What is Substance Addiction?
Substance Addiction is a neurobiological sickness that has two types of symptoms. It is firstly a compulsive drive to obtain and to use alcohol and/or other intoxicating drugs.

“I want to stay clean - but next thing I know its three in the morning and I’m standing at a bank machine.”

While many people may use this or that drug of their free choice and/or for casual reasons, this is not Substance Addiction. Most who suffer with true Substance Addiction will say that they do not really want to continue using, but that they feel drawn and/or compelled to use for reasons that they don’t understand.

Continuing to use when you do not really wish to do so - or relapsing to use alcohol or some other intoxicating substance - is the hallmark of Substance Addiction. And it is this unexplainable compulsion to use that is so difficult for others to understand - or to appreciate its devastating power over the addicted person.

“I woke up in jail and figured that was my bottom. But I needed a few more kicks at the can. Things can always get worse - I proved that.”

The second part of Substance Addiction refers to all of the distorted thoughts, the emotional upheaval and disordered behaviors that result from the compulsive drive to obtain and to use drugs.

The thoughts and beliefs in our mind will shift according to how we behave. If I use a drug every day for several years, I will come to believe that I need to use this drug every day. I will think of reasons why I must continue to use and explain these to myself and others.

Perceptions also change. If I use drugs every day whether I want to or not, I will eventually come to see myself as a drug addict. If I try to stop and find that I either cannot stop - or that I just start using again later - I eventually find some acceptance of my life as a drug addict. With this change in perspective, I stop trying to recover. I stop believing it possible.

There are many reasons why taking a drug or different drugs on a regular basis will cause changes in mood, feelings of anxiety and/or fear and other emotional turmoil.

Searching for drugs, lying and keeping secrets about drug use, stealing to support a habit, neglecting responsibilities to use and using in preference to all other activities are indications of Substance Addiction. These are sometimes referred to as Addictive Behaviors.

All of these changes in thinking, feeling and behavior are symptoms of Substance Addiction. The best way to think about Substance Addiction is as an unexplainable, driving need - or compulsion - to use.

The other features of Addiction - the changes in thinking, feeling and behavior - all arise from this compulsion and from the consequences of use over time.