Addiction is a Disease

First published January 2017
Updated November 2025

Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical condition that typically starts in adolescence. 90% of adults with substance use disorder started using before the age of 18 and half started before the age of 15. While research shows that addiction starts in the teenage years, few adolescents and young adults receive evidence-based treatment for their disease.

What is Addiction?

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder. Addiction involves a three-stage cycle that becomes more severe with continued substance use:

• Binge/intoxication stage: Where someone keeps using more of the drug of choice to get the same high they once previously felt.
• Withdrawal/negative affect stage: The person keeps using the drug of choice to avoid the effects of withdrawal. They may lose interest in things they normally loved to do, and their behavior and personality may change.
• Preoccupation/anticipation stage: Thoughts of using the drug of choice overtake everything else in the person’s life. This causes the person to be depressed, irritable, agitated, etc.

This cycle causes dramatic and persistent changes in multiple areas of the brain. It takes at least a year of not using drugs for these brain abnormalities to start to be repaired and for healing to happen.

What Increases a Person’s Risk of Addiction?

Three important areas increase the risk of addiction in an individual:

• Genetics: People with a strong family history of addiction often have a genetic tendency for addiction. A child who has one or both parents who are alcoholics has a higher chance of having an addiction based on genetics alone.
• Behavior: Individual characteristics also can lead to addiction later in life. Youth who have ADD, early aggressive behavior and poor social skills are more likely to have problems.
• Environment: If there is a perception at home or in the community that substance abuse is not harmful, that increases risk, as well as having friends that use drugs or alcohol.

What Treatments are Available? 

Any person with a suspected substance use problem needs a comprehensive evaluation by a substance use professional. This assessment will diagnose if a substance use disorder is present, the severity of that disorder, as well as any other co-occuring mental health conditions, and determine the level of treatment required. This treatment model can range from outpatient treatment to intensive outpatient treatment to residential care.

Medications are also available to help people with substance use disorders – specifically those with nicotine, alcohol, benzodiazepine, and opioid use disorders. Other medications can be used to help with withdrawal symptoms one feels when decreasing or stopping their substance. Many times, treatment for anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is needed.

What are The Long-Term Effects? 

Early and frequent substance abuse that continues into adulthood can lead to permanent changes in the developing adolescent brain. If not identified and treated early, addiction can cause:

• Failure at school and at work
• Accidents under the influence
• A decrease in IQ
• Death

Health care providers and families need to identify and treat people with a substance abuse problem early to improve the chance of a lifetime lived to its full potential.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital has a comprehensive outpatient program, the Substance Use Treatment and Recovery Program to treat adolescents and young adults age 12-25 with substance use disorders. Youth will meet with a multidisciplinary team of an adolescent and addiction specialist, a dedicated social work team, as well as a pharmacist and licensed nicotine cessation counselor. Youth in the program can also be connected with a substance use therapist within the Treatment for Healthy Alternatives Program in Behavioral Health.