How is drug addiction defined?
After repeated use of certain medications, illicit drugs, and/or alcohol, brain function can become altered and the person transformed by the chronic, progressive, relapsing disease of “drug addiction.” Addiction is a “choice” only in that the person makes an initial, voluntary decision to either avoid or use addictive substances or alcohol. Substances of abuse essentially hijack reward circuits in the brain and acquire overpowering survival value for the individual. This explains, at least in a general sense, why addicted persons will forsake all other life activities and obligations and even their own health in pursuit of more drugs (or alcohol). A very commonly used reference text from the American Psychiatric Association – the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – does not use the term addiction at all; rather, it uses “substance dependence.” And, to be more precise, the particular drug involved is specified: e.g., heroin dependence, alcohol dependence, etc. Howev
