As a concept, the four Cs of addiction was created to break down the disease of addiction to its most fundamental parts, which are compulsion, cravings, consequence, and control. This can be a useful way to accurately describe or even identify addiction.

Addiction is a disease that causes a person to lose control over their life, but this does not mean that they are beyond hope. They may be unstable, unsatisfied, and driven to use drugs or alcohol, in order to temporarily dull suffering, just to function like “normal”, or to attain the next high.

The risk reward pathway involves certain areas of our brain that determine whether the reward is worth the risk. Our ancient ancestors found that the rewards of reproduction (sex), nutrition (food and water), shelter and parenting skills had the best chance of passing on their genes to future generations. The chemical that is the end product in these areas of the brain is dopamine, also know as the pleasure chemical (neurotransmitter.) Drugs of abuse and addictive behaviors (such as gambling, computer and social media use disorder, eating disorders, etc) hijack this system leading people to seek out the reward, drug or behavior, no matter the risk. The need for the drug or behavior supersedes the need to maintain a job in order to have food or shelter, or reproduction and parenting skills. The drug or behavior becomes the only thing that brings pleasure.