Addiction is complex, and no single explanation is enough.
One way to understand it is as a cycle — moving from intoxication or binge, to withdrawal and distress, to preoccupation and craving. Over time, the brain’s reward, stress, and control systems become disrupted.
Addiction is also shaped by developmental history. Early trauma, disrupted attachment, pain, and shame can make substances feel like relief.
Repeated use changes the brain through habit and learning. What begins as voluntary use can become automatic and compulsive.
Finally, addiction is deeply influenced by social experience. Isolation increases vulnerability. Connection and belonging support healing.
These frameworks overlap. Addiction is biological, developmental, learned, and relational — all at once.
Non-linear Recovery
- The blue line is the story we’re pressured to tell: steady progress, measured time, linear improvement.
- The green line is the lived reality: loops, setbacks, plateaus, re-entries, sudden gains, and fragile stretches of holding on.
- And yet—even with all that nonlinearity—the overall direction can still be upward, toward function, meaning, and capacity to stay engaged.
