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| By Great Oaks Recovery Center |
When I was faced with being labeled an
“addict” I felt defeated. To me, being an addict meant that I’d lost control
and needed drugs to function. It also meant that I would be limited to two possible
outcomes: quitting for good or going to an early grave. As I tried desperately
to find another way to explain my chronic condition, I remembered hearing the
term “dependence” and somehow it had a nicer ring to it.
Being physically dependent made my
problem sound more manageable than being dubbed a drug addict. But when I was
asked to differentiate between the two I was stumped. What is addiction versus
dependence?
Addiction versus
Dependence: Let’s Define Dependence First
The word dependence is typically used
when referring to a reliance on something. That something can
be any number of things, such as a person, a system, an object or a substance.
Dependence can be psychological and/ or physical. In this discussion on
addiction versus dependence, it is physical dependence that is being
referenced.
In this context, physical dependence
means that the body is reliant on a substance to function normally and if the
substance is not ingested, the body will react by exhibiting withdrawal
symptoms.
