Addiction is defined by Webster as “the need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well- defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.” (www.merriam-webster.com). Society of addiction of psychology states that “Addiction is one of the social problems which has a significant role in the spiritual and physical health of the person, family, and specially the health of the society.
One of the main factors for continuance and intensity of involvement in addiction, is that the individuals, the network positive (healthy) relations is low” (Jaliliyan, 2009). Addiction is defined by Webster as “the need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well- defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.” (www.merriam-webster.com).
Addiction affects many people currently it’s a disease that affects a person’s brain and behavior; it is not all drugs and alcohol, but it can also be addiction to the internet and even shopping. Drug addiction has afflicted people since the 1800’s when morphine and heroin was popular, by the turn of the twentieth century with drugs like heroin and cocaine still popular and barbiturates a class of sedative and sleep- inducing drugs, illegal drugs were used wide spread in the United States. These drugs Amphetamines are stimulants of the central nervous system, hallucinogens are a substance that induces hallucinations, heroin is an addictive narcotic made by acetylation. Ecstasy is a synthetic drug used for mood – enhancing and hallucinogenic properties, and cocaine bitter crystalline alkaloid used for euphoric effects. (Bodil, ; Arne, 2016). Addiction to illicit drugs has plagued many American males, females, and even children one report states.
“An estimated 28.6 million Americans aged 12 or older were reported using an illicit drug in 2016” (Spencer, Lim, ; Ray, 2018). Drugs are put into five schedule categories: “schedule I: any drug with no current medical use and a high potential for abuse examples: heroin, marijuana, and ecstasy. Schedule II: drug or substance with a high potential for abuse and high psychological or physical dependence. Examples: Vicodin, cocaine, OxyContin they are classified as dangerous. Schedule III: drugs or substance with moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence with a low abuse rate. Examples: codeine, ketamine, and anabolic steroids. Schedule IV: drugs substances that have a low potential for abuse examples: Xanax, valium, and tramadol.
Schedule V: drugs, substances, or chemicals with lower potential for abuse and dependence. Examples: robitussin, lomotil, and motofen.” ( Gabay, 2013). The signs and symptoms of addiction are thinking of the drug and forgetting all other things, wanting more of the drug, the drug amount no longer works so one needs more in order to get high, always having to have it no matter what the consequences are, spending all ones money on drugs, messing up or missing work or school, not meeting obligations, doing illegal things to get drugs one’s health can start to fail, lack of energy and motivation, not caring about one’s appearance, not telling people where he/she is going or where you been, and relationships with family and friends start being affected. Treatments for drug addiction are: behavioral therapies modify one’s attitudes and behaviors related to drug use, increase healthy life skills, medication, outpatient treatment like cognitive- behavioral therapy help recognize, avoid, and cope with the situations which one could probably use drugs, there is also inpatient residential treatment like, therapeutic communities which are highly structured programs that patients remain at a residence for six to twelve months; the program influences the people attitudes, understandings, and behaviors with drug use. A recovery house is a place where supervised short-term housing people stay while learning how to manage their finances and find a job, with help from support services. Alcohol addiction is classified as a chronic disease characterized by the inability to limit drinking and one’s impairment is not in control.
According to the “National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, in the United States 86.4 percent of people drink alcohol, alcoholism rates are decreasing since it dropped to 16.7 million.” Alcohol addiction can also affect your body with heart damage creating cardiovascular disease, liver damage called cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, stomach distress, anemia, depression, nerve damage, and high blood pressure; alcohol can possibly shrink a person’s brain and can induce blackouts, hallucinations, slurred speech, infertity, and changes in coordination. Alcoholism is one of the most common addictions there are about 88,000 people that die from alcohol causes every year; everyday 28 people die from drunk drivers, which is one death every 48 minutes in 2015, 10,265 people died from a DUI and 1.4 million were arrested for driving under the influence “DUI’s cost the public over fifty billion dollars and result in more than 17,000 deaths. Drivers with prior offenses are more likely to be involved in fatal crashes.” (Baley & Hoffmann, 2015).
