Arc Lewis Speech On Addiction

arc Lewis, a developed neuroscientist, was once an addict himself. At certain points in his life he had addictions to cough medicine, alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, LSD, heroin, nitrous oxide, and forms of opium, so with good reason, the topic of addiction, its definition, and its causes are very personal and dear to his heart. Lewis’s biggest point he wanted to share during his talk was that addiction is not a disease, not a person with wrongful morals, and not a dichotomy. In the rest of his speech, Lewis shares his reasoning for his claim, comparing his work with the work and speeches of the other Nobel Conference speakers, in attempt to shed light on the many differences and similarities of their works. Addiction is not a disease. The word addiction is often associated or related to the word chronic, but an addiction is not chronic, even though some addictions may last a long period of time. As Lewis adds, a person with an addiction is not a person with …show more content…
Brain change directly correlates with the brain’s synaptic response and growth.In contrast, brain change does not qualify as addiction, unless the brain change is abnormal. In fact,we gain synapses all the time, increasing the range of knowledge and skills we can accomplish, but as those skills turn into habits, those synapses are pruned or cut back because the brain no longer needs all those synapses to perform the task that you have became so good at. At this point in time, a habit is formed. As Lewis said, forming an addiction is like learning to ride a bike, and the individual is forming a habit. These synapses are also formed during times of intense emotional experiences. In fact, on a brain scan, these intense emotional experiences look the same as being addicted to a substance. Therefore, since these images on the brain scans look very similar, it can be concluded that addiction is not a