The Short, Official Definition of Addiction:

Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.

Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death.

-Courtesy of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (www.asam.org).

There are other ways to think about addiction:

Perhaps it isn’t what you use, how often you use, or how much you use, but what happens to you when you use. You may not have trouble every time you use, but every time there is trouble, is using involved?

An addiction may be any one thing you do to the detriment of every other aspect of your life.

Another useful thing to do is look at the time you aren’t drinking or using – are you killing time between drinks? Is that time spent in limbo or in a bad mood? Are you not present with others and disinterested in things that were once important to you? Do you spend a lot of that time, thinking when or how to get the next one?

If any of these ideas are relatable, maybe this is worth a deeper look.

Ultimately, it is up to an individual to decide if there is an issue – no one can really tell you whether you are an addict or not – it has to be meaningful to you. There is a difference between accepting that there is a problem and knowing what it means, what the implications are. How to change, and how to adjust to changes life will bring is what we at Aporia hope to help you with.