Understanding Addiction

Understanding Addiction: Disease, Trauma, and Corporate Exploitation

Is Addiction a Disease?

The question “Is addiction a disease?” doesn’t have a simple yes or no answer. The truth is more nuanced and depends on which framework we use to understand it.

The Disease Model Perspective

Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and National Institute on Drug Abuse, classify addiction as a chronic brain disease. This perspective is supported by:

• Brain imaging evidence: Physical changes appear in neural pathways and reward systems
• Genetic predisposition: Some people are more vulnerable than others due to genetics
• Loss of control: Compulsive behavior continues despite negative consequences
• Chronic and relapsing nature: Similar to other chronic conditions
• Need for medical intervention: Many people require professional treatment to recover

Benefits of the disease model:

• Reduces stigma by recognizing addiction as a medical condition rather than moral failing
• Justifies medical treatment and insurance coverage
• Provides a framework for understanding biological factors

Limitations of the disease model:

• Can remove sense of agency needed for recovery
• May ignore social and environmental causes
• Doesn’t explain why many people recover through choice and willpower alone

The Behavioral and Trauma Perspective

Dr. Gabor Maté and others argue that addiction is better understood as a response to pain and trauma. This perspective emphasizes:

• Childhood trauma as foundation: Adverse childhood experiences create vulnerability by affecting brain development
• Addiction as solution, not problem: The substance or behavior is an attempt to solve underlying emotional pain, emptiness, or trauma
• Environmental and social factors: Isolation, poverty, purposelessness, and lack of meaning contribute significantly
• The key question shifts: Not “why the addiction?” but “why the pain?”

This helps explain why some people can use substances casually while others become trapped—it’s not primarily about the substance, but about what emotional hole the person is trying to fill.

Benefits of the trauma model:

• Addresses root causes rather than just symptoms
• Emphasizes healing and recovery as possible
• Connects addiction to broader social conditions
• Maintains personal agency while acknowledging constraints

Limitations of the trauma model:

• Can increase blame if misunderstood as “just a choice”
• May underestimate need for medical intervention in some cases

The Spectrum of Agency in Addiction

Individual experiences of addiction exist on a spectrum of agency:

Full Agency

• Person with stable childhood and no significant trauma
• Chooses to try recreational substance
• Can stop when circumstances require it (like switching off coffee during pregnancy)
• Substance use remains under voluntary control

Constrained Agency

• Person with trauma or chronic pain seeking relief
• “Chooses” substance, but choice is constrained by circumstances
• May understand risks but pain outweighs them
• Vulnerability created by factors outside their control

No Agency

• Medical patients following doctor’s orders (prescription opioid epidemic)
• Children exposed to substances
• Workers in deliberately addictive environments (gambling, social media platforms)
• People consuming foods engineered to be addictive
• Individuals whose addiction was caused by products designed to hijack brain chemistry

Corporate Exploitation: When Addiction Is Manufactured

Perhaps the most critical distinction is recognizing that some addictions are deliberately engineered for profit. This transforms the conversation from “disease vs. choice” to “corporate crime creating victims.”

Examples of Manufactured Addiction:

The Opioid Epidemic:

• Pharmaceutical companies lied about addiction risk
• Doctors were aggressively marketed to prescribe opioids
• Patients trusted medical authority and followed prescriptions
• People became addicted to substances they never chose to try
• No agency existed in initial exposure
• This is not disease or choice—it is harm deliberately caused for profit

Technology and Social Media:

• Platforms designed using neuroscience to maximize engagement
• Features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic manipulation exploit psychological vulnerabilities
• Particularly harmful to children and adolescents
• Users didn’t consent to psychological manipulation
• Addiction built into the product design

Food Engineering:

• Ultra-processed foods designed to override natural satiety signals
• Combinations of sugar, salt, fat, and additives engineered for “bliss point”
• Marketing targets children who cannot give informed consent
• Creates physiological dependence beyond simple preference

Gambling:

• Slot machines and apps designed with psychological manipulation
• Near-misses, variable rewards, sound/light effects trigger dopamine
• Deliberately exploits known addiction mechanisms
• Particularly targets vulnerable populations

The Corporate Profit Model

In these cases, corporations:

1. Use neuroscience and psychology research to identify vulnerabilities
2. Design products to exploit those vulnerabilities
3. Market heavily to maximize exposure
4. Profit from the resulting dependence
5. Deny responsibility when harm becomes obvious
6. Lobby against regulation
7. Blame individuals for “poor choices”

This is fundamentally different from someone choosing to try a substance knowing the risks. This is predatory design for profit extraction.

A More Complete Understanding

The most accurate understanding of addiction recognizes it as:

A condition with biological, psychological, social, AND commercial components

• Biological: Genetic predisposition, brain chemistry, physical dependence
• Psychological: Trauma, mental health, coping mechanisms
• Social: Isolation, purposelessness, poverty, availability
• Commercial: Corporate design of addictive products for profit

What This Means for Solutions:

Prevention requires:

• Addressing childhood trauma and adverse experiences
• Creating meaningful work and community connection
• Holding corporations accountable for deliberately addictive products
• Banning marketing that targets vulnerable populations
• Economic stability that reduces desperation

Treatment requires:

• Medical intervention when needed (especially for physical dependence)
• Trauma healing and addressing root causes
• Social support and community connection
• Restoring sense of purpose and meaning
• Removing engineered addictiveness from products

Recovery requires:

• Both compassion (recognizing addiction often stems from pain)
• And agency (empowering people in their own healing)
• Support systems that address underlying causes
• Accountability for those who profit from manufacturing addiction

The Path Forward

Rather than debating whether addiction is a “disease” or a “choice,” we should:

1. Show compassion regardless of framework—reducing stigma saves lives
2. Provide effective treatment that addresses biological, psychological, and social factors
3. Address root causes including trauma, isolation, and meaninglessness
4. Hold corporations accountable for deliberately creating addictive products
5. Prevent future harm by banning exploitative design and predatory marketing

Most importantly: Embrace people who have been harmed while simultaneously eradicating the harm being done.

Those struggling with addiction deserve support and dignity. Simultaneously, we must stop corporations from engineering addiction for profit and creating new victims.

The question isn’t just “what is addiction?” but “who profits from it, and how do we stop them while healing those already hurt?”

Written by Claude(AI) & Ally

Understanding addiction requires seeing the full picture: biological vulnerability, psychological pain, social circumstances, personal agency, and corporate exploitation all play roles. Solutions must address all these factors, with particular attention to holding accountable those who deliberately create addiction for profit.