29/07/2025
Willpower is defined as the ability to exert control or restrain impulses. People with addiction struggles are often described as lacking in willpower when in actuality most addicts are endowed with plenty of the stuff. It takes an enormous amount of sheer determination to survive a life filled with the daily struggles of addiction.
Addiction has been classified as a disease, a chronic mental disorder. A person diagnosed with schizophrenia can possess all the willpower in the world and they will still be schizophrenic. The disorder is not caused by a lack of willpower. The same is true of addiction. To assume that because someone is an addict they are lacking in willpower is a mistake. The disease of addiction has nothing to do with willpower. Willpower will not cure addiction. Willpower, like any other form of human exertion, is a finite resource and is prone to depletion. Attempting to use one's finite reserves of willpower to fight a chronic illness is impossible as the illness is an ever-present condition faced against or ever-depleting stores of willpower.
Treating addiction is more about accepting, firstly, that it is an illness and thus requires outside help. It's about finding the support and tools that will aid recovery. In that regard we can assuredly use our willpower.
