Alcohol	Heroin	Prescription Drugs
Definition of Alcoholism	Inhalants	Sedatives & Stimulants
Cocaine/Crack	Marijunana	Steroids
Ecstasy MDMA	Methamphetamine ICE & CAT	Jellinek Chart (Mod.)
Hallucinogens	Phencyclidine PCP	Prevention

Addiction:  The Disease Concept
Studies by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse continue to shed new light on alcoholism and addiction.  The following information is helpful in understanding the disease concept to alcohol and other drugs.

Neurotranmitters: These substances are often called "God's drugs."  They are natural chemicals in the brain that influence our most basic feelings and responses.  They affect the part of the brain that is concerning with the "Five F's": fight, flight, flood, fluid, and flirt.  Endorphins and enkephlins are manufactured naturally by the brain, meaing they are endogenous, or produced within the human body. 

Over the millennia, mankind has experimented with many different substances to replace, enhance, or magnify the effects of these neurotransmitters.  Alcohol and other drugs have been used for many years to produce or magnify pleasure.  These are considered exogenous, coming from outside the human body.

The specific ways in which alcohol and others drugs affect the brain is a subject of continuing research, with new findings announced every year.  One of the leading theories on neurotranmitters involves the GABA receptor as a promising candidate for explaining withdrawl and the heightened sensitivity to alcohol shown by alcoholics. 

There is little doubt that there is a gentic link to alcoholism.  Studies seek to resolve the argument between "nature" and "nurture," or whether a person becomes and alcoholic because of a natural predisposition, or because of the way they were raised. 
If alcoholism were just a learned behavior, the results of studies would show that the children of alcoholics had no greater incidence of alcoholism than the general population.  But this is not the case.  Studies show that 50% of those tested went on to become alcoholics even if they were raised in nonalcoholic homes.  Indeed, among male children who had two alcoholic parents, the rate is 80%.

What are some other definitions relating to Substance Abuse/Addiction?
• Physical dependence occurs when a person shows withdrawal symptoms once a drug; medication or chemical is stopped.  

• Withdrawal involves tremors, mood changes, depression, nervousness, 
hypertension, weakness, among others, and can occur in both addicts and non-addicts. 

• Mood, anxiety, psychotic induced disorders are psychiatric symptoms that may occur with prolonged substance abuse, and in some cases, these psychiatric symptoms will end once the system is free of substances.