Addiction is an obsessive desire to carry out any activity or an urgent need to complete it. Recently, opinion about such disorders has changed dramatically, and drug addiction is considered along with behavioral abnormalities.
Addiction is a disease that can be divided into 2 main categories. Let's consider them further. Types of addictions:
- Chemical (substantial, or physical).
- Behavioral (unsubstantial, or psychological).
Chemical dependence: options
Chemical addiction is a violation associated with the use of various substances that alter the physical condition of the person who takes them. Many of them are poisonous (or toxic), which leads to organic damage. Chemical addictions cause significant damage to health from the very beginning of their development.
Alcohol addiction
Among chemical species, alcohol addiction is best studied. It leads to multiple disorders in the body. Everything suffers from it: internal organs, psyche, nervous system. After some time drinking alcohol and after the first two stages, where the main problem is memory lapses and a condition of a light hangover, the third stage occurs. Here, a person can no longer fight with a strong, uncontrolled desire to hangover, with internal discomfort, sharp negative feelings in the worldview, since irreversible changes have already occurred in the body at the physical level.
Narcotic addiction
Craving for various psychotropic and toxic substances is inherent in patients with narcotic addiction. That is, substance abuse also applies to this species. There is a similar dependence almost immediately after the first use of these substances. Addiction is worse than alcoholism. Since two types of dependence are combined here: psychological and physical. With this addiction, the patient each time requires an increasing amount of narcotic substance, which slowly kills the body. Irreversible processes occur in it, and then most often the result is death.
Non-chemical addictions. Behavioral dependence: options
Behavioral addiction is characterized by attachment to a certain activity. And also the inability to get rid of it on her own. Addictive behavior most often arises from the desire to break away from reality and get into the world created by consciousness. Currently, there are acceptable and safe forms of such addiction for a person: love, meditation, creativity, spiritual practices, workaholism, as well as extreme sports.
Behavioral addiction is a non-chemical species. That is, it represents the influence of some pattern of action. Almost any hobby of a person who has super-value for him or in which activity becomes the main guide of his behavior, is a similar version of addiction.
Game addiction
Non-chemical addictions also include gambling addiction, when a person cannot imagine his life without gambling. This can be a casino, slot machines, roulette, etc. Many psychologists say that any gambling is a very serious social problem, which poses a real threat to the population. Addiction is exacerbated by relaxation resulting from the game, a decline in emotional stress.
The main signs of gambling addiction are:
- Constant interest in the process.
- Increased time devoted to the game.
- Change in social circle and interests.
- Loss of control.
- Gradual increase in irritation.
- Raising bids.
- Lack of ability to resist the game.
If at least several of these signs appear in a person, you should immediately seek professional help from a psychotherapist or psychologist.
Addiction relationship
The following relationship addictions can be distinguished: avoidance, love and sexual. The cause of such disorders is most often inadequate self-esteem, as well as inability to love oneself.
Love addiction - manic attachment to another person, fixation on him. Often similar relationships arise in two co-dependent people, in co-addictive ones. Such a relationship can appear in the parent and child, husband and wife, friends.
Love addiction has the following symptoms:
- A large amount of time and attention is paid to the object to which addiction is directed.
- The appearance of obsession, which is impossible to get rid of.
- There are experiences from fictional relationships.
- There is a loss of interest in their personal hobbies.
Signs of addiction avoidance:
- Avoiding intense relationships with a previously significant person.
- Deliberately spending time with other people, even if they are completely uninteresting.
- Attempts to avoid intimate contacts.
- Observing the psychological distance.
At a subconscious level, patients with avoidance addiction have a fear of abandonment. He is the main reason for this behavior.
A person who is addicted to love and an addiction to avoid are usually always drawn to each other. This attraction arises from the presence of familiar psychological traits of character that, although unpleasant, cause emotional pain, but are familiar.
Sexual addiction has these main features:
- Lack of control over sexual behavior.
- The impossibility of dealing with such an action, despite all the negative and dangerous consequences.
In the appearance in a person of such a violation as sexual addiction, the transferred sexual trauma in childhood is of great importance.
Workaholism
Workaholism, like any other addiction, is an escape from reality by changing the mental state, which is achieved by fixing at work. A person with such an addiction does not seek to work only for the sake of money or purpose. He replaces various types of activity with work: affection, entertainment, love, friendship, etc.
One of the notable and obvious features of workaholism is the compulsive desire for approval and success. The addicted person has a great fear of failure, to be at least slightly worse than others or to be noticed in incompetence and laziness. Such people behave quite alienated with friends and family. A workaholic lives only in the system of his own experiences with direct fixation at work.
A person suffering from such a disorder convinces not only himself, but also those around him that he is trying exclusively for the sake of money or promotion. In fact, this is a certain protection that is accepted by society, and the person himself does not understand that such a path is dead end and will not help to realize its potential. If a workaholic is fired, he cannot deal with such stress. Timely contacting a specialist will help to avoid problems in the future. Since such people subsequently more often than others have chemical dependencies. At the same time, it is workaholism that is one of the methods of rehabilitation of drug addicts or alcoholics.
