Abuse, Dependence and Addiction

Abuse, dependence and addiction are all stages of the addiction process. Abuse is the beginning, when the person starts abusing drugs. Drug abuse is intentionally using a drug the wrong way, or using an illegal drug. After someone has abused drugs for long enough, it is possible that they could develop a tolerance to that drug- they need to take more to get high. Once a tolerance is established, dependence is the next step of the addiction process. Many drugs can make a person become dependent. There are two different kinds of dependence physical dependence and psychological dependence-Psy…