Drug addiction and abuse
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Drug addiction is an illness; it is a complex brain disorder characterised by the compulsive consumption of a substance of abuse, most often illicit drugs, despite the awareness that doing so has detrimental consequences.
The consumption of addictive substances of abuse is both intrinsically rewarding (that is, the effects of that consumption are seen by the addict as being enjoyable and desirable – even if simultaneously the addict may dearly wish to stop consuming their substance of choice) and reinforcing (i.e. it makes the person consuming the drug wish to keep consuming it over and over again).
A person may be either physically addicted, psychologically addicted, or both, depending on which specific substance they consume (only some drugs are physically addictive), and the response of the addict’s body and mind to the presence of the drug (and its absence from the system upon cessation of use) will vary accordingly.
However, in the cases of both psychological and physical addic...
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