To prevent drinking and driving one should have a designed driver, take a taxi cab, or ask a friend that has not been drinking for a ride; if not a big drinker, just play it safe and don’t drink. Signs of alcoholism are loss of interest in work or school, depression, lack of interest in family and friends, one’s obsession with drinking, restlessness, cannot control one’s drinking, and violent behavior. One treatment for alcohol addiction is behavioral therapy which helps stop drinking through counseling they have one-on-one therapy that is focused on the feelings and situations that lead to the drinking and manages the stress that can lead to drinking again another option is motivational enhancement therapy for a short period of time it is used to build and strengthen motivation to stop the drinking there is also medication to help stop or reduce a person drinking, some of the medicine is naltrexone that help slow down heavy drinking, disulfiram which blocks the breakdown of alcohol by the body, and there is also mutual support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and there twelve step program that gives support to people trying to quit or cut back on drinking. Internet addiction is defined as an “impulse-control disorder that refers to an individual’s inability to control his or her use of the internet (including any online – related compulsive behavior) which eventually causes marked distress and functional impairment in daily life.” (Bhardwaj & Rani 2018). There are about 320,059,368 people in the United States that are using the internet every day; out of those people, one in eight are addicted to the internet. They are addicted to social media, gambling sites, porn, video gaming etc.
The signs of internet addiction are spending time alone with a computer or smartphone, getting defensive when you try to confront the person about how he/she is acting, being blind to the fact of their behavior, trying to deny it, these individuals love being on their computers or smartphones, they have lost interest in things they used to do, like sports, work, school, friends, and family. They are in their own world and get irritable if somebody tries to talk to or bother them. Internet addiction can break up families and relationships; their only focus is the internet and they cannot go minutes without being on the internet. Treatments for internet addiction are structured or supervised access to the internet, group or family therapy, behavior modification, CBT- better known as cognitive behavioral therapy and limiting the time on the internet. Gambling addiction is the inability to stop gambling when one begins to lose. It is a disorder of impulse control, the person will not stop gambling even if it means consequences are physical, mental, and even to work, family and social relationships. It can cause anxiety, depression, even suicidal thoughts.
Signs and symptoms of gambling addiction are being secretive about gambling due to feeling others won’t understand and having trouble controlling gambling. One cannot walk away once he/she has started gambling even though he/she does not have the money one gambles until he/she has lost all his/her money. He/she does not have money to pay bills, buy food, or get things his/her family needs. He/she might even steal to get money to gamble with. Friends and family are worried about the gambling. Some people love the adrenaline rush they get from gambling; they gamble to get over boredom or loneliness, to relax, and even solve money problems. Treatments for gambling addiction include in-patient rehabilitation programs.
This is where one stays in a facility for a certain amount of time, usually thirty days to a year. This is only needed if the person can’t avoid casinos, or gambling places. Outpatient programs are were one goes to classes in a set place, to group sessions, or one-on-one therapy. The person will still live at home and go to work or school and do their regular activities. Twelve step programs like gamblers anonymous, in rare cases medication to help overcome their gambling. Sex addiction is a “pattern of out – of- control sexual behaviors it involves increased frequency of sex to obtain the desired pleasure, it can affect jobs, relationships, and daily activities. Seventeen million Americans suffer from a sex addiction” (Guzman, Arnau, Green, & Jore, 2015).
The effects of sex addiction are the chance of catching a venereal disease and pregnancy is also common; there is a decline in personal relationships, marriage, decreased work productivity, and physical consequences. Sex addiction can also bring feelings of shame, inadequacy, emotional distress lead to psychological disorders like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, impulse control, and obsessive- compulsive disorder. Sex addiction can develop from biological, psychological, and social. Signs and symptoms of sex addiction are: uncontrollable masturbation, many affairs, more than one sexual partner, and one-night stands; t use of pornography, unsafe sex, cybersex, exhibitionism, and voyeurism. The behaviors may include inability to contain urges, detachment when the act does not emotionally satisfy the person, obsession with attracting other people, feelings of shame and guilt, spending time trying to get sex, and giving up family, work, social activities just to get sex.
