On Jan. 11, Senator Sherrod Brown delivered a speech about the recent fentanyl crisis in a Senate Committee hearing entitled “Stopping the Flow of Fentanyl: Public Awareness and Legislative Solutions.” In this address, Brown pointed to a sobering statistic: 110,000 people died of unintentional overdoses in 2022.

Despite this frighteningly large number of deaths, there has been no legislation to curb this issue because Congress has been stumped about how to stop drug addiction. When confronting this issue, Congress should remember that we all have addictions.

I understand that this claim may sound outlandish, but let’s consider what addiction is. 

According to Merriam-Webster, addiction is “a compulsive, chronic, physiological or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, behavior or activity having harmful physical, psychological or social effects and typically causing well-defined symptoms upon withdrawal or abstinence.”

This definition suggests addiction can encompass a wide variety of behaviors, some of which may not necessarily be harmful.

Consider, for instance, the act of donating money to a charity. One motivation behind this may be the pleasure derived from witnessing the happiness it brings to others, consequently leading to one’s own happiness. 

However, when this donation occurs habitually and starts affecting one’s monthly budget, causing unhappiness due to financial constraints, couldn’t donating to charity be regarded as an addiction in this context?

Addiction comes in many forms. Think about our schedule for the day: The first thing many of us do in the morning is check our phone. Some of us get coffee. Isn’t dependency on caffeine and phones also considered a form of addiction?

Wouldn’t most people’s habits be addictions as well? Imagine someone who enjoys collecting postage stamps as a hobby. While buying the postage stamps, the person may feel an initial wave of happiness, but the happiness could be diminished later once the person needs money. 

While offering this perspective, it’s important to emphasize that I am not attempting to trivialize addiction, nor am I trying to equate all forms of addiction. Undoubtedly, some addictions carry far more severe consequences than others.

Nonetheless, perceiving addiction as a shared human experience offers insight into its nature: It represents one of the most human responses to pain.e3

When confronted with fear or anxiety, our innate inclination is to seek solace through familiar coping mechanisms that may eventually evolve into addiction. If our legislative bodies aim to effectively address addiction, they must prioritize alleviating the pain associated with addiction.

One crucial step in achieving this goal is incentivizing mental health services by enacting laws that reduce the cost of therapy and rehabilitation. By making therapy more accessible and affordable, we can encourage a larger number of individuals to seek help for their drug addiction. As more people access care, a collective realization may emerge — the recognition that addiction is a universal human experience.

This awareness can contribute to reducing the stigma associated with addiction. When people with addictions inevitably face setbacks in rehabilitation, they won’t feel overwhelmed by shame for their mistakes. Instead, they’ll be more likely to continue their rehabilitation program with the understanding that addiction is a common challenge that many face. 

Two-thirds of all Americans with diagnosed mental health conditions, of which addiction is included, are unable to receive treatment. This percentage is inexcusable for a country that prides itself on equity. So please, call your representative and ask them what they are doing to lower this number. If they are doing nothing, vote for a member of Congress who understands how common addiction really is.