What is addiction? Exploring the science of dependency

June 11, 2025

9:00 am

What is Addiction? Exploring the science of dependency is complicated but knowledge of it can really help addicts to overcome their problems. Just say no! It was good enough for the kids of Grange Hill but didn’t save poor old Zamo. If only it was that simple. Addiction is challenging to recover from because it changes a person’s brain and directly affects someone’s motivation to stop. However, if someone understands what is addiction and by exploring the science of addiction recovery is possible.

If you need 24 hour addiction help, a free rehab referral service and/or free clinician drug advice call and speak to a clinician, in total confidence, at Find Me a Rehab

What is addiction? Exploring The science of dependency

What is addiction?

In short, it is an incredibly intense desire for something, not being able to control how much you use, spend on it, and even when and where you take it. Even though you know you shouldn’t be using you still do. Addiction changes the brain.

Initially by changing the way it deals with pleasure and then by undermining other normal drives such as motivation and how to learn things. Clearly these are significant obstacles, but it is possible to overcome. Knowing what is addiction and exploring the science behind dependency is a must for those who wish to recover.

How does addiction take root?

If you were lucky enough to learn Latin at school, you will remember that Addiction means “enslaved by” or “bound to”. In active addiction this interpretation becomes all too familiar. The influence of Addiction exacts a sustained and immensely powerful hold on the persons brain in distinctive patterns:

Intense, non-stop craving for the drug (including alcohol)

Total loss of control over using it

Despite knowing the effect, it is having on you, the damage it is causing to yourself and those close to you, the financial implications etc, you cannot stop.

It was a long-held belief that only very strong drugs, such as Heroin, and alcohol could be problematic and lead to addiction. However, with the advent of modern research and Neuroimaging we now know that behavioural addictions can be just as damaging: Gambling, shopping, sex, etc.

Indeed, the present consensus is that differing addictions are simply the differing expressions of the same brain process.

Modern approaches:

No one, when asked by a career’s teacher at school, says they want to be a notorious drug addict or alcoholic. It is not something you plan or desire but millions of people, across the world, fall into the envelope of addiction.

What is addiction? Exploring The science of dependency

Thankfully, the last century has seen a shift in the response to addiction treatment. A hundred years ago, it was thought that those who experienced addiction were morally afflicted and that dealing with it required prison and willpower. Nowadays, the consensus among healthcare professionals and scientists is that addiction is a chronic disease which affects both the structure and function of the brain.

Someone with diabetes will have a damaged pancreas just as a heart attack is symptomatic of damage to the heart. Using this model, we can say that an addict has a damaged brain. If we follow this model, we can agree that, in addiction, the brain goes through a series of changes which starts with recognising pleasure and, at its conclusion, there is a drive towards compulsion.

Exploring the science of depdencey: Pleasure principle

For the brain, it matters not the origins of pleasure whether it is from a sexual encounter, a good meal, winning the lottery or taking drugs. The result is the same: A Dopamine release. It is the speed of the release that is problematic as is the intensity of it.

It matters not how you take a drug, even if you vary the way you take it when it comes to the potential consequences, but there can be some variance on addictive properties when taken in different ways. Injecting Heroin produces a quicker Dopamine release than smoking it, for example. Drugs that are addictive can bypass the normal reward system and flood the area of the brain associated with Dopamine.

While it was once thought that experiencing pleasure alone made someone addicted. However, it is now thought that the Dopamine release is involved with the “learning” element of addiction and the memory of pleasurable experiences. The current thinking is that these two elements constitute the nucleus of addiction.

Recent research indicates that another naturally occurring substance, Glutamate interacts with Dopamine to hijack the brains mechanism of reward related learning. This reward element of brain function includes that of memory and motivation. Addiction work on the same element but completely overrun it.

Continuously taking drugs, drinking alcohol or engaging in addictive behaviours lead to the brain linking the desire for something into a need to achieve the desire. In other words, an addict becomes motivated to seek out the addictive substance/behaviour as the brain sees it as a source of pleasure.

What is addiction? Exploring The science of dependency

Am I addicted?

Yes, no: Maybe. It is not as simple as you might think to determine if you have an addiction. Even if you are convinced that you do it can be very difficult to admit it. There is still a lot of stigma and discrimination but, and it is an old cliche, admitting it is the first step on a trajectory of recovery.

If you:

Use more of a substance than you have before

Experience physical symptoms if you stop using it

Been dishonest in your explanations to others about using

Then it is possible you may have an addiction

The Science of Dependency: Pleasure effect

In time, the brain of an addict will reduce the pleasure when taking the drug necessary to stop the craving. Instead of reward for effort, drugs and alcohol, as well as addictive behaviours, flood the brain with Dopamine and the brain cannot cope. As a result, less Dopamine is produced and the receptors that usually deal with Dopamine are destroyed. A parallel would be moving back from the stage at a concert because the noise is too much.

In time, the Dopamine becomes far less effective on the brains reward system. Addicts will tell you that, eventually, they do not experience any reward for taking drugs but to stave off withdrawal they need more of the drug. This is called tolerance. It is at this point that compulsion takes over.

Someone in recovery can be prone to relapse even if they see articles associated with their addiction. For example, someone who previously injected heroin may relapse if they see a needle, an alcoholic if they see a bottle of brandy. This is known as conditioned learning.

What is addiction? Exploring The science of dependency

What can I do to overcome addiction?

That it simple: Get into treatment. 12 step, SMART recovery, eclectic, it really doesn’t matter. Faith based, non-faith based. These are details not the main event. A registered rehab centre will provide a detox, if necessary, and the therapy to get you onto a trajectory of recovery. Add in aftercare and a commitment to meetings, post treatment, and you stand a good chance of lifelong abstinence.

Sure, life gets in the way and some people will relapse. However, a relapse only happens to people in recovery and not in active addiction. If you understand the meaning of what is addiction then exploring the science of dependency can be a link to recovery.

If you need 24 hour addiction help, a free rehab referral service and/or free clinician drug advice call and speak to a clinician, in total confidence, at Find Me a Rehab. We can help you to understand: What is addiction? Exploring the science of addiction is possible.