Addiction or “chemical dependence” is clearly a chronic disease of the brain that bears no relationship with morality, education, social class, or ethnicity. It is a primarily genetic illness that clusters fairly heavily in families. Addiction is characterized by the repetitive, intermittent loss of control over the use of a euphoria‐producing drug that causes problems in a person's life. As a consequence, addiction is generally not defined in terms of quantity and frequency of use, but rather in terms of patterns (loss of control) and consequences (repeated problems) of use. The essential problem in addiction is this loss of control, and the resulting bizarre, uncharacteristic, erratic, irresponsible behaviors.
The domains in a person's life where problems from addiction arise tend to be the following:
- 1.
Early symptoms or dysfunction—self‐respect, close love relationships, social relationships
- 2.
Middle symptoms or dysfunction—financial problems, legal problems
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Parran, T. (2008). Addiction. In: Loue, S.J., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_12
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