Why is Progression the Key to Addiction?

• What does progression mean when talking about addiction?
• How does progression relate to the DSM criteria?
• What addiction criteria shows up most often?

Progression is the key to addiction. It’s not about choice or willpower. It’s a biologically based occurrence that is a guarantee in addiction. Progression moves people along the stages of use into addiction, unless they are able to stop using before things move too far. 

In this Podcast: 

• Progression is the key factor in developing an addiction
• Progression happens because of the changes in the brain that we covered in episode 7
• For some people the consequences they face because of substance abuse is enough to stop them and progression can be halted
• People don’t tend to call for their substance use issues. Instead they tend to start with mental health and may or may not bring up their use to their therapist.
• The DSM criteria use the designation of mild, moderate and severe to categorize use disorders
• Tolerance is the most common criteria people present with
• Cravings tend to be one of the harder criteria for people to meet
• Withdrawal is almost always related to a severe use disorder, except where the substance is marijauna. Then withdrawal could appear in a moderate use disorder.
• Our goals change depending on what the client wants to work on and where they are in the progression of their use.