According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the National Institute of Drug Abuse, addiction, also known as a substance use disorder, is defined as a primary, chronic, relapsing brain disease. Drug and alcohol addictions are considered brain disorders because they change brain circuitry in the areas that control reward, self-control, and stress. They also inhibit normal decision-making abilities, causing a compulsive need to seek the substance of choice regardless of the negative consequences.
Addiction, like other diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, or asthma, disrupts and changes the healthy functioning of one or more of the body’s organs. Addiction has harmful, serious effects that, if left untreated, can be fatal.