Is addiction really a disease?

[progree]

12. Shippenberg

(From #8)[font color = blue]>>If you read the linked article (Shippenberg) you will get a sense of the discussion as it currently is. <<[/font]

(From #6)[font color = blue]>>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939016/<<[/font]

Would reading the abstract and conclusions be sufficient? And if we both agree that there's more to addiction than that, would we be somewhat more on the same page?

But would agreeing that there's more to addiction than that prove that addiction is not a disease somehow? But merely a sickness, a malady, a disorder?

Myself, I have a big interest in understanding what the brain is like before the addiction begins, or in the very early pre-addiction stages (recognizing that some people are hooked from the very beginning). Why do some people manage to moderate or quit before things get too far along, while others just progress and progress?

The Shippenberg link seems to be more about those who are deeply ravaged by the chemical, when the neurotransmitters and receptors and all that get fucked up.