Sexual addiction is not from the individual act, but with the obsession of carrying it out. Treatments for sex addiction are cognitive behavioral therapy treatment, that works by helping the person switch the focus of his/her thoughts and behaviors, or inpatient sex addiction treatment center. Plastic surgery addiction is a type of dysmorphic disorder where a person believes that the next procedure followed by multiple surgeries will solve their issues of poor body image. “In 2016 people spent sixteen billion on plastic surgery, the top five procedures that people are addicted to are breast augmentation 290,467 people got this procedure done with a cost of 3,719 per procedure, liposuction 235,237 procedures were done at a cost of 3,200 per procedure, 223,018 people got nose reshaping costing 5,046 per procedure, 127,633 people got a tummy tuck the average cost is 5,798 for each procedure, 18,489 people got buttock augmentation with an average of 4,356 for one procedure” ( Bergland 2017).
Signs of plastic surgery addiction are: the person is often unhappy with their appearance, and unhappy with the results of other surgeries they had. They may have unrealistic expectations about how the surgery will turn out, thinking that plastic surgery will get them a better relationship or job. After surgery, they find another feature that they feel needs to be fixed so they go back under the knife. They don’t listen to the advice of their surgeon about stopping the surgeries because they have had enough or that their health could suffer. Treatment for plastic surgery addiction is that there is no real cure the person must realize that it’s not what’s on the outside but on the inside, they must build up their self-esteem to understand they need to work on the person and not try to cover it up with going under the knife. Video game addiction is defined as the over use, compulsive, excessive use of computer or video games. Forty-one percent of people play online video games, the average length of time playing video games is fifty hours per week seventy- two percent of Americans who play video games. Forty percent play online video games to leave the real world.
Video games became an addiction because the games were designed to get people addicted. Signs of video game addiction are: the feeling of restlessness or irritability when one cannot play, thinking about the next time one will play, lying about how much one is actually playing, isolation from others so one can play. There are also physical symptoms like fatigue, eye strain from viewing the screen for long periods of time, migraines, and carpal tunnel syndrome from the video game controller being used to long. Treatment for video game addiction is cognitive behavioral therapy which lets the person turn their thoughts to something else, replace the thoughts with healthier thought patterns, and modify their feelings. Psychological addiction is the mental process that’s associated with the growtht of and recovery from a disorder or process. “psychological addiction is observed or measured by subjective self- report or behavioral ratings, it arises from the brain, as do most (but perhaps not all) bodily symptoms” (Newlin 2008). Signs of psychological addiction include: cravings, anxiety from trying to stop the addictive behavior, depression, irritability and restlessness when not using, appetite loss or increased appetite, sleep issues, uncertainty about quitting, denial about having a problem, obsessing over using, cognitive issues like concentration, memory, judgement, and problem-solving, psychological and emotional processes have all complicated behaviors.
Treatments for psychological addiction are detoxification managed under medical supervision, which might be needed but is only the first stage of treatment, medication that lowers the use of illicit drugs and medication that focus on certain symptoms, short term counseling to help solve problems with treatment find things to help with change, or cognitive behavior therapy. This helps the person realize what trigger’s the problems and how to deal with them, group therapy these groups help support recovery and stop relapse, life skills and training. Smoking addiction is the addiction to tobacco products caused by nicotine. He/she cannot stop using tobacco, even though it is causing harm. “The United States Surgeon General has stated that smoking represents the most extensively documented cause of disease ever investigated in the history of biomedical research” (Cummings, Sciandra, Gingrass, ; Davis, 1991).
