Why we become addicted
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Addiction has to start somewhere. It begins with exposure, moves on to casual use and eventually turns to dependence. The brain adapts to the drug activity, becomes tolerant to it and demands more each time.
But not everyone becomes addicted. It’s estimated that two million people in the UK are currently fighting an addiction. Many people drink or use drugs casually, but only some become psychologically dependent.
Great progress had been made in recent years in understanding why that is. Scientific research is beginning to understand the mechanisms in the addictive process, but we do not know exactly what causes addiction, or how to identify people who are likely to develop addictions.
‘It seems to touch the very essence of behaviour, making it very difficult to research and understand,’ said Ilana Crome, a professor of addiction psychiatry at Keele University.
Science cannot point to a ‘single cause’ of why addictions develop. Yet despite the difficulty in pinpointing exactly what ...
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