"Addicts, Mythmakers, and Philospophers" Response

Addictions are an illness. They are a physical and emotional dependency on a drug or substance. People with addictions don't just want to do drugs, they need to. Their bodies are physically dependent on a substance. Just as people are dependent on food and water, they are dependent on drugs. There are many consequences that coincide with addictions, such as physical and emotional harm to the body. The scary thing is that people with addictions are aware of this, but they continue to give in with their addiction. There are no boundaries. If they were to suddenly stop using their addiction their bodies would go through withdrawal which could potentially become fatal for them.

In the article Addicts, Mythmakers, and Philosophers, the author Alan Brody discusses addictions and his purpose is to increase awareness. As I mentioned previously, addictions aren’t to be taken lightly. Ultimately, they overpower a person’s will. Brody agrees when he writes, “Addiction busts up what matters: the condition is capable of creating urges and motivations which bring about highly significant losses to a person’s well-being in spite of the person’s standing preference not to live like that” (Brody) (Graff 136). Clearly, addictions have an immense effect on humans. Even though people don’t want to drink alcohol, or do drugs, they can resist the urge. It is beyond their control.

This leads me into my next point. Dropping an addiction is incredibly difficult. It isn’t like giving up soda for Lent..  To take a case in point, Brody discusses a specific case from a veteran, Thad,  who was an alcoholic. (Graff 136) Thad was a prisoner of war and was tortured in attempt to confess information. Day in day out, he endured physical pain and throughout his time and a prisoner he never gave in. After being discharged he was taken to a drug treatment center to receive help with his drinking problem. Thad, however, resisted. “ He told me that he didn’t need to go to Alcoholics Anonymous for support, explaining that if he could resist caving in from torture he could certainly resist whatever discomfort he would experience from not drinking" (Brody). In this scenario, Thad was unaware of how difficult it is to give up an addiction. He ended up coming back to the clinic a few days later as he was unable to quit drinking. This symbolizes that although it is incredibly difficult to resist pain, it is incomparable to the temptation caused by addictions. Even people as tough as Thad can’t handle addictions on their own. It takes a team effort.

In one section of the article titled “Addiction as a Disorder”, Brody elaborates on the seriousness of addictions.  The essence of Brody’s argument is that, addictions are more serious than people realize and have a detrimental effect on the body.(Graff 47) In Brody’s view, “Addiction is not just a condition made up of a bunch of weak-willed acts. Addiction undermines the person’s self-regulation, true. But it also undermines their ability to accurately assess their problem’s seriousness as it repetitively generates a willingness or motivation for acting in violation of their most important preferences, even knowingly." Adding to Brody’s argument, I would point out that Addictions cause people to become insane. (Graff 72) They really do affect people mentally as they become less aware than they were before. According to Graff, “Addicts often talk about how it took a lot of destructiveness, danger and ‘craziness’ before they could realize how ‘insane’ they had become” (Brody).

In conclusion, addictions are extremely serious and have a terrible effect on the body. Many people suffer with addictions and the problem is that society doesn't realize how drastic they are. As Alan Brody highlighted in the article, addictions are more than a want, they are a need. It is scary to think that people are physically dependent on a drug. They know that it will harm their body and most likely their lives, but they continue to give in because the urge is irresistible. It is good to see that Brody is trying to raise awareness for this aspect as people need to start seeing addictions for what they truly are. When people say they are addicted to coffee, this is not politically correct. They don't need coffee to survive. They won't go through a withdrawal if they stop drinking it. Once society realize the seriousness of addictions, the better off our nation will be.

Brody, Alan. "Addicts, Mythmakers, and Philosophers." Philosophy Now. Philosophy Now:     

           2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.

Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. They Say I Say. New York: W.W. Norton

           & Company, Inc., 2015. Print.