How addicts lose control

Addiction is almost universally held to centrally involve a loss of control over drug seeking and using. Addicts experience cue-driven shifts in their mental states. Addicts remain very prone to relapse long after withdrawal symptoms have passed. The addict oscillates between two sets of psychological states, each of which is normal and for each of which she has taken responsibility. Addicts are reasons-responsive agents who endorse the springs of their actions. It is widely held that addicts have in some way lost control over their behavior. Scientists who specialize in addiction often make that claim, and addicts themselves affirm it. Addicts may engage in a long series of actions to procure drugs and a safe place to consume them, and this behavior looks like ordinarily reasons-responsive action. Proverbially, addiction is a chronic relapsing disease; explaining how abstinent addicts come to consume is explaining what makes it a relapsing disease.