Addiction: Is it Easier to Get Clean or Get Fit?

Going against common belief, scientists are working to prove food is an addiction. This article covers food, caffeine, cigarettes and drugs as addictive substances and questions the social belief that drugs are more addictive than the others.

We all know addiction. Even if we do not know it personally, we know it from blaring TV commercials, annoying internet pop-ups, and interrupting radio ads, all telling us to "Stop your drug addiction now." As a recipient of counseling myself, I will not discredit the benefits of psychological treatment. With desire and the need for counseling, one can make steps to accomplish his goal. But who really needs help? Is there really a line drawn between addict and user in this country?

Recently, I spoke on the phone with an employer in preparation of finalizing my application. Of course, I would need a drug test, employment verification, and a background check. In an attempt to downplay all the precautions necessary for a new hire and be funny, he said, "We'll need a drug test, just to make sure you're not an addict or anything." First I was thrown by the inappropriate nature of his comment. After we finished the conversation, I began thinking, which has proven to be dangerous for a lower-class young woman without formal education like myself.

Did he really think that I could be a drug addict? He had met me in person, checked my references, and seen my resume. Do I look like a drug addict? Dictionary.com, based on the Random House unabridged dictionary, defines an addict as one who "habituates or abandons (oneself) to something compulsively or obsessively." If I obsessively habituated or compulsively abandoned myself to drugs, how could I have stood before him with a long list of accomplishments that made me seriously overqualified for the position I was applying for? I decided he probably should have said, "drug user," but I was more than perplexed when I looked that up on Dictionary.com, it said this: "one who uses drugs, esp. as an abuser or addict."