Why Addiction Is Still a Problem in America

What the three readings for this week have shown us is that treatment for mental illnesses and addiction are defined, and controlled by, our cultural definitions of the problems that they're trying to treat. And mainstream American culture teaches us that mental illness and addiction are personal flaws that are fixed by treating the individuals, but only with acceptable methods, which, surprisingly, are often not scientifically proven to work. Furthermore, contrary to the rhetoric that alcoholism and addiction are diseases, the sanctioned treatments for these diseases are based on curing moral and personal flaws. Therefore, alcoholism and addiction are still seen as personal and moral failings of individuals.

While the Native American’s method of healing alcoholism and addiction also incorporates elements of healing the community of its past oppression so as to rid the community of guilt, anger, fear, and shame, those techniques are used within the broader, accepted method of the Alcohol Anonymous 12-step program. This seems to go against Coyhis and Simonelli’s analysis of the Native American healing experience, which seems to emphasize that alcoholism within the Native American community is due to a loss of culture and spirituality. If this is true, how will the A.A. 12-step program heal those deep-set problems?

Answer: it won’t. The A.A. 12-step program was developed to fill a vacuum in the medical world, as Glaser tells us. It isn’t based on science and hasn’t been proven to work. It’s merely the only treatment that’s being used because it’s the only one that can use the rhetoric of alcoholism and addiction as disease while treating moral and personal failings. And that’s why it doesn’t work! Alcoholism and addiction are not due to moral and personal failings; more often than not they’re tied to mental illnesses. The Native Americans have it right when they work to address the social, political, and economic roots of addiction. I think this, more than the 12-step program that they’re trying to adopt, is the explanation for the success of their healing methods.

As Glaser points out, the main tenet of A.A. is that alcoholics have a disease which leaves them powerless to alcohol. Yet all of the 12 steps are aimed at addressing moral failings of individuals, because in our individualistic, competitive culture, we blame everything on moral failings. You’re in poverty? Must be because you didn’t work hard enough. You’re overweight? Must be because you eat too much junk food and don’t work out enough. It’s the same thing with addiction. You’re addicted? Must be because you don’t work hard enough to overcome it. And while the rhetoric around addiction is shifting to call addiction a disease, the prescribed treatments haven’t adjusted to that. And there’s a reason why Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t work. It’s because addiction isn’t a moral failing. Most people can’t pray their way out of it. Addiction is a learned chemical process. And one proven way to change chemical processes is with drugs.

Unfortunately, our health industry, which usually LOVES prescribing drugs, is hesitant to give drugs to addicts. And I think it’s because we’re hesitant to give up the notion that addiction is a moral failing. Because moral failings aren’t cured by drugs, but diseases are. And if the American health industry really believed that addiction is a disease, addicts would be treated with drugs. But we’re so hesitant to admit that there are broader reasons for societal problems, because it’s so much easier to stratify and divide our population using our problems than it is to address those problems. Glaser hints at the fact that addiction is often tied to mental illnesses, but never gets that far. Coyhis and Simonelli address it as it applies to Native Americans, but I’m willing to say that addiction and mental illnesses are intimately related. And, as Shroder points out, we’re still unwilling to treat mental illnesses with proven drugs, because they’re illegal.

And again, this is due to mainstream American culture. Shroder points out that psychedelics were being used to treat mental illnesses until 1970, when the “counterculture” began using them recreationally, which threatened the “status quo”. These drugs are currently outlawed because they have potential psychologically damaging effects, yet these drugs can actually be used to treat psychological issues. Again, I’m arguing that this is because psychedelic drugs don’t fit into the ideals and values of America. We don’t value recreational drug use, or the idea that we can alter our reality. We value hard work and competition among workers. Psychedelics were outlawed to make their users criminals, formally stratifying them as deviants. And if you use those drugs, you are morally flawed. And therefore, those drugs are not used to treat mental illnesses, even though they are proven to work. And, in case it wasn’t clear enough, I think this is because we don’t want to admit that mental illness may not actually be an individual problem, but may be tied to broader societal trends and values.

Until Americans begin to move away from the idea of illnesses as moral failings, we will still have addiction and mental illness. And, even more depressing, we will still be unable to treat those illnesses.