Psychological dependence

Psychological dependence is a perceived need for a substance or behavior to experience pleasure, cope with distress, or feel normal. It can occur without physical withdrawal.

Craving: A strong desire or urge to use a substance or engage in a behavior. Craving is one way a perceived need for the substance or behavior can become salient.
Physical dependence: A state of adaptation in which reducing or stopping a substance can produce withdrawal symptoms. It concerns bodily adaptation, which psychological dependence does not require.
Motivational interviewing: A collaborative counseling method that explores and strengthens a person's motivation for change. It addresses ambivalence about use without treating perceived need as a lack of willpower.
Addiction: A persistent pattern of compulsive substance use or behavior despite harmful consequences. The relation between psychological dependence and addiction varies across clinical and everyday usage.
Negative reinforcement: A behavior becomes more likely because it removes or reduces an unpleasant state. Using to relieve distress can strengthen repeated use through negative reinforcement.
Substance use disorder: A pattern of substance use causing clinically significant impairment or distress, diagnosed using defined criteria. Psychological dependence alone does not establish this diagnosis.
Cognitive behavioral therapy: A structured psychotherapy that changes unhelpful patterns of thought and behavior. It can help identify triggers and develop alternatives to substance use for coping.
Compulsive behavior: Repetitive behavior that is difficult to resist, often continued despite negative consequences. It raises the question of when perceived need becomes impaired control.
Reward system: A network of brain processes that helps motivate behavior through rewards and learning. Reward learning helps explain how pleasurable effects can reinforce repeated use.
Behavioral addiction: A persistent pattern of a non-substance behavior involving impaired control and significant harm or distress. Some behaviors can produce addiction-like patterns, though dependence and diagnosis are not interchangeable.

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