is drug addiction considered a mental illness
Defining Addiction. An addiction can be classified as a mental illness in that it is the progressive psychological deterioration resulting from a dependence on a substance. Like other mental illnesses, substance abuse affects people from all ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.reating a drug or alcohol addiction is similar in the way that other mental illnesses are treated. Medication is often prescribed to treat the changes that have occurred in the brain which may be required as a long term treatment.