A Brief Overview of Addiction
Addictions are viewed by most people as involving the use of drugs like alcohol, crack, and so forth. The initial use of any substance is typically voluntary. However, chronic use of the drug can lead to changes in body chemistry, cell function and physiology, eventually resulting in a person needing the substance in order to function. One of the hallmarks of addiction is chronic drug-seeking behavior and use, despite the negative consequences upon physical and psychological health, social relationships, employment, as well as legal complications.
The term “addiction” can also be used to refer to any physical or psychological dependency in which the addicted person feels a compulsive need to repeat the experience. For certain individuals, food, sex, or gambling can be as addictive as any drug. Even tasks can be addictive, including exercising, working, and surfing the Internet.
Tobacco and alcohol are the most common addictions. Alcohol use and abuse leads to 2.6 million preventable deaths worldwide each year, while for tobacco that number is 6 million. Besides these deaths, the use of these drugs can lead to devastating outcomes to, not just the individual drug user, but to their families and communities in respect to finances, health problems, criminality and so on.
For the individual, chronic alcohol use can damage a person’s pancreas and liver. The immune system can be compromised. There can be gastrointestinal damage. It can cause damage the heart. For some, there may be neurological damage. And it can significantly increase the risk of cancer.
Causes
Poor emotional health underlies most addictions. Alcoholism tends to run in families and learned behavior certainly plays a role, but several factors must be present for an addiction to develop. An inability to deal with an emotional problem is often a trigger, since addictions are more likely to begin at emotionally difficult periods of life. The social acceptance of medicinal drugs and alcohol also encourages substance use and dependencies.
The drugs that pose the greatest risk for developing addictions are those drugs that affect the brain’s reward centers. The neurotransmitter used in these reward centers is dopamine. Dopamine is found in a number of neural systems and is involved in a number of behaviors, movement, emotion and motivation. However, it’s role in the reward centers is to produce feelings of pleasure when dopamine levels are raised. With drugs, the more effective a drug is in increasing dopamine levels in these so-called “pleasure centers” is directly correlated with the likelihood that it will be used again. And again. In short, the act of drug use is being rewarded and this “learned” behavior will be repeated.
If this was all there was, drugs might not pose problems. Unfortunately, the body has a tendency to compensate for these outside-induced changes. This process of tolerance is two-fold. First, the brain will reduce the amount of dopamine available in these reward centers. As a result, the typical dose of drug is no longer effective. The user will need to increase the dose. As the dose increases, tolerance will continue to develop until the user needs to use the drug just to feel normal. The body also is adapting to the presence of the drug, eventually reaching the point where the user needs the drug to function. If this weren’t enough, as the dose of the drug increases, there is a increase risk of tissue damage. In other words, it’s the high, chronic doses of alcohol that leads to things like throat cancer, cardiovascular disease or cirrhosis of the liver.
Symptoms
Brain-imaging scans comparing the brains of drug addicts and non-drug addicts have revealed some differences. Areas involved in learning & memory, behavioral control, decision-making and judgment have been shown to be different. They’re work performance typically suffers, either from the direct effects of the drug or because they focus their energies towards acquiring more of the drug. A signature feature of drug addicts is using the drug in secret. This allows them to avoid admitting they have a problem or confronting it.
Alcoholism and other addictions are curable, but because addiction changes the brain, it can be highly challenging for you to stop using. Moreover, since the disease begins slowly without remarkable signs and symptoms, addiction can sometimes be hard to recognize. Friends and family members will likely be the first to notice any changes in personality caused by a dependency, but embarrassment and denial often mask the problem.
Avoiding Addiction
Many of the risk factors for engaging in harmful behaviors as adults can be traced back to our childhoods. This is no different for drug addiction. The parent-child relationship can play an important role in preventing drug addiction. If it is that relationship is strong, it can effectively reduce the risk factors throughout the child’s life. Of course, developing a strong relationship is, itself, a challenge. Parents who develop skills in involvement, supportiveness and parent-child communication appear to be particularly successful in forming strong bonds with their children.
Monitoring and supervising your child is critical. It’s important that you be a good role model by not abusing drugs or alcohol yourself, set fair and understandable rules, monitor your child’s activities, praise them for appropriate behavior, and provide moderate, consistent discipline to enforce defined rules so that they don’t fall prey to the lure of addiction.
Early intervention generally has a far greater impact than later intervention by shifting a person’s life path away from problematic behaviors and toward more positive ones. These include self-control, emotional awareness, communication, social problem-solving, and knowing where and how to access support.
Body imbalances underlying most addictions are often linked to an unhealthy diet. Poor nutritional habits that can promote addictions include excess salt and meat, too many refined or hydrogenated fats, or a surplus of processed foods with chemical additives. Sometimes the addictive substance is itself a food.
Exercise stimulates production and secretion of the neurotransmitter serotