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A comment on Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic groups in the US. Parent comment

Re:Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic g... by davemp on Thursday August 16, 2018 @09:42AM (#17774515)
I would just like to see more education about addiction. Society definitely doesn't handle addiction properly, but it's not a disease and it's not a clear cut moral failing (though it takes strong morals to overcome). The roots of addiction go deep and many people don't properly understand that the roots have to treated lest the addiction sprout again in some form.
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Re:Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic g... by dragonwriter on Thursday August 16, 2018 @12:42PM (#17776244)
> but it's not a disease

In what precise way is it not?

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Re:Changes in midlife death rates across racial and ethnic g... by davemp on Thursday August 16, 2018 @07:20PM (#17779210)
Disease generally implies the damage or malfunction of a system of the body. Whereas addiction is a malfunction of behavior.

My comment likely didn’t translate my thoughts clearly enough. I would not argue against “mental disease”. The distinction between physical and mental disease is important (because treatment is so different) and under common definition physical disease is implied. That was the miscommunication in my and many other comments in this thread.

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