Any addiction subjugates the human will, forcing him time after time to perform certain actions, to take substances. Everyone is well aware of alcohol and drug addiction and their impact on a person, but few people think about this disease when a loved one does not leave the computer games or falls into a panic if he forgot his cell phone at home. The modern world is dictating more and more new types of addictions from the most seemingly harmless things.
The concept of “addiction” was introduced by the World Health Organization in 1964. Later a classification of addictions was made. Since that time, such phenomena as alcoholism or drug addiction were no longer considered bad habits, since it was proved that addiction to any substance is a progressive disease that undermines health at all levels of human activity.
Today addiction includes not only acute cravings for any psychoactive substances, but also mania and painful addictions to any everyday objects or phenomena. Addictions can manifest themselves at the physical, psychological and spiritual levels and distort the human mind and make us do things that are not necessary for our body and may harm our health, psyche or relations with other people.
What is addiction?
Addiction refers to a perceived compulsive need for something. The precondition for addictive behavior may be the desire to hide from the reality with its problems and imperfections by means of correcting our own consciousness. Sociologists, psychiatrists, addictologists and clinical psychologists work with the general mechanisms of any addiction development.
In medicine addiction is understood as a compulsive desire of a person to repeat certain actions, the inability to perform which provokes psychological or physical changes.
Causes of addictions
Many physiological, mental, social and cultural factors can be the causes of addictions. One of the main ones, according to some scientists, are certain biochemical processes that occur in the human body.
Addictive behaviors can be caused by genetic factors, peculiarities in the structure of DNA, and even mental aberrations. Addictive behavior can arise as a result of environmental factors.
The type of addiction is also influenced by a range of factors: social environment, upbringing and childhood problems, relationships with others.
The main factors influencing the formation of addiction are considered:
Psychology: characteristics of character, personality.
The social sphere: upbringing in a socially dysfunctional family, despotism, hyperprotection or oversight, the circle of communication.
Motivation: the desire to become part of a particular group, to show their importance, to become a leader.
Needs: the need to communicate, emotional support, understanding.
The main signs of addiction
Even without suspecting it, a person may have several types of addiction at once. The peculiarity of this disease is the denial of the presence of any problems by the addict himself, up to the extreme stages. It is often explained by the fact that very few people are able to objectively assess their actions and deeds and do not know how to determine the degree of craving. But there are some signs that indicate the presence of a formed addiction.
A constant need for something that constantly increases. If a person used to play computer games for an hour or two a week, now he gives it all his free time. Food or alcohol addiction works according to the same principle – if at first a person gets tipsy with one or two shots, then with the time of consumption he needs more and more doses.
It is difficult for a person to stop, he wants to repeat a certain action over and over again. Thus attempts of other people to interfere and correct a situation the addict perceives extremely negatively.
Changes in emotional behavior. Anxiety, irritation and aggression arise if the addict does not have an opportunity to have his/her needs met.
Changes in daily routine and rhythm of life. As time goes by, the addiction gets deeper and deeper into the person, making all other spheres of life less meaningful, uninteresting. Personal life suffers from this, problems arise at work or with studies because of tardiness, negligent attitude to one’s duties.
Consequences of addictions
Formed addiction can have a detrimental effect on a person’s physical and mental health, destroy his family, career, break social ties. Many addictions lead to serious illnesses that kill a person’s body, brain and nervous system.
If left unchecked and unaddressed, addiction can completely consume a person, forcing them to spend all their energy, time and money on the object of their addiction.