Addiction Labels and Agency

Updated: 2025.09.27 24D ago 2 sources
Denying addiction labels can emphasize personal responsibility, but it can also obscure compulsive pathology and hamper treatment. Revisiting Weiner through the lens of earlier 'it’s not addiction' coverage surfaces the moral-medical tradeoff in how we classify behavior. — It reframes accountability debates by clarifying what is gained and lost when we medicalize or de-medicalize compulsive conduct.

Sources

Katie Herzog on Drinking Your Way Sober
Yascha Mounk 2025.09.27 55% relevant
Herzog explicitly embraces the 'alcoholic' label while rejecting one‑size‑fits‑all abstinence and highlighting 'natural recovery,' pressing the tradeoff between medicalized categories and personal agency in how people exit problematic drinking.
Singal vs. Singal: Anthony Weiner And Sex Addiction
Jesse Singal 2025.07.22 100% relevant
David Ley’s quoted view that 'sex addiction' robs men of agency contrasted with Singal’s present critique of that framing.
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