Addiction is the recurrence of behavior due to a “sublimation” (in Freudian terms) of a survival activity or instinct in a way that has no benefit (or even causes detriment) to the person that is addicted.

It has 3 main components: habituation, access, and compliance

Habituation is essentially the formation of the neural pathway that the addiction forms - usually linked to a pleasure mechanism like the dopamine or cannabinoid receptors, as well as memories and “muscle memory” behaviors.

Access is just that - a person with unlimited resources is going to be at much higher risk of addiction than someone who has few (regardless of cultural conceptions of addiction)

Compliance is the unwillingness to change - the rationalization of the behavior to make it seem “ok”