Internet addiction
In the modern world, this problem in its scale has almost caught up with chemical dependencies. There are several types of diseases such as Internet addiction:
- Obsessive addiction (games or programming).
- Compulsive site navigation.
- Internet gambling addiction.
- Addiction to social networks.
- Internet porn addiction.
Computer addiction has the following main psychological symptoms:
- Excellent condition bordering on euphoria.
- Lack of opportunity to stop.
- A constant increase in the amount of time spent at the computer.
- Complete neglect of loved ones.
Internet addiction has the following physical symptoms:
- Constant pain in the wrist due to tunnel damage to the nerve trunks of the arm caused by overstrain.
- Dry eyes and headaches.
- Neglect of personal hygiene.
- Sleep disturbance.
Computer addiction can lead to sad consequences, especially in adolescence. A person as a result of such an addiction can lose loved ones, friends and will be able to return to real life only with the help of a psychologist.
Sports Addiction
Modern science distinguishes between sports necessary for health and professional. In addition, there are its extreme species, which are now becoming increasingly popular.
Sports addiction is a disease that is on the border of socially acceptable behavioral responses and physical dependence. It should be remembered that excessive enthusiasm for sports can easily change direction and shape, as a result of which it will switch to a different type, even chemical. Therefore, there is a fairly high percentage of drug addiction, alcoholism and drug dependence among former athletes.
Shopaholism
Shopaholism is called dependence on shopping and their lack of control. They bring satisfaction only for a short period of time, which leads to serious consequences in the future, for example, huge debts and problems with the law.
The main signs of shopaholism:
- A frequent shopping concern.
- A sudden, irresistible desire to acquire something.
- Out of pocket shopping.
- The acquisition of unnecessary things.
- An increasing amount of time is being devoted to shopping.
- The presence of sudden impulses to buy something.
- Inadequate waste of time.
All of the above gradually becomes a fairly serious obstacle in everyday life. It also causes great harm to the professional sphere and entails material problems.
Dependence on the constant desire to spend money and acquire unnecessary things is manifested in the form of repeated, irresistible urges to buy in large quantities. Between them, tension usually builds up, which can only be relieved by making another purchase. After this, guilt usually appears . Such addicts are characterized by a fairly wide range of existing negative emotions, while positive ones arise only during the shopping process. Dependent people of this type grow debts, loans, and problems arise in relations with relatives and relatives. There may even be problems with the law. In the modern world of technology, shopaholism is increasingly being realized through online purchases in virtual stores.
Food addiction
Nutritional addiction includes overeating and starvation. They are also called intermediate types. In the literature, one can often find a more extended interpretation of food addictions. They also include anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Nowadays chocolate addiction is isolated separately. There is an opinion that chocolate made from cocoa beans has the property of forming an addiction. This is due to the presence in beans of compounds that are close to endogenous cannabinoids in their chemical composition.
Next, we consider the types of addictions associated with food.
Binge eating
Addiction to food is both a psychological addiction, and in some way physical. Since it helps to get enough. As ordinary food gains more addictive potential, it is the artificial stimulation of hunger that occurs. Any person prone to overeating in this way can create a zone of high exchange balance. As a result, with a decrease in the concentration of glucose in the blood after the next meal, the feeling of hunger appears immediately, and the person can not tolerate it. Physiological mechanisms mismatch very quickly. Addict begins to eat a lot, often indiscriminately, all in a row. At some point, a constant sense of shame that builds up after eating is added to this behavior. As a result, a person intensely hides his dependence, begins to eat secretly, after any load his hunger intensifies. All this ultimately leads to very dangerous consequences for health: metabolic disorders, weight gain, malfunction of the internal organs and digestive system. A person ceases to control himself and begins to consume a volume of food, which can be life threatening.
Starvation
Currently, there are two main mechanisms of dependence on starvation: medical and non-medical. The medical option involves the use of unloading diet therapy. The initial phase of starvation has certain difficulties associated with the constantly arising need to suppress appetite. The next phase is characterized by a change in state. As a result, the appetite decreases or disappears, forces appear, as if a second wind opens, the mood rises, and a desire for physical activity appears. Many patients like this condition very much, and they want to stay in it longer, extend it.
Repeated fasting is carried out independently. As a result, at a certain level of euphoria arising from abstinence from food, loss of control occurs. The addict continues to starve even when it becomes already unsafe for health and life, a loss of a critical attitude to the condition occurs.
Any addiction, addiction, whether physical or mental, does not pass on its own. Inaction and unwillingness to fight it can lead to sad consequences, sometimes irreversible. Often a person suffering from addiction is not able to critically assess his condition and ask for help. Patients with gambling addiction, shopaholism, food addictions can not really realize the scale of their disease.
Addiction Prevention
Prevention of addiction should begin at school, where children are told in detail about its existing types, their causes and consequences. If a child finds out about the devastating effects of, for example, chemical addictions, most likely he will not even want to try alcohol, drugs or cigarettes.
The example of parents also plays an important role in the prevention of addiction in children. Help and support for loved ones in difficult situations, talking about problems - all this will help to avoid the desire of a person to leave in a fictional world.
Timely appeal to a psychologist and his direct participation in eliminating the causes of incipient addiction will certainly help to overcome it.