What Is Drug Addiction? Like a Real Definition?
Question by Bluey: What is drug addiction? Like a real definition?
Best answer:
Answer by saved_by_grace
Drug Addiction:
An addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individuals health, mental state or social life. The term is often reserved for drug addictions but it is sometimes applied to other compulsions, such as problem gambling, and compulsive overeating
Answer by reggie
Drug addiction is a condition characterized by compulsive drug intake, craving and seeking, despite what the majority of society may perceive as the negative consequences associated with drug use.[2]
Although being addicted implies drug dependence, it is possible to be dependent on a drug without being addicted. People that take drugs to treat diseases and disorders, which interfere with their ability to function, may experience improvement of their condition.
Such persons are dependent on the drug, but are not addicted. One is addicted, rather than merely dependent, if one exhibits compulsive behavior towards the drug and has difficulty quitting it.
To qualify as being dependent a person must
Take a drug regularly
Experience unpleasant symptoms if discontinued, which makes stopping difficult.
Substance abuse can occur with or without dependency, and with or without addiction. Substance abuse is any use of a substance, which causes more harm than good.
Drug addiction has two components: physical dependency, and psychological dependency. Physical dependency occurs when a drug has been used habitually and the body has become accustomed to its effects. The person must then continue to use the drug in order to feel normal, or its absence will trigger the symptoms of withdrawal. Psychological dependency occurs when a drug has been used habitually and the mind has become emotionally reliant on its effects, either to elicit pleasure or relieve pain, and does not feel capable of functioning without it. Its absence produces intense cravings, which are often brought on or magnified by stress. A dependent person may have either aspects of dependency or both.
“Chipping” is also a term used to describe a pattern of drug use in which the user is not physically dependent and sustains ‘controlled use’ of a drug. This is done by avoiding influences that reinforce dependence, such that the drug is used for relaxation and not for escape. This is similar to the medical term ‘recreational substance use’.
The phenomenon of drug addiction has occurred to some degree throughout recorded history (see “opium”), though modern agricultural practices, improvements in access to drugs, advancements in biochemistry, and dramatic increases in the recommendation of drug usage by clinical practitioners have exacerbated the problem significantly in the 20th century. Improved means of active biological agent manufacture and the introduction of synthetic compounds, such as methamphetamine are also factors contributing to drug addiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_addiction
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