Substance Abuse Policy Addiction is a chronic, debilitating disease process affecting all areas of an addict's life. A diagnosis of addiction means that the client is experiencing some combination of social, financial, vocational, spiritual, legal, medical, and psychological problems. There is a wide variability of symptomatology among addicted people based on the progression of the addiction, family background, vocational history, cultural and ethnic background and gender. Despite broad differences among individuals with alcohol or drug problems, they all suffer from a chemical imbalance in the brain. Addiction is not just a lot of drug or alcohol use, although it is primarily caused by substance use.
Addiction is fundamentally a brain disease.
Like most brain diseases, addiction affects behavior. The behavior problems, in turn, affect all aspects of the addict's life. Treatment, then, must address the brain disease, plus all of the behavioral consequences. Accept responsibility for one's addiction and recovery. Penetrate and break down the denial system.