The Severity and Prevalence of Addictive Substances

Addiction is a complex subject, much of our understanding of which is incomplete, as many common and rewarding substances have the potential to be “addictive.” Still, the relative harm associated with that addiction is not linear, nor are the consequences of the addiction.

For this graphic, Visual Capitalist partnered with the Global Kratom Coalition to explore the landscape of addictive substances and investigate why some substances have more risk than others.

How Common Are Substance Use Disorders?

The 2023 United States National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that nearly 50 million Americans believed they had some form of substance use disorder (SUD).

SUDs are characterized using 11 criteria, including how dependent a person becomes on...