In the words of a consensus statement by addiction experts in 2001, addiction is a “chronic neurobiological disease … characterized by behaviors that include one or more of the following: impaired control over drug use, compulsive use, continued use despite harm, and craving.”1 The key features of substance addiction are the use of drugs or alcohol despite negative consequences and relapse. I’ve heard some people shrug off their addictive tendencies by saying, for example, “I can’t be an alcoholic. I don’t drink that much,” or “I only drink at certain times.”
