Rethinking Addiction
Why It’s Not About Morality
When we reduce addiction to a question of right or wrong, we miss the pain, the history, and the human beneath it. Here’s why morality can’t explain addiction and what can.
Written by Emma Nagle, LCSW } November 10, 2025
Addiction is not a “moral failing” or a reflection of weak character.
It is a complex and multifaceted response to pain, stress, and trauma. Many people who develop substance use disorders are attempting to manage overwhelming emotional states, intrusive memories, or chronic distress that feel intolerable without external relief.
Substances temporarily alter the nervous system, dampening hyperarousal responses, numbing painful emotions, or filling the void created by disconnection and loss.
Over time, these coping mechanisms, though initially adaptive in their intent to reduce suffering, become maladaptive and self-perpetuating as the person increasingly relies on substances to regulate mood and function.
Repeated substance use fundamentally changes brain chemistry, particularly within the reward, motivation, and stress regulation systems. The brain begins to associate substance use with survival, reinforcing cravings and compulsive behaviors even when the individual intellectually understands the harm. This neurobiological conditioning can override logic and willpower, creating a cycle of craving, use, and shame that deepens the sense of helplessness.
By understanding the driving forces and the science behind addiction, treatment can become more integrative. This means programs and providers can address co-occurring mental health conditions simultaneously with therapy and psychotropic medication when necessary. Additionally, treatment can become more individualized. Providers can reach the person suffering by beginning to understand the experiences that led to self-medicating. Treating addiction from the viewpoint of moral failing sends the message to a person addicted that they are of weak character or lack of willpower. This type of messaging can risk causing further shame and emotional pain that perpetuates the cycle of using.
Understanding addiction through a biopsychosocial lens rather than through one of morality, allows for compassion, accountability, and effective treatment that targets the underlying trauma and emotional pain driving the behavior. If you are struggling with substance use or know someone who is, consider: What is this drug treating? This might give you the key to the next step in unlocking how to recover from the cycle of addiction.
If you or a loved one are struggling with addiction, help is available. You can book a consultation call with me here, to see if individual therapy is right for you, or find help and support near you on SAMHSA’s website.
