Motivational Quotes

The   manifestation of this allostatic state as compulsive drug taking   and loss of control over drug-taking is hypothesized   to be expressed through activation of brain circuits involved   in compulsive behavior such as the cortico-striatal-thalamic   loop. The view that addiction is the pathology that results   from an allostatic mechanism using the circuits established   for natural rewards provides a realistic approach to   identifying the neurobiological factors that produce   vulnerability to addiction and relapse

The term addiction, derived from the Latin root addicere meaning to adore or to surrender oneself to a master, has come into increasing popularity during the last decade. It first came into common usage in the professional literature of the mid-1890s—the same period the terms dope and dope fiend were coming into common slang. ²⁵ Dope came into common usage first to refer to any syrupy preparation and later to designate products containing opium and cocaine. The changing view of drug use was reflected in the combining dope with the word friend – a German derivative referring to a diabolically wicked and hated person.

Alcohol use and occasional drunkenness were pervasive in colonial America, but it wasn’t until per capita alcohol consumption began to rise dramatically between the Revolutionary War and 1830 that Americans began to look at excessive drinking in a new way and with a new language. The harbinger of this new view was Benjamin Rush’s 1784 treatise An Inquiry Into The Effects of Ardent Spirits in which Rush referred to the “habitual use of ardent spirits” as an “odious disease.” ⁴ In the 1840s the Washingtonians, America's first society of recovered alcoholics, spoke not of alcoholism but of drunkenness and referred to themselves as confirmed drinkers, drunkards, hard cases, inveterate cases, sots, tipplers, and inebriates.

The substance-related  disorders encompass 10 separate classes of drugs….  All drugs that are taken in excess have in common direct activation of the brain reward system, which is involved in the reinforcement of behaviors and the production of memories.

TABLE 1.2. The problem drinking scale (PDS) compared with other scales for diagnosing alcoholism.

(from Vaillant, George E. (1995): The natural history of alcoholism revisited. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press. )