Status Updates From Unbroken Brain: A Revolutio...

In fact, research suggests that the supportive community that 12-step programs provide is the main active ingredient in their success, when they work. The data are clear that social support aids both mental and physical health - and that people with more of it are much more likely to recover.

Addiction is a learning disorder in part because of the way it affects both the habituation and sensitization processes and also skews them. "Wanting" for a drug is sensitized and attention is drawn to drug-related cues far out of proportion to their value. "liking" however, falls prey to tolerance, meaning that the joy leaches out of the drug experience and even other pleasures become muted.

Addiction is, first and foremost, a relationship between a person and a substance, not an inevitable pharmacological reaction.