What is considered substance abuse?

Substance abuse is when you have a strong craving or desire to use a certain substance despite knowing it is not good for you. As you use more of the substance, you develop tolerance and need larger doses to achieve the same effect. It may also affect your social life and obligations where you give them up or spend less time in those areas. When you try to cut down or control your use of the substance, you fail and may taken even larger amounts than intended. You may spend a lot of time trying to obtain the substance.

Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs. Drug addiction, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person's brain and behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal drug or medication. Substances such as alcohol, marijuana and nicotine also are considered drugs. It's really important to know the difference between The APA ditched both “substance abuse” and “substance dependence” in favor of “substance use disorder.” Substance use disorder is now the medical term for addiction. Previously, abuse was a mild form of addiction, and dependence was a moderate or severe form of addiction.