The difference between addiction & dependence
- Addiction is a term that is not always used accurately in common parlance, for example:
- ‘I’m so addicted to chocolate’
- ‘Without Love Island in my life I don’t know what I’d do’
- ‘I am absolutely hooked on this new lip gloss, it’s addictive’
- Addiction is the physical and/or psychological need to engage in addictive behaviour e.g. drug-taking, drinking alcohol, gambling, shopping
- Physical addiction is the physiological state of adaptation to the addictive behaviour, resulting in tolerance i.e. the more a person becomes addicted, the higher ‘dose’ of the addictive behaviour they need to get the same effect
- Addiction can be seen in the craving for the addictive behaviour
- When the addictive behaviour ceases (e.g. the time between drug-taking episodes) this produces withdrawal which could include:
- experiencing tremors/shakes
- sweating
- obsessive thoughts about the addictive behaviour
- headaches
- anxiety, irritability, mood swings
- Dependence is the ‘gateway’ to addiction as it can be seen in the compulsion to experience the addictive behaviour for its pleasurable effect, rather than for its stated effect, for example:
- Someone needs new clothes for work but the pleasure they experience from shopping becomes all-consuming, meaning that the original intention to shop for a purpose is lost to the general ‘thrill’ of shopping itself
- Someone needs pain medication for a bad back but once their back is better they continue to take the medication for the ‘high’ it gives them
- Physical and psychological dependence overlap, with key behaviours being over-doing the behaviour, engaging in the behaviour even when the person knows that it is bad for them, problems maintaining everyday activities and the inability to stop the behaviour