Health risks of smoking are: emphysema, asthma, chronic bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, lung disease, pregnancy problems, cancer, and even death. Signs of a smoking addiction includes: craving for cigarettes, cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, respiratory illness, fatigue, decrease sense of smell and taste, hacking cough that produce phlegm or blood, insomnia, and an inability to stop smoking. The ways to treat smoking addiction are use of medication, getting support and encouragement, and learning ways to resist smoking and learn how to handle stress better.
For treatment for smoking addiction one must have the patch that sends nicotine replacement through the arm or back and slowly helps the body wean off nicotine. Then there is nicotine gum that helps people that need the oral fixation of smoking or the need to put something in their mouth. The gum administers a small amount of nicotine to help with the cravings, spray or inhaler gives small amounts of nicotine into the lungs without the tobacco, and medication like certain antidepressants or high blood pressure medicine helps to manage cravings and it decrease the need to smoke. Caffeine addiction is a boost to the central nervous system, constant use of caffeine does cause physical dependence. “common knowledge that coffee, tea, and other beverages, that contain caffeine are habit-forming.
A recent medical study confirms that caffeine is strongly addictive, with subjects exhibiting syndromes of intoxication, withdrawal, and dependence.” (Olekalns ; Bradsley, 1996). At least sixty-eight million Americans drink three cups of coffee a day, fifty-four percent of people over eighteen drink caffeine every day. Signs of caffeine addiction include: throbbing headaches in the morning because of a need for caffeine, blood pressure drops when skipping caffeine, heart rate increase or palpitations, caffeine elevation of blood pressure, body temperature increase and decrease because caffeine increases the blood flow and heart rate, and lack of sleep.
To cut back, substitute caffeine for something with no caffeine like green or black tea, dilute the drink with half water, eat, and get plenty of rest. T ry to walk every day. Treatment for caffeine addiction includes: juice fasting, slowly decreasing the amount of caffeine intake, hypnosis, group counseling, and support groups. Exercise addiction is an uncontrollable disorder that makes a person feel the need to exercise excessively. “the amount of research shows the benefits of physical activity; addictive exercise can impact quite negatively on people lives.
” (Landolfi, 2012). Signs of exercise addiction are: loss of control, not being able to control the urge to exercise or stop exercising even when injured, physical problems, going beyond the intended time, frequency, and intensity of the exercise, spending a lot of time thinking or planning to exercise, spending less time in social settings, needing more exercise often and longer, and the feeling of irritability, restlessness, or anxiety when not exercising. Treatment for exercise addiction should fit the person personally, residential treatment which makes one get away from the things that trigger the addiction giving the person a safe place, medication to ease the withdrawal symptoms, outpatient treatment place where one is treated in the morning but goes home at night, or partial hospitalization. Religious addiction is a person’s life, faith, religious, thoughts that become habit, then harmful urge. “religion with its rituals can become an object of addiction, common that such individuals transfer their feelings of anger, rage, and sometimes even hatred to God” (Gostecnik, Cvetek, Poljak, Repic, & Cvetek). Signs of religious addiction are: obsessing about religious activities, feeling withdrawal symptoms when you don’t do any religious activities, feeling like it is never enough, messing up relationships with others to do religious activities. religious addiction is a hard addiction to help.
There is no arguing with a religious addict unless one use evidence, reason or logic. A professional’s help is required in helping a religious addiction because it is difficult to do alone. Shopping addiction, also known as uncontrollable buying disorder, affects millions of adults in the United States. It’s known as the impulse to spend money regardless of financial need.
