Addiction happens when a person compulsively uses a substance or engages in a behavior despite negative and sometimes dangerous effects. Sometimes addiction comes with physical dependence, which means a person's body needs a substance to function. Psychological dependence and physical dependence don't always go hand in hand. Gambling is one example of a potential source of psychological dependence.
The drugs said to have contributed to Michael Jackson's death are routinely used in hospital settings, but should never be combined at home, medical professionals say.
The term "dirty money" is for real.
Driving over a pothole may not be a big deal for most people, but for Jeff Bell, it was a source of endless frustration.
When singer Michael Jackson asked for the anesthetic, Diprivan, to help him get a good night's sleep, nurse practitioner Cherilyn Lee told CNN, she refused, telling the pop star that if he took the medicine, he might never wake up.
Christina Pearson was half-bald at age 13. She just couldn't stop pulling her hair, and ended up taking out every lock from the tops of her ears to the crown of her head.
People who abuse prescription drugs often do so believing the pills are safe because they are prescribed by doctors and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, addiction experts tell CNN.
Mike Loverde was 29 when his family intervened in his addiction to prescription painkillers. He remembers his parents driving him from Chicago, Illinois, to a rehab center in rural Indiana. He was crying because he wanted to get high.
As friends of pop star Michael Jackson discuss the role prescription drugs may have played in his Thursday death, the serious health problems that can be triggered by drug interactions are again in the spotlight.
It's a snapshot meant to shock: a bloodied woman hunched over with this caption underneath, "My mother knew I'd never hurt her, then she got in the way."
When rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings didn't work for Eddie Freas, he sought another way to kick his 20-year drug and alcohol addiction.
Substance abuse, addiction and its consequences cost U.S. governmental bodies nearly $500 billion in 2005 with only a fraction of state and federal dollars spent on prevention and treatment, according to a report released Thursday.
Adults who were exposed to large amounts of secondhand smoke during childhood have lungs that look different on CT scans from those of people who grew up in a smoke-free environment, a new study suggests.
What was the name of that guy with that stuff in that place with those things? Don't you remember?
The average potency of marijuana, which has risen steadily for three decades, has exceeded 10 percent for the first time, the U.S. government will report on Thursday.
I was scrolling through family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies, when I spotted a disturbing trend: My laptop was open in almost all of the pictures. There's my daughter, at 8 months, playing at my feet while I typed away on the couch. There's me and my son, a year later, with the laptop at my side as I held him in my arms.
One day recently, Cynthia Newton's 12-year-old daughter asked her for help with homework, but Newton didn't want to help her, because she was too busy on Facebook. So her daughter went upstairs to her room and sent an e-mail asking her for help, but Newton didn't see the e-mail, because, well, she was too busy on Facebook.
Crack-addicted Felicia Anderson was pregnant with her third child when an ultrasound changed the direction of her life.
My head is all static like a TV not turned to any working channel. There is a sadness in me that crawls up from my stomach and out my throat and screams so loud my ears bleed from it. I feel emptiness. I feel a great swallowing hole at my center. I feel pain twisting in like glass spirals. I feel leeches sucking at my spine -- around my rib cage -- at the backs of my eyes. I feel it come on me for no reason -- for no reason at all. I'll be at the beach with my dog and my girlfriend and we'll be walking there as the sun is setting and the sky is smudged with toxic colors. The wind will be blowing and there'll be nothing I have to do but go get something to eat and maybe watch a movie, or something but, still, out of nowhere, the darkness will come up on me, grab me by the throat, tighten, pull me down, down, f---ing down. It's this grave opened up for me -- this tomb that closes around me and is cemented solid shut. My voice is silenced. I curl into myself, fetus style, shrinking until I am almost nothing at all.
It was Halloween night when 12-year-old Lucy Gross picked up her first marijuana cigarette, starting a spiral from which she is still struggling to recover.
A no-frills bar called Goober's, just north of Providence, Rhode Island, is probably the last place you'd expect to find a debate over cutting-edge addiction therapy. But this is where Walter Kent, a retired mechanic, spends his Fridays. He helps in the kitchen and hangs out in the bar, catching up with old friends.
Is your kindergartner easily distracted? Maybe a little hyper? This might seem like typical child behavior but a new study published in the March 2009 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine suggests it could be a red flag for a potential gambling addiction as he or she ages.
Concerns about alcohol abuse have been making headlines this week.
Smoking is bad for you, and by now, most of us know it.
Video games activate reward the regions of the brain in men more than women, according to a Stanford University study published online in February 2008 in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Walking through a crowded shopping mall can bring back memories of war. The shifting crowds, the jostle of passers-by and the din can all trigger Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith's post-traumatic stress disorder.
A dozen old family photos were strewn across the table as Gary Neal picked them up one by one.
A dozen old family photos were strewn across the table as Gary Neal picked them up one by one.
"Californication" star David Duchovny made headlines for voluntarily entering rehab last week. But it wasn't for drugs or alcohol. It was for another dependency, one that affects millions of Americans but is seldom discussed: sex addiction.
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