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Substance use, abuse, and addiction

Logen Cuthbertson

University of West Florida

PSY2023: Professional Development in Psychology

Kristina Robison

March 25, 2023

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Substance use, abuse, and addiction
The majority of people are aware of the size and cost of substance abuse problems in

America (McLellan 2017). While this may be the case, people still chalk addiction up to it being

that person’s fault and they simply do not want to quit. (American Psychological Association)

states that addiction is a psychological and/or physical dependence on a drug. It is something that

can alter your brain’s chemicals. Drug addiction is not something that someone necessarily

chooses. While the initial decision whether to do drugs is the user’s choice, the brain changes

because of the drugs, making quitting harder (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], 2018).

NIDA (2018) states that drugs affect the user’s brain’s “reward circuit”, over time, the

brain will reduce the ability of the cells in the reward circuit to respond to it which causes the

person’s tolerance to go up, so they then need more of that drug to get the same high they used

to. Not everyone who does drugs becomes addicted to them though. (McLellan, 2017) About

40% to 70% of a person’s risk for developing a substance use disorder is due to genetics. There

could also be a combination of factors that could increase the risk of addiction. These can

include but not be limited to, biology, environment, and development (NIDA, 2018). There is no

“cure” for drug addiction, but with the right treatments and support system is the best chance for

success.

Even though substance use and abuse directly affect your brain chemicals (NIDA, 2018),

it is still something that has not been a part of our general healthcare (McLellan, 2017). The

stigma surrounding substance abuse has always been viewed as a personal or family problem

until more recently (McLellan, 2017). (McLellan, 2017) states that this started to change with the

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2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act as well as in 2010 with the Affordable Care

Act. Both of these acts now make it required that insurance coverage for these substance use

disorders have no greater financial burden on the patient than someone who has a comparable

sickness (McLellan, 2018).

(Kalin, 2020) states that data from 2019 showed that 20.3 million people aged 12 or older

had some type of substance use disorder. 14.8 million were attributed to alcohol. Substance

abuse is often linked to stress or some type of mental illness, with over 9 million people having

both a mental illness and a substance abuse disorder. (Kalin, 2020). Substance abuse disorders

have been associated with an increased risk of suicide as well. Addiction is something that goes

much deeper than a lot of people realize.

Conclusion

Addiction is a disease that does not just affect one person, it affects everyone around

them in their life. While this is a ‘choice’ that person makes, it quickly becomes something that

their brain tells them they need to function in everyday life. While we have come a long way

with de-stigmatizing substance use and addiction, there is still a long way to go. Substance abuse

is something that needs to be treated as other mental illness’ are treated, with care and

compassion and the want to help these people and those around them. A lot of the research we

have is still so new, and as additional research is found we will help people to assist people who

are struggling with this disease. I know as the years pass there will become new and improved

treatment options for people. Maybe even one day we will have a cure for this.
 References

APA (n.d). Substance use, abuse, and Addiction. American Psychological Association.

https://www.apa.org/topics/substance-use-abuse-addiction

Kalin, N. H. (2020). Substance use disorders and addiction: Mechanisms, trends, and Treatment

Implications. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 1015-1018.

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20091382#pane-pcw-details.

McLellan A. T. (2017). Substance Misuse and Substance use Disorders: Why do they Matter in

Healthcare? Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 128,

112–130. Substance Misuse and Substance use Disorders: Why do they Matter in

Healthcare? - PMC (nih.gov)

NIDA. (2018.) Understanding Drug Use and Addiction DrugFacts. National Institute on Drug

Abuse. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-use-addiction