![]() The claim that we cannot explain addiction without recognizing the value of drugs challenges two culturally dominant ideas. ![]() The paper is structured in two major parts, each with multiple sub-sections. I argue that a sense of self and social identity is central to explaining addiction in some addicts some of the time, not that it is necessary to explaining addiction in all addicts all of the time. The picture of addiction I paint in what follows reveals how addiction can be explained by many, diverse factors, some interacting and some mutually exclusive, such that there is no one explanation of why a person continues to consume drugs in the face of severe negative consequences that is true of all addicts indeed, different explanations may be true of one and the same addict, at different times. To be absolutely clear at the outset, I do not claim that this is true of everyone who is an addict. And I suggest that, in particular, there can be value not only in drugs themselves, but, additionally, for some people, in self-identifying as an addict. I argue that, as a general point, we cannot explain many cases of addiction without recognizing the value of drugs to people, including people who are addicted. My aim in this paper is to explore how a sense of self and social identity can be a central part of the explanation of addiction, understood as continuous consumption in the face of severe negative consequences caused or compounded by drugs. Drug use is a significant part of what defines you. And, if you are not in full-blown denial, you know this. But, to imagine being an addict, you must imagine that drug use is one of the defining features of your life if not the defining feature. Indeed, you may hide your drug use to some extent from yourself. When you are outside of that community, you may have to work to hide your drug use, whether from family, friends, colleagues, or the police. alcohol currently is in our society), your community is a drug community. In all likelihood, especially if you use illegal as opposed to legal drugs (such as e.g. Many if not most of the people you spend time with use drugs. Your daily routines revolve around getting and using drugs. You must imagine how drug use structures your life. But, if you are really imagining that you are an addict, you must not just imagine craving and using. These are powerful and prevalent features of current scientific and popular depictions of addiction respectively. Got it? You probably imagine the desperation of craving and the pleasure of using. Draw on whatever experience you may have, with drugs and with people who are addicted to drugs, to get an image of yourself as an addict clearly in mind. Choose whatever context makes this imaginative endeavor easiest: picture yourself using in restaurants, pubs, clubs, festivals, parties, your home, your friend's home, the beach, the streets. Or imagine being a poly-drug user: you take just about anything. Alcohol, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, crack, heroin, ketamine, MDMA, oxycontin, Quaaludes, speed. Choose whatever drug makes this imaginative endeavor easiest. Try to imagine instead that you are an addict. You work, you read papers, you have varied pursuits and pleasures, and you have relationships with friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances that have little if anything to do with drugs. But, if you are reading this paper, then, even if you use a lot, drugs are probably not a defining feature of your life. If you use, you may or may not use a lot. ![]() If you are reading this paper, you are probably either a philosopher or an addiction researcher. Importantly, this possibility requires the availability of social support and material resources that are all too frequently absent in the lives of those who struggle with addiction. I conclude by considering how it is nonetheless possible to overcome addiction despite this identity, in part by imagining and enacting a new one. Given that an addict identification carries expectations of continued consumption despite negative consequences, there is therefore a parsimonious explanation of why people who identify as addicts continue to use drugs despite these consequences: they self-identify as addicts and that is what addicts are supposed to do. For people who lack a genuine alternative sense of self and social identity, recovery represents an existential threat. ![]() Against this characterization, I argue that many cases of addiction cannot be explained without recognizing the value of drugs to those who are addicted and I explore in detail an insufficiently recognized source of value, namely, a sense of self and social identity as an addict. Addiction is standardly characterized as a neurobiological disease of compulsion. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |