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From: rwh@aesat.UUCP (Russ Herman)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Smoking, Starting; Addictions
Message-ID: <478@aesat.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 09:09:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: aesat.478
Posted: Wed Oct  2 09:09:21 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 12:39:43 EDT
References: <274@mot.UUCP> <464@aesat.UUCP> <1768@orca.UUCP>, <437@bbncc5.UUCP>
Organization: AES Data Inc., Mississauga, Ont., CANADA L5N 3C9
Lines: 38

>  You're kidding yourself.  Yours is a description of a physical
>  addiction.  Substituting a pipe for a cigarette doesn't cut off your
>  supply of nicotine.
> 					Bullard

> You just sound like someone who has a mild dependence,
> stemming from the lower dose of nicotine and your own constitution.
> 					Dyer

This is precisely my point. How is a subject to be placed along the

    |----------|----------|----------|----------|---------|---------|
addiction dependence enjoyment indifference distaste avoidance abhorrence

continuum? I define addiction as

	the acute physical discomfort produced by the deprivation of,
	and alleviated by the administration of, a chemical substance
	not ordinarily required for the maintenance of life.

Without this type of definition, it's too easy to get into such silly notions
as chocolate addiction, running addiction (yes, I've read Glasser), and
programming addiction. What I'm annoyed by is the blurring of the term
"addiction" from a descriptive word to a valuative one.

Even around addictive substances, there is a need to be careful with the
"addict" label. I've noticed a syndrome that I've labelled "alcoholophobia".
It usually occurs among the offspring of alcoholics, and is characterised
extreme agitation when an intimate of the phobic ingests sufficient
alcohol to produce any alteration in behavior. The phobic, however, is
quick to label the drinker as "alcoholic".
-- 
  ______			Russ Herman
 /      \			{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!rwh
@( ?  ? )@			
 (  ||  )			The opinions above are strictly personal, and 
 ( \__/ )			do not reflect those of my employer (or even
  \____/			possibly myself an hour from now.)


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