What constitutes a diagnosis of addiction?
According to the AMA and APA, Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs is a disease.
This has been so since 1956 (AMA), and 1960 (APA).
It qualifies as a disease because it meets the following criteria:
- Primary:
The illness exists in and of itself.
(Addiction is secondary only to addiction but may manifest in addition to other
illnesses.)
- Chronic:
Does not go away, fix itself, or spontaneously remit.
- Progressive:
Worsens over time.
- Symptomatic:
Can be diagnosed through careful attention to the ways it
manifests in a person's behavior and lifestyle.
- Fatal:
If left untreated.
- Treatable:
That is what this service is about.
Additional questions...
- Are you afraid that if you ask for help you will lose your job or license?
- Do you work long hours at your office or clinic pharmacy or hospital setting?
Is this your source of pharmaceuticals?
- Do you drink when you don't have your drug of choice?
- Is your family expressing concern about your attitude, isolation, driven
behavior in other areas?
- Have you had an experience of not remembering what you have said or done or
even that you were present in a given situation?
- Have you thought about killing yourself?
- Are you an adult child of an alcoholic parent?
- Do you find yourself looking for justification of your use?
- Do you make decisions about where you live, who you live/associate with,
what work you do, based on your continued ability to drink/use?
If so there is a problem.
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Thumbnail sketch: Asking these questions often provides an answer.
- When you drink or use a mood-altering chemical, can you predict what your
feelings, mood, behavior will be?
- Do you experience negative results from your use and do it anyway?
- Have you ever attempted to control your use? Were you successful?
Health Practitioners' Intervention Programs
Some states have
Health Practitioners' Intervention Programs
which provide
appropriate referral, a possible stay of disciplinary action,
monitoring and advocacy.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has such a
program,
as does Pennsylvania, Florida, Western Michigan, and others.
Contact me at Hannahlloyd@mac.com
for informaton and referral to these advocacy systems.
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