Your Recovery
About Addiction: A health condition, not a moral failing.
Whether you're worried about yourself or someone you love, understanding what addiction actually is, and isn't, is the first step toward recovery.
Addiction is a complex, chronic brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences. Experientially, it often feels like an overwhelming, uncontrollable urge that dominates a person’s thoughts and actions: a cycle of use, guilt, and renewed use that willpower alone rarely breaks.
It doesn’t discriminate. Addiction affects people of every age, background, and walk of life, and it can form around substances, behaviors, and technology alike. The pages in this section explain how addiction works, how to recognize it, and why the shame that so often surrounds it is the biggest barrier to asking for help.
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Understanding Addiction
What addiction is, the signs to look for, its causes, and when it's time to seek help.
Stigma, Shame, & Addiction
How stigma and shame keep people from asking for help — and how to move past both.
Addiction Types
A catalogue of substance, behavioral, and technology addictions and eating disorders.