What Is Addiction? The 6 Most Common Addictions People Struggle With

Many of us will have, at one point or another, joked about being addicted to Starbucks, Greek yogurt, air conditioning, or Game of Thrones. One acquaintance even told me he was addicted to a particular newspaper, to the point he had to cancel his subscription so that reading it wouldn't interfere with his productivity at work. 

What is addiction?

The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as "a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry". Addicts will relentlessly and pathologically pursue the thing they're addicted to even at great emotional, financial, social, or physical cost. They may resolve to stop being addicted only to crave the thing they're addicted to to the point that they can't help but go after it again.

This much is common knowledge, but not all addictions are the same. We can differentiate between physical additions, in which the addict will experience physical withdrawal symptoms when they suddenly stop using the substance (which can include alcohol, illicit street drugs, and prescription medications), and psychological addiction. In this second case, nothing physically bad will happen if the addict tries to free themselves from the addiction, but their mind may disagree to the point where they simply can't stop without outside help. 

What are the most common addictions? Let's take a look. 

1. Alcohol 

A study that drew on data from the World Health Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and Alberta Gambling Research Institute came to the conclusion that 43 percent of the world's population drinks alcohol at least occasionally. Not all of those people will become alcoholics by any means, but an estimated 4.9 percent of adults across the globe suffer from alcohol use disorder — commonly known as alcoholism. In real terms, this translates to at least 240 million people, 16.3 million of whom are US-based. Men are much more likely to become alcoholics than women, with 7.8 percent of men being addicted to alcohol world-wide compared to 1.5 percent of women. 

2. Tobacco

Tobacco use, most commonly but not only in the form of smoking, represents another very common addiction. A shocking 22.5 percent of people on Earth still use tobacco, a figure that amounts to at least one billion people. On a global level, men are much more likely to be addicted to tobacco than women, with rates of 32 percent and seven percent respectively. Tobacco, including chewing tobacco and smoking, constitutes an addiction that takes an awful lot of lives — 11 percent of male deaths and six percent of female deaths are believed to be related to tobacco each year. 

3. Cannabis

It's harder to get accurate figures about the use of illegal drugs, for fairly obvious reasons. Around 3.5 percent of adults across the globe are believed to struggle with a cannabis addiction, however, a percentage that translates to 174 million people. Global data suggest that marijuana addictions are most common in Oceania (which roughly includes Australia and all the smaller countries around it), where 10.3 percent of the adult population is estimated to use pot. 

4. Other drugs

No reliable global data are available to estimate how many people are addicted to other "psychoactive" substances, which would include heroin, opium, prescription painkillers, cocaine, and amphetamine. Where data collection has been reliable, estimates have been placed at roughly 1.5 percent of the population — which is statistically low, but still an awful lot of people. An even lower percentage, approximately 0.3 percent of the global population, injects drugs. 

5. Caffeine

According to one study, "caffeine is the most widely consumed psychostimulant in the world". More than 85 percent of the US population consumes caffeine, and around 70 percent will experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches when they (try to) stop using caffeine. You may drink a cup of coffee or two every day and not be addicted, but you may also be surprised to learn that "caffeine-related disorders" make up a whole section of the DSM-5, the "psychiatry bible" used to diagnose mental disorders in the United States. 

6. Gambling

While over 65 percent of the global population gambles occasionally, around 1.5 percent of those who gamble will develop an addiction. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of reliable global data exists to go into more details. 

Lesser-known addictions you may like to hear about

The DSM-5 discusses some interesting "non-substance addictions" as well — not all of which are official diagnostic criteria and some of which only have features of addiction. They include:

• Kleptomania — the compulsion to steal things, or if you like, an addiction to stealing. 
• Internet gaming disorder, in which someone is addicted to online games. 
• Shopping addiction. It would be extremely tempting to say this is basically the same as kleptomania except the person actually pays for the items, but the underlying risk factors are likely different. This is, yes, an addiction to shopping. 
• Sex addiction, in which the sufferer compulsively seeks sex, often in unsafe ways. 
• Exercise addiction, or a compulsion to exercise — quite often associated with eating disorders.