Addiction - Definition, Cause and Effects

Addiction - Definition, Cause and Effects
By Tywford Lamai

Everybody has heard about the word addiction. But what exactly is addiction? Well, allow me to give you a minor definition:

Addiction is a habitual repetition of excessive behavior that a person is unable or unwilling to stop, despite its harmful consequences. People can be physically addicted to a drug, meaning they may suffer ill physical effects if they stop taking the drug. They also can be psychologically addicted to drugs, gambling, or other behaviors, meaning they feel overwhelmingly deprived if they attempt to stop.

People who are addicted to something constantly feel the need to “feed” that addiction. Most often than not, this condition sneaks up on them thereby blinding them to the reality that they have a problem and deceiving them into believing that the “problem” is with others. Addiction and Abuse differ in that Abuse is to hurt or injure by maltreatment, or to misuse the power accompanying an office or position. Abuse does not necessarily involve mistreatment of others. Drug dependence, alcoholism, and misuse of anabolic steroids are examples of self-abuse. But a person can abuse drugs and yet not be addicted to drugs.

Where addiction is concerned, there are two prevalent issues in determining it. These are: Physical dependency and tolerance. Mostly, people who are addicted end up injuring themselves or hurting the people they love the most. And even though addiction may be hard to prevail over, once a person begins to notice addiction as a problem, they should seek addiction treatment or alcoholism therapy.

Teenagers who party all night and in the mean time absorb themselves in taking drugs and alcohol for extra fun, often dominate the movies and big screen. More often than not other teenagers view this as the “in thing”. While movies do their part to depict the gruesome angle to alcohol and drug addiction, the heroes and heroines still end up being enchanting and perfect in nature and this only ends up eclipsing the ugly side to addiction. While the big screen is for entertainment reasons only, there is nothing distantly funny about the truth of alcohol abuse or drug addiction. Suffice it to say that life in a rehab centre can be a dreadful.

Drugs and alcohol can be addictive. Records reveal to us that the younger you are the more susceptible to addiction you are. Addiction frequently runs in families. Messing around with drugs and alcohol is a great risk – a “risky risk” if you like - the stake being your life, future, and personality.

People frequently disguise their drinking or rebuff the fact that they have addiction issues. Signs of possible problems with alcoholism include having friends and people close to them beginning to express concern about their drug/alcohol intake, their becoming aggravated when people comment on their drinking, their feeling of guilt about too much alcohol intake and thinking that they should moderate it but finding themselves unable to, or their needing a morning drink to calm their nerves or alleviate a hangover.

Conversely, reliance on drugs often begins with the abuse of officially authorized drugs like prescription drugs and inhalants. Inhalants are legal substances that become illegal when used in a way that results in a person becoming stoned. Inhalants also comprise of acetone, cleaning fluids, gasoline, butane, and aerosol cleaners. Though legal to sell these substances are not controlled substances and since they are comparatively cheap when compared with drugs and are easily obtainable, they can be abused without necessary restrictions.

People struggling with addiction ought to work hard at resolving them, and with the encouragement of friends and family members they are capable of pulling through on their own. Nonetheless they mostly cannot stop drinking or abusing drugs by sheer strength of will alone. Most of them require external assistance; more often than not this assistance comes from Alcohol Rehab or Drug Rehab. Alcoholism and addiction treatment may need medically controlled detoxification to circumvent acute withdrawal symptoms such as seizures and convulsions. As soon as they stabilized, they need aid in resolving psychological issues connected with their drinking or drug problems.