Pleasure Unwoven Analysis

The documentary titled “Pleasure Unwoven: A Personal Journey About Addiction” was an interesting look at the theories behind addiction that classify addiction as a disease and the previous theories that discredited addiction as a disease. One part of the documentary that I learned the most from was the part that discussed the “choice argument” for addiction. Another part of the documentary that I learned a lot from was their discussion of the biological aspect of addiction and addictions effect on a human’s midbrain. Overall, I found this documentary very informative and can see myself utilizing the information I learned in my future career path.
The documentary highlights the point that just because a person has made bad choices, does not …show more content…
The documentary primarily discussed two areas of the brain; the frontal cortex and the midbrain. I learned that in non-addicted brains the frontal or prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that affects decision making. Some of the examples given in the documentary were that the frontal cortex helps humans to decide who we love, who we want to be friends with, and that the frontal cortex directs our moral compass. Essentially the job of the frontal cortex is decision making. In a non-addicted brain, the midbrain or the pleasure center of our brain, is responsible for deciding what we need to survive. When an individual does drugs, I learned that our brain does not work correctly together. Our brain interprets the drugs that an individual ingests as pleasurable, so dopamine is released. This makes the human brain assume that drugs are needed for survival. Drugs change the chemistry of the brain and change what our brains perceives as our basic hierarchy of needs. After one becomes addicted to drugs their primary survival priority is drugs, followed by what non- addicted brains consider priorities, food, sex and …show more content…
I have a history of addiction and grew up with the belief that being an addict was a choice. It led me to feel worse about myself that I already did when I was using. It made me feel like I was the bad person and that addiction itself was a choice. In my future career, as a substance abuse counselor, I do not want any of my clients to feel the way that I felt about my own addictions. I do not want them to feel the guilt and blame that I assigned to myself. I think using the information that I learned in this documentary about the choice theory can be used as a teaching tool. I would like to share the information I learned, that substantiated addiction as a disease not a choice, through teaching addicts and future clients that even though they may not have made the best choices in life, that their addiction is a disease and that there is