Recovery

Addiction could also be called “reward deficit syndrome” because addiction disrupts the balance in the brain's reward system, i.e. the experience of pleasure is altered. It lulls and numbs the reward mechanism - work, family and friends lose their value, because they are no longer able to provide the former pleasure, but the use of intoxicating substances becomes more and more pronounced and comes to the fore until the moment when the substances themselves also lose their ability to provide a reward. However, a person with the disease of addiction is unable to give up substance use because the memories of the pleasure of using the substance have become stronger than the substance itself.

It is precisely the lack of reward that makes a person with an addiction disease literally chase after the pleasure that the use of this substance (alcohol, nicotine, drugs, etc.) or procedural addiction (gambling, eating, sex, etc.) gives him. The use of substances or processes becomes a kind of self-medication for a person with an addiction disease, which allows him to escape for a short time from the discomfort he feels.

In this material, the concept of addiction is defined as a primary (addiction is not a side effect of another existing disease), chronic (permanent and long-lasting), progressive disease, which is characterized by changes in an individual's behavior, thoughts, emotions and physical health, which, in turn, have arisen after repeated use of substances or processes. Addiction is treatable, but not completely cured.