Understanding

      Addiction means having an excessive appetite for something. It's like the lyrics of popular love songs : "I can't live, if living is without you" ; "You're every breath I take, you're every step I make" ; "I've always been a fighter, but without you I give up" ; etc.
This excessive appetite for something may develop into a pattern that leads to an overwhelming attachment to it, subjective compulsion to continue it, and reduced ability to exert control over it.
Therefore, addiction affects us in all ways - physically, mentally. socially and spiritually. What is it that leads us to abuse drugs in spite of the tragedy that results? What causes otherwise intelligent human beings to sacrifice careers, families, lives, and those of loved ones, in the pursuit of something that comes in a bottle, a needle, a tablet, or a pipe? What should we do if we get addicted or if someone we love does?
What, why, and how...??
      Temptations To Use Drugs
      We're talking about mood altering substances. Drugs can provide us with artificial sense of self-worth, power, control, security, intimacy, and accomplishment. They can change our mood, for example, from feeling tired to feeling energetic, or, from feeling anxious to feeling more relaxed.
Under the influence of drugs, we can feel like we're flying in the sky or floating on a cloud. Psychological dependence is reached in those moments. So discontinuing the use of a drug is met with aversion.
      Drugs abuse can also result in tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Tolerance means the ability of the body to absorb increased amounts of a drug and therefore more and more doses are needed to get the desired effect. Withdrawal symptoms refer to anxiety, tremors, stomachache, headache, or other physical pains when the drug is no longer consumed. At this level, physical dependence is reached and therefore the used of the drug increases in terms of amount and frequency so as to adjust to the body's needs and to control withdrawal symptoms. Thus, we can become trapped in vicious cycles, with the initial use, leading to regular use. If these conditions persist, our addiction gets more and more difficult to stop. We then have three options: recovery, mental illness, or death.
     
Repeated Drug Use Traps
      Here are the things that can trap us into using drugs repeatedly :

• A high-risk lifestyle. Addiction forces us to build our lives around drugs use. Our circle of friends may actually reinforce the addictive cycle. This makes it easier to remain in denial, to 'compare out' with others that we aren't that much different from anybody we know. 
• Inability to overcome craving. Craving is a normal part of our adjusment to llife without drugs. Craving can persist in varying levels of intensity for a certain period of time after the last exposure to the drugs. If we can't control our cravings, it's very easy for us to return to drugs.
• Inability to cope with stress. Stress can be ultimate excuse for using drugs. Having mood swings, we often overreact to stressful situations, even normal ones. Sources of chronic stress, such as perfectionism, low tolerance for frustration, obsessive worrying, resentments from the past, and mistrust of others, may lead us to turn to drugs to soothe them.
• Misjudgement of things or events. Surrounded and influenced by strong emotions, we tend to have certain patterns of thinking that can bring us to the point where we decide that it's okay, or it won't be that bad to use drugs. This can seriously block the part to recovery. For example, some of our friends are using drugs, so we think that we have to do so in order to fit in.
  Or, we assume that we're not addicted, so the occasional smoke, drink, or use of drugs is not going to hurt us, if we're careful. We may also believe that our discomfort (either due to life stressors or to the absence of drugs or both) is unendurable and therefore worth any effort to relieve the pain, no matter what the cost.