There are two main approaches to understanding addiction. Popular among the lay public and addicts themselves is the idea that addiction is a spiritual and emotional problem -- even related to morality and character flaws. This gives us the doctrine used in AA and NA about a higher power and a "spiritual disease." These are the dualists who think of two separate things -- the physical brain and a spiritual/mental side that is another, invisible thing.
From the science side comes a perspective that says, while addiction is experienced through emotions and drives, underlying this is some material defect. This is the disease model of addiction -- treated with medications like any other disease might be. The goal here is to find out what the biology is doing and fix that. These are the materialists who believe that if you look deep enough, all you will ever find are cells and chemical messengers.
A recent story about sex addiction shows that damage to a particular area of the brain can cause even the very young (in this case, as young as 2 and a half) to exhibit hyper-sexuality after a brain infection. Perhaps like no other addiction, sex addiction is seen by society as solely a matter of moral defect, so what are we to make of this?
The trick, for those who see the damage addiction causes, is not to participate in the fight. The key understanding is that no matter if something is "hard wired" or not, it is still possible to control behavior. Unlike the animals studied in brain research (hyper-sexual monkeys)we have the ability to alter our behaviors.
To say that someone has a disease and cannot help themselves is to miss the point. The point is that, unlike an infection or strictly physical disease, we can observe our behavior and react to change it. Even if it is all chemistry at one level, at another, it is a felt thing and a part of us we can alter. Recovering addicts do it every day.
The best news is that recovery isn't the constant misery you might expect from battling an innate, hard-wired biological imperative. It's much, much better than that. Unlike other drives -- eating or sleeping -- not acting on a craving to use actually reinforces abstinence because it feels better, in the end, than using ever did.
