Is Addiction Only About Substances or Are We Missing the Bigger Pattern

I’ve been thinking about something someone said recently, and I can’t fully shake it. They argued that addiction isn’t just about substances but about reinforcement loops that take over behavior over time. With drugs or alcohol, it’s easier to see. The brain adapts to the chemical, tolerance builds, and what starts as relief turns into dependence just to feel normal. Eventually it stops feeling like a choice. But they also pointed out something less obvious. Patterns like chasing power, control, status, or approval can follow a similar loop. You get rewarded, the brain learns it, and the behavior repeats. Over time, it can start to feel hard to step away from even when consequences are clear. That got me stuck on the difference. With substances, it often feels like trying to escape dependence. With behavioral patterns, it can feel like not being able to stop escalation. One pulls you toward relief. The other pulls you toward more. So the question I keep coming back to is this: are we too narrow when we define addiction only through substances, or is that distinction actually important for how we understand responsibility and recovery? Curious where others stand on this.