Addiction as a Brain Disorder: An Imperfect Model Addiction is the result of a gradual increase in neurological tendencies based on ingesting a particular substance or performing a particular action. It is cumulative, accumulates over time, and varies in strength from individual to individual based on their ability to exert willpower on themselves and their actions. Some people become addicted more easily than others. Ultimately, addiction is the result of a series of choices made by the individual. These choices usually have a huge impact on the person's life, changing their friendships, family life, professional life and psychological/spiritual well-being. The cumulative aspect of addiction is built by an individual willingly choosing not to see the direction they are headed or not to take action even if they feel they are following the path of an addict. It is inevitable that some sort of deterioration will occur in their life, and willful ignorance is all that could prevent someone from noticing it. Likewise, addiction can be helped and cured by an individual choosing to do something different, to adapt their habitual addiction to a specific substance or action for pleasure, escape, or whatever quality they are seeking. Only the individual can make that choice, but once that choice is made other people and institutions can help him. The rate of use and addiction of most illegal drugs has not increased recently, and in many cases has decreased. The exception is marijuana, being the only illegal drug that has seen an increase in use over the years. Marijuana use has, in fact, skewed usage survey results to make it appear that overall usage… middle of paper… them, “You have a neurological disease and we have drugs that can help you! ” This is highly destructive to the individual's psychology and could make them completely irresponsible for their own feelings and behaviors. The connotations of admitting such dogma within the scientific community are mind-blowing and terrifying. Works Cited1 of the United States. (2011). National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Results [Data file]. , Thomas (1961). The function of dogma in scientific research. Retrieved from http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/kuhn-function-dogma.pdf2. Reinarman, Craig (2004). discourse of the disease. Research and study on addictions, August, 2005, 13(4): 307–320