an alcoholic."

So my question to Twhitehead was: If I have a compulsion to drink alcohol, yet I can control it and have never given in to it, does that make me an alcoholic even if I have never had a drop of alcohol in my entire life?

You are only an alcoholic if you cannot control the compulsion, simply having a compulsion doesn't to drink alcohol doesn't make you an alcoholic. Giving in to the compulsion makes you an alcoholic.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

So you agree that the more you choose to partake of the 'addiction' the more addicted you become? And if you choose to stop before you are fully addicted you will not become an addict?

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
Twitehead said, "He is only an alcoholic if he still experiences compulsion for alcohol. If he is drinking the fizzy drinks in order to control his compulsion for alcohol then he is still an alcoholic."

So my question to Twhitehead was: If I have a compulsion to drink alcohol, yet I can control it and have never given in to it, does that make me an al ...[text shortened]... drink alcohol doesn't make you an alcoholic. Giving in to the compulsion makes you an alcoholic.

The last sentence should read:

"You are only an alcoholic if you cannot control the compulsion, simply having a compulsion to drink alcohol doesn't make you an alcoholic. Giving in to the compulsion makes you an alcoholic."

-Removed-

Once again all you can do is take the piss. No new news I suppose. Sorry but I'm not chaney3.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

The cravings and withdrawal symptoms are not by choice of course. But when they continue using, that is by choice.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/the-science-of-choice-in-addiction/280080/

The basic experiment goes like this. Hart recruits addicts who have no interest in quitting but who are willing to stay in a hospital research ward for two weeks for testing. Each day, Hart offers them a sample dose of either crack cocaine or methamphetamine, depending upon the drug they use regularly. Later in the day, they are given a choice between the same amount of drugs, a voucher for $5 of store merchandise, or $5 cash. They collect their reward when they’re discharged two weeks later.

More often than not, subjects choose the $5 voucher or cash over the drug, except that, when offered a higher dose, they go for the drug. But when Hart ups the value of the reward to $20, addicts chose the money every time.

There are brain changes associated with addiction, and that is the basis for calling addiction a brain disease. But there are brain changes associated with many things we do.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111208125720.htm

London taxi drivers' brains
Acquiring 'the Knowledge' – the complex layout of central London's 25,000 streets and thousands of places of interest – causes structural changes in the brain and changes to memory in the capital's taxi drivers, new research has shown.

Despite the changes revealed by mri scans, we don't think the London taxi drivers suffer from taxi-ism and have no choice but to drive taxis.

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
Twitehead said, "He is only an alcoholic if he still experiences compulsion for alcohol. If he is drinking the fizzy drinks in order to control his compulsion for alcohol then he is still an alcoholic."

So my question to Twhitehead was: If I have a compulsion to drink alcohol, yet I can control it and have never given in to it, does that make me an al ...[text shortened]... drink alcohol doesn't make you an alcoholic. Giving in to the compulsion makes you an alcoholic.

Yes, I have read your posts, I know what you said.

You're really not interested in the actual nature of addiction, are you?

Originally posted by avalanchethecat
Yes, I have read your posts, I know what you said.

You're really not interested in the actual nature of addiction, are you?

Actually it seems you have no real interest in answering my question dear feline friend. Or maybe you are just incapable of doing so.

Originally posted by apathist
Despite the changes revealed by mri scans, we don't think the London taxi drivers suffer from taxi-ism and have no choice but to drive taxis.

Do they experience cravings to drive taxis? If not, your analogy is not very well thought out.

Originally posted by Fetchmyjunk
Actually it seems you have no real interest in answering my question dear feline friend. Or maybe you are just incapable of doing so.

What question? You've tried to redefine addiction, to assert that one stops being an addict if one is able to stop using the drug to which one has become addicted. That's just not the case.

Originally posted by avalanchethecat
What question? You've tried to redefine addiction, to assert that one stops being an addict if one is able to stop using the drug to which one has become addicted. That's just not the case.

Twhitehead said someone who is able to control their compulsion to drink alcohol is an alcoholic. A person who can control their compulsion is not an addict, an addict is someone who cannot control their compulsion.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Well said