Addiction is a neurobiological condition — one that reorganizes the brain's reward circuitry, stress systems, and executive function in ways that make the substance or behavior both compulsively sought and increasingly unsatisfying. The physical dimension of addiction includes tolerance, withdrawal, the cascade of health consequences specific to each substance, and the physiology of recovery — which is real and takes time measured in years, not weeks. Addressing addiction well requires treating the body alongside the psychology and the social context; none of these layers is sufficient alone.
Each step builds on the last.