Addiction: A Dangerous Fable for Our Time

One of the most destructive myths created by the Mental Health Industry states that individuals who repeatedly ingest drugs, including alcohol, various stimulants and others having sedative effects and experience medical problems, behave in socially unacceptable ways or otherwise create economic or other difficulties demonstrate a type of mental illness termed addiciton. Moreover, in recent years individuals who engage in sexual activity deemed excessive or dangerous as well as those folks who gamble and lose enough money to create difficulties for themselve and family members are similarly said to be motivated by their addictions and defined as mentally ill or disordered. It is further argued, with no evidence to support these claims, that these illnesses are genetic and neurological in origins and represent lifelong problems requiring  lifelong treatment. We will examine this fable along with its destructive consequences both to individuals diagnosed and society at large.