What addiction is?
From the book – Chapter 25: Addiction and Substance Use
What addiction is
The loop can be named in six words: wanting without liking; cue, use, relief, shame, cue. That is not poetry. It is a working sketch of how a brain learns a shortcut.
A substance use disorder is a pattern of substance use that causes harm or distress. Its signs match modern diagnostic lists:
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Taking more than intended.
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Wanting to cut down but unable.
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Spending a lot of time obtaining, using, recovering.
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Cravings.
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Failure to fulfil obligations.
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Continued use despite problems.
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Giving up activities.
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Using in dangerous situations.
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Tolerance (needing more for the same effect).
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Withdrawal symptoms.
Addiction is not a lack of character. It is a learned loop in a nervous system that still has to go to work, parent, and sleep. Shame is often the next cue, not the cure.
Read the full chapter – Chapter 25: Addiction and Substance Use
Stories from real life
- The Glass After Dinner – Raghav, fifty-one, runs a hardware shop in Nashik. He never drank in the mornings, he told himself, and he never missed a delivery. But the one…
- The Cigarette Behind the Hostel – Aisha, nineteen, started vaping at a friend's party in her first year of college in Pune. It looked harmless and tasted of mango. Within months she…
- Night Games, Empty Mornings – Karan, fifteen, from Jaipur, once loved cricket and drawing. Over a year, an online game took over. He played until three in the morning, hid the…
- Pills for Sleep, Pills for Nerves – Mrs Dorothy Pereira, sixty-eight, widowed in Goa, was given a sleeping tablet after her husband died. It helped at first. Over two years she kept asking…
More on this topic: Addiction to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling – signs and recovery
More questions
- Understanding common substances – addiction
- Why the body learns the loop?
- How is addiction treated?
- Understanding family — support without enabling – addiction
- Understanding harm reduction – addiction
- What is true: the loop named is best captured as…?
- What is true: A substance use disorder includes…?
- What is true: alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal can be…?
- What is true: medication-assisted treatment is…?
- What is true: support without enabling means…?