“compulsive buying is a dysfunctional consumption behavior. The excessive and compulsive purchases are often fueled by the need to escape from an unpleasant feeling or condition. Instead, the purchases can create feelings of anxiety or guilt due to the resulting financial problems” (Sohn ; Choi, 2014). Signs and symptoms of shopping addiction include: shopping when feeling emotional distress, buying things one does not need because it is on sale, spending more than one can afford, shopping because one feels depressed, shopping so one does not feel guilty about a previous shopping spree, messing up relationships because of too much shopping, losing control of one’s shopping behavior, therapy with a qualified therapist to control the compulsive shopping is available. Shopping addiction isn’t considered an addiction as much, treatment will be made up of the same rules as other types of behavioral addictions, like gambling, sex, porn, exercise, and work. So, what’s most important to know is that there are many tools to help like counseling working one-on one with a qualified counselor, cognitive behavioral therapy which will help with negative thoughts and behavior, group therapy that let one hear from other people with the same problems and find out what treatment works for them, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor medication that helps with a person impulse to purchase things and help keep their mood under control, support groups are good because you are with people that have the same experiences as you do and find out what treatment worked for them and what did not work.Food addiction is defined as when a person can’t stop eating even with consequences like weight gain or health problems “food addiction has been used to indicate strong preferences and food habits, that food addiction has the same properties as addiction to hard drugs” (Blundell, Coe, ; Hooper, 2013).
More than five percent of people suffer from a food addiction. It occurs in seven percent of women and three percent in men, with food addiction occurring in two percent of underweight people and eight percent of overweight or obese people. Food addiction is the result of a psychological factor like low-self-esteem, going through grief or loss, a traumatic event, not being able to deal with a negative situation. Signs and symptoms of food addiction are eating more food than one can handle, eating until one is sick, eating even though one is no longer hungry, eating in secret or alone, not going to social functions to spend time eating, decrease job performance, spending money buying certain foods than binging once one get them, low energy and chronic fatigue, insomnia, restlessness, irritability, headaches, digestive disorder; there are also physical effects that goes along with food addiction like heart disease, diabetes, digestive problems, obesity, chronic fatigue and Pain, sleep disorders, arthritis, stroke, kidney/liver disease, and osteoporosis. Treatment for food addiction is done by a nutritionist or psychologist. He helps break the cycle of overeating. There is also a twelve-step program to help with recovery and other programs to help you stop eating things like sugar and refined flour. The programs help you reduce eating, help with weight loss, and look at other issues you may have.
Hoarding addiction is “traditionally described as the acquisition of excessive amounts of items and lack of ability or desire, to discard them, resulting in a cluttered living space and significant impairment or distress” (Haywood ; Coles 2009). Seventy-five percent of hoarders excessively buy things, fifty percent get free items, fifteen percent know that their behavior is unreasonable, thirty-eight percent of the cases were said to be filthy environments. Signs and symptoms of hoarding: getting unnecessary items, hard time getting rid of things, feeling the need to save things, your rooms cannot be used because of clutter, being indecisive, a perfectionist attitude, avoiding things and organizing, huge buildup of trash, clothes, papers, and books, problems with other people that’s trying to throw away things, problem removing clutter, increased risk of falling, risk of injury, and fire hazard. Treatment for hoarding is cognitive behavioral treatment the person talks to a therapist, antidepressant; there is exposure and response prevention (ERP). This is when the person is forced to throw away a big amount of their things.Work addiction, known as workaholism is the inability to stop the behavior, comes from the need to achieve status and success, driven by job success. “workaholism as uniformly negative.
The conception of workaholism exclusively in terms of working extremely hard” (Salanova, Lopez-Gonzalez, Liorens, Libano, Vicente- Herrero & Tomas-Salva 2016). Thirty-four percent people don’t take vacation, thirty percent worry about work when on vacation, eighty-six percent admit to being a workaholic, they put in twelve hour days instead of eight hours. Signs and symptoms of work addiction are: spending long hours at work when one does not need to, losing sleep to do work projects, obsession with work things, feelings of failure and fear, scared about work performance, attitude towards others about their work, avoid relationships using work, using work to deal with guilt and depression, working to deal with issues of divorce, death, or money problems. Treatment for work addiction include: cognitive behavioral therapy, this makes the person deal with the problem, helping them set limits and learn time-management, asking the person to cut back on work hours. Rational emotive therapy focus on unreasonable behavior, motivational interviewing focus on altering their habit and forming a healthy work-life and balance, positive psychology is helping the person focus on positive qualities and characteristics. Workaholics anonymous is a twelve-step program that focus on recovery. Love addiction is uncontrolled behaviors around romance, sexuality, and relationships, with harmful results for the addicted person.
