Biological Basis of Addiction&

Dingel (2015) presents the argument that the complexity of genetic and environmental contributions to addiction are often oversimplified in the media. The prevailing arguments may be distilled to explain addiction as either a lack of willpower or genetic fate. In your Substance Abuse and the Family text, Reiter (2019) discusses the gene-environment interactional model. After reading about these different ways of conceptualizing addiction, discuss what factors resonate most with you. You might also consider how members of your community tend to explain addiction. Reminder: you may need to ask a couple of people you know how they explain why people use alcohol or drugs to the point they are addicted.

Consider the following questions in your discussion post:

To what degree do you/they seem influenced by the concept of addiction being a brain disease?
To what degree were you/they able to include multiple causal factors?
How can we explain the role of biology and environment to family members of someone who may be in treatment for a substance use disorder?
How does systemic thinking help to make sense of multiple influences to consider with future clients?