What is Addiction?

Addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life of themselves and those around them. Regardless of the drug or behaviour of choice, addiction is a threefold disease which manifests itself in body, mind and spirit.

Body

Addiction causes a strong physical craving for the drug or behaviour of choice, whereby the body reacts negatively to being starved of its chosen substance. In high-level chemical dependency it is very unwise to halt substance use immediately without medical supervision. In substance addiction the body becomes so used to its drug of choice that it cannot manage without it. For this reason a detox is often required in order to withdraw in safety. Even after a period of abstinence, a small quantity of the drug of choice will start off the craving once again.

Mind

Addiction also has an equally destructive effect on the mind, which in addicts tends towards obsession and compulsive behaviour. It is important to understand that addiction is a permanent condition - an alcoholic who has not had a drink in twenty years is still an alcoholic. Furthermore, although in active addiction the sufferer will generally stick with their drug or behaviour of choice, in recovery it is common for cross-addiction to occur, whereby a substitute activity or substance becomes as much of a problem as the original addiction.

Spirit

Professor William James wrote in his 1902 masterpiece 'Varieties of Religious Experience'  describes alcoholics as repressed mystics. Addiction is often accompanied by a strong sense of spiritual emptiness, and most effective recovery strategies integrate a spiritual dimension.