If your substance use has become a problem, you are not alone. Nearly 1 in 10 adults and children in the U.S. are addicted to alcohol or other drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamines. Although substance dependence is often portrayed in the news and movies as a problem of the underprivileged, it actually affects people from every walk of life.
When you first realize that your substance use has become a problem, it is natural to ask "why me?" and "how could this happen?" The more urgent question is: what can you do to get the treatment you need?

Use, Abuse, and Dependence

Almost everyone tries alcohol or other drugs at least once. For an unlucky few with strong genetic or environmental risk factors, the first exposure is enough to create an addiction. Ffor most people who develop a substance dependence problem there is at least a short period of recreational use in which the pleasurable effects seem to outweigh the negatives. The difference between substance use, abuse, and dependence is a matter of degree and time.

• Substance use is the use of alcohol or other drugs that is relatively free of negative consequences.
• Abuse is the use of alcohol or other drugs despite adverse personal, legal, or health consequences.
• Dependence is the physical and psychological changes to your brain, body, and social life that take place as a result of sustained abuse. Substance dependence causes you to crave drugs, need more to achieve the same effects, and have withdrawal symptoms when you stop. Substance dependence and addiction are similar, except the term "addiction" also describes compulsive habits that may not include drug use.

Once you develop a substance dependence problem it never completely goes away. You may be able to control the problem, but there is no known cure.