health

Addicts come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. The homeless man sleeping
on the street may have an addiction, but so may the captain of the high
school soccer team. Any person who abuses alcohol or other drugs is at
risk of becoming addicted. For some people, however, the risk is especially
high. For example, problems with drinking and drug use, just like
heart disease or cancer, often run in families. Children whose parents are
addicted to alcohol may be more likely than other people to have an alcohol
or drug problem themselves.
People who have certain mental disorders also have a higher than average
risk of addiction. This is not surprising, because it is thought that many mental
disorders are caused in part by an imbalance in the same kinds of brain chemicals
that drugs affect. People who suffer from depression, for example, may
find that a certain drug lifts their mood for a while. The “self- medication”
theory of addiction asserts that people learn to cope with a particular mood
by taking a drug, in a misplaced effort to relieve their mental pain.