Addiction is a chronic disease that affects the brain, which causes compulsive substance abuse (i.e., drugs and alcohol). People continue to use despite the harmful complications and consequences that it can do to one’s health and those around them. In other words, addiction is characterized as having the inability to stop. Even if a person knows that what they are putting in their body is bad for them. This is why it’s important to seek addiction treatment.
It is important to note, that while addiction seems to be a choice, people with this disease cannot control their addictive impulses. While there is an element of choice involved, making the right choice is so much harder for someone with an addiction. The vast majority of addicted individuals are not addicted because they want to be, but because they feel they need the substance. This is called dependency.
Not only does addiction create a physical dependency in which the individual cannot stop taking the substance without experiencing withdrawals, but it also affects the individual’s ability to make reasonable decisions.