Not seeing this here so I wanted point it out: from my own experience and 1st hand witnessing in others, that addiction is a Symptom, not a disease. Underlying

Not seeing this here so I wanted point it out: from my own experience and 1st hand witnessing in others, that addiction is a Symptom, not a disease. Underlying emotional pain is what causes people to literally self medicate. This is not to say that substance abuse doesn't create actual physiological necessities to then continually consume the substance. It does- i.g. body stops producing it's own opioids when it starts to get them from the outside. When someone begins using, then abusing, they are trying to relieve an underlying issue. The action is a symptom of a deeper problem expressing itself (the actual dis-ease). These issues are usually severely repressed and suppressed, so much so that one cannot articulate them-- only medicate them. Digging out and resolving the root emotional issues goes a long way to curing someone. Afterwards, physiological damage still needs to be addressed.