April 4th, 2008 by jgold454

It’s a very frequent misconception that conquering drug addiction is simply a matter of willpower and therefore anyone should be able to do it if they want it badly enough. Many people simply see drug addiction as a weakness of character or a social problem, going so far as to characterize people who are drug addicts as somehow morally weaker than others.

This isn’t the case – drug addiction is a complex thing. It’s a commonly misunderstood thing why people become addicted to drugs, and what changes the drug makes in the brain that causes drug dependency in people.Drug addiction is curable, and people who suffer drug addiction can go on to lead sucessful and fruitful lives after recovery. Drug addiction is a chronic and usually relapsing condition of the brain that causes a need for a particular substance. Even though the substance abuse is harmful to the person, the brain, due to the drug addiction, requires the chemical it provides in order to function normally. Drug addiction often leads to permanent structure change in the brain, reconnecting neural pathways and thought processes. Most people voluntarily take their first dose of a drug. Over time the abundant chemical in the brain causes a physical and psychological dependency on it as a tolerance builds up. Tolerance is one of the most dangerous aspects of a drug addiction – more and more of the drug is needed to get the same effect. The person loses the ability to think rationally and to make logical decisions, because the brain is overwhelmed by the desire for drugs.

Drug addiction causes problems in the brain and alters brain chemistry, sometimes making it an actual dependency on the drug, physically speaking. Science has shown us a great deal about how drug addiction affects the workings of the brain and how they work in general, so there is now a hope for drug addiction treatment.