Addiction Psychiatry & Mental Health

Drug addiction is a complex brain disease that requires serious treatment of the mind, body, and spirit. It is considered as a brain disease because drugs change the brain structure and how it work. Addiction is a chronic disorder that is characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive and difficult to control despite harmful impact. The recent decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, but repeating of these drugs can lead to addiction or drug dependence that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and make them enable to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be continuous, which is why drug addiction is considered as relapsing disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are always at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of stopping the drug.