What's the biggest risk factor for addiction?

Answer 1

Addiction is a complex disease. The neurobiology of addiction alone is a vast and relatively new frontier for scientists.

Then there are the mental, emotional and spiritual facets of addiction, each of which can manifest differently between individuals. Often a person's exposure to traumatic or chronic stress can trigger substance abuse. In other words, no one, single risk factor can predict who will become addicted and who will not. In addition to genetics, there are multiple, environmental risk factors.

A personal or family history of addiction is the most influntial risk factor. For example, a personal or family history is the single biggest contributor to painkiller addiction, according to a Harvard Health report. The same trend tends to occur across the board, with other addictions.

The good news is that a personal or family history of addiction does not mean you're destined for addiction. This interview with an addiction clinician helps to describe why.

Answer 2

The biggest risk factor for addiction is possibility of overdose, which may mean a sudden death if we are talking about drugs.

If you mean alcohol or smoking, the risk is person's health as it deteriorates when someone uses too much of alcohol ( which may lead to liver cirrhosis) or smokes, which may lead to siginficant lung disease and/ or lung cancer.