Question by DLM: What is the current medical definition of “addiction?” (more)?
Also, does the definition differ from one substance to another, or in the case of gambling or other behaviors, where there is no chemical dependency, is there a separate definition for those as well?

I am just curious about the “umbrella” that the word addiction covers in the medical world, versus common everyday ‘people-talk’ use of the word. The more specifics you can provide, the better.

Best answer:

Answer by John de Witt
You’ll want a DSM-IV for all the definitions you’d ever care to look at.

Answer by Adam
I think addiction to substances and addiction to activities are two different things. Substances create a mostly physical need, and activities create a psychological need.

I doubt there is an exact definition for either case, but in general, addiction to a substance would imply that the person’s body goes through withdrawal symptoms when the substance does not enter the body. Addiction to an activity probably has a large gray area, but in general I’d say if a person sets the activity much higher than essentials (job, family, etc.), then the person is addicted to the activity.

Medterms.com says: “Dependence is at such a point that stopping is very difficult and causes severe physical and mental reactions from withdrawal.”

So I’d say that the initial diagnosis is mostly a subjective thing only to be done by a doctor but probably not too difficult for a layman to identify. The objective diagnosis is in the reaction to absence of the substance or activity rather than the presence.