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Aren't all addictions psychological? My understanding is that an addiction develops because self-medication with some substance or activity to mask some sort o

Aren't all addictions psychological? My understanding is that an addiction develops because self-medication with some substance or activity to mask some sort of psychological stressor underneath the surface. Anecdotal as it may be, I have never met someone with an addiction whose only issue was just being physically dependent on a substance. Although, I might make an exception for tobacco. Most cigarette smokers and dippers I know/knew didn't tend to use tobacco to treat underlying psychological issues. Maybe to lower stress levels overall? Then again, a lot of teens and adults with undiagnosed ADHD tend to use tobacco to self-medicate without actually knowing it (I did this with coffee, thankfully).

Daub 3y ago
> Aren't all addictions psychological? My understanding is that an addiction develops because self-medication with some substance or activity to mask some sort of psychological stressor underneath the surface. I'm sure you are right. But watching someone disengage from a physiological dependency is a different class of experaince. Like watching someone get their arm ripped off. This guy talks from experience from his experience with meth as a multi-addict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0HtlAlmdxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0HtlAlmdxk Very compelling. In this vid: https://youtu.be/KoVOSmSbPMQ?t=553 https://youtu.be/KoVOSmSbPMQ?t=553 he states that of all the addictions he has had, meth is the one he can never completely loose. If he was alone in a room with it, he states that he would not last 20 minutes before succumbing.