What Is the Difference Between Substance Abuse, Use, and Disorder?
Let's talk about how your genetics or mental illness may predispose you to addiction.
What Is the Difference Between Substance Use and Substance Abuse?
When defining a substance in relation to use, abuse, or disorder, it's a chemical or drug that causes intoxication or stimulation. For example, alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, prescription medications, and illegal drugs are all substances. Some substances are legal, while others are not. Yet, each influences the brain in one way or another.
Substance use does not include illegal drugs. Likewise, it does not always mean there is a problem or lead to substance abuse. However, if you are predisposed to addiction, avoiding substances altogether is the best way to prevent addiction.
Substance abuse is the term used when substances are taken outside of their intended use. Likewise, when use turns into a harmful pattern of significant impairment. Similarly, using illegal drugs qualifies as substance abuse or drug abuse.
Signs of substance abuse include:
- Heavy drinking or frequent hangovers
- Missing school or work due to drug use
- Drinking or taking more than you intended
- A pattern of taking prescription medications outside of the recommended dose
- Losing connections with friends and family due to use
Substance abuse occurs when the goal is to alter your mood through use.
What Is the Difference Between Substance Abuse and Substance Use Disorder?
Many clinicians no longer use the diagnostic term substance abuse because it's often associated with shame. Likewise, due to the stigma of the term, people might avoid reaching out for help. As a result, the term mental health providers use is substance use disorder. In essence, it's using substances in larger amounts for longer than intended.
One difference between substance abuse and substance use disorder is dependence. Addiction is when you become dependant on using, outside of what it is intended for, in order to manage life.
Criteria for a substance use disorder includes:
- impaired or loss of control
- social impairment
- risky behaviors associated with use
- prescription use outside of intended dose
What Factors Influence One to Turn to Substance Abuse and Addiction?
Your genetics can predispose you to alcohol or substance abuse or addiction. If you can identify family members with an addiction, there is a good chance genetics have a role in that. Your genetics influence both response control and coping skills within the brain. As a result, chemicals would cause more intense stimulation to the brain's reward system. Hence, addiction can form much quicker.
Your environment can influence the likelihood of addiction. For example, if you're surrounded by friends or family members with a substance abuse problem, you may be more inclined to use it.
Neglect as a child can lead to addiction in the future. Furthermore, trauma experiences can influence how quickly an addiction forms. Another factor is mental illness. Those with anxiety or depression are more likely to develop an addiction in an attempt to numb or alter emotions.
At Walk By Faith Counseling, we can help you with substance abuse, use, or disorder. If you have become dependent upon a substance but want to regain control, we can help you. Call us today.