Five to ten percent of people suffers from love addiction; the causes include: childhood neglect, and abandonment, rejection, emotional, and sexual abuse. The people that suffer from love addiction lacks confidence, feels insecure, they act desperate, clingy, and needy. Signs of love addiction include: falling in love easily, attraction is the most important thing, ignoring all signs that the person is no good, cannot let go once one is attached, always thinking about love even if not in a relationship, scared of never finding somebody to love, cannot say no to one’s partner. When in a relationship, sacrifice one’s own needs for the other person, relationships with family and friends suffer. Treatments for love addiction includes: building healthy relationships, setting boundaries, true intimacy. “Prevention programming- includes types of counseling that attempt to facilitate a secure attachment style” (Sussman, 2010). Twelve-step support groups like sex and love Addicts Anonymous, the person will be asked to not have any romantic or sexual relationships. Prescription drug addiction is a brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use even though they are harmful.
“6.4 million people who reported abusing medications includes 4.7 million who used pain relievers, 1.8 million who use tranquilizers, and 1.1 million who used stimulants, 7,873 patients were treated in the emergency room department” (Hamilton, 2009).
More Americans died from drug overdoses in 2004.Opioids, central nervous system depressants like Xanax, valium, Ativan. Stimulants such as Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, and Methylin. Signs and symptoms of prescription drug addiction include: confusion, slowed breathing, unsteady walking, poor concentration, drowsiness, no appetite, agitation, irregular heartbeat.
Anxiety, stealing prescriptions, poor decision making. Treatment for prescription drug addiction includes: cognitive behavior therapy- which helps people get to the root of why they abuse drugs, and deal with life. Holistic therapies focus on the person’s mind, body, and spirit. There are many jobs dealing with addiction.
Some of them are: Addiction Counselors these work with people dealing with substance abuse problems and other addictions. Clinical Supervisors-these develop counseling skills and approaches through evaluations and assessments and address legal and ethical issues with mental health counseling. Addiction Psychiatrists-focus on the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of people who are suffering from one or more disorders related to addiction- Behavioral Disorder Counselor-people that work in the field of addiction but they focus on helping people overcome addictions Addiction Specialist-provide prevention screening, intervention, and treatment for substance use and addiction.The future of addiction is they will broaden the meaning of success the treatment process is a journey that addicted people pass or fail, provide substance abuse programs based on evidence-based design, continuous assessment and care in the early stages of the treatment, holistic and all natural treatment that focus on the mind, body and soul; assist addicts maintain healthy habits so they can manage better and maintain their recovery, inexpensive treatment so that anyone that needs help for addiction can afford it. The length of treatment will increase and the programs that’s usually twenty-eight days will change to sixty or ninety day programs, and provide medication, increase in facilities more accessibility for treatment.
Therapists will stop treating every addiction the same way, addiction causes other disorders so treating one means treating the other even if you’re not sure which disorder came first, immunotherapy vaccines for substance addictions appear good, more research is needed to answer questions about the safety and success of such treatments. In the future, I would choose to work in the addiction field, to see a person come in struggling with a certain addiction and wanting help, and hear all the things he have been going through and knowing he just wants help to change his life style and get out of the hard times he is going through; to give them steps and support on how to overcome their addiction, help give him a new lease on life and look back on how they turned their life around as a therapist that would be very rewarding. In conclusion addiction can affect the young and old. It comes in all different types from drugs, internet, shopping, alcohol, gambling, sex, plastic surgery, video gaming, and smoking. They all are very serious.
A person can lose his family, friends, job, home, money, and even his life. Addictions should be taken serious and family and friends should know the signs and symptoms of certain addictions, so they can get their love one or friends help if they need it before it’s too late.
