Recent reports say that the newest version of the Diagnostic and Statstical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) will change the category of substance abuse to use the term ‘addiction’ again instead of ‘dependent’. The idea is that there are people who display compulsive behavior when they are addicted, but there are people that are dependent on prescription drugs – both of these classifications have physical and mental side effects and withdrawal symptoms.
While the American Psychiatric Association (APA) might want to separate the two so they can continue prescribing dangerous drugs to people, in most cases the difference between dependence and addiction are simply the degree of the malady. In other words, for many drug users of any type, they start using the drug to feel better about something, then they become dependent on it because of the natural laws of our bodies, and as the tolerance builds they require more and ‘can’t live without it’, and so progress on to the level considered to be addiction. This can be observed with kids and street drugs as well as with housewifes and prescriptions such as painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs. Either situation can ruin someones life and usually requires addiction treatment centers or drug rehab programs to address the situation.
With such an explosion of people whose lives are becoming ruined because of legitimate ‘dependency’ from prescription drugs, no wonder they want to try and cover their asses.