What Do You Know About Addiction?

With addiction, changes occur in the brain over time. Some abused drugs bring on a feeling of pleasure. Other drugs will cause a person to feel or do things better, as well as feel less stressed. No one thing makes a person become addicted to drugs. Genes, environment, and life stages can be key factors in whether a person will become addicted to drugs.

Addiction can range from mild to severe. Repeatedly using drugs or alcohol leads to changes in the brain. These changes make it hard for the person to stop, even if they want to.

Someone with an addiction needs to use more of the drug because their body develops a tolerance for it. The person also has withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop using the drug. Other addiction symptoms are:

• The person can't cut back on the amount of the drug used
• The person wants to use the drug
• The person cannot stop using the drug
• The person spends a lot of time looking for, using, or recovering from using the drug
• The person keeps using the drug even when it causes personal problems, work problems, or both

Healthcare providers use screening tools to help identify addiction in patients. These tools use special questions that look at alcohol and drug abuse.

How quickly a person can become addicted to a drug depends on the drug used and the person's sensitivity to the drug. It usually takes longer than a few days. Some drugs are more addictive than others.

This is how addiction is defined.

Besides causing problems such as loss of a job or relationship, addiction can cause wide-ranging health problems. These are among the health problems related to drug abuse and addiction: heart disease, stroke, cancer, AIDS, hepatitis, and lung disease, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Brain changes that happen with addiction can affect memory, attention, problem-solving, and decision-making.

Most people with addiction need treatment to deal with it. The goal of treatment is to stop using the drug. The first goals are to help the person get back to normal life and to reverse or stop any health problems caused by drug use. It's important to remember that addiction can be managed successfully. This happens when the person stays with treatment, becomes drug free, and keeps ongoing support. Addiction is a chronic illness. Just like a person with diabetes or heart disease, a person with an addiction needs ongoing support and monitoring to remain drug free.

Being addicted leads to brain changes that affects the person’s self-control. The addiction gets in the way of their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. This means that the person has used a drug so often that they can't control how much of it is used. Many people still view abuse and addiction as a social problem. But NIDA says that people who are addicted to drugs are not morally weak or simply not willing to change their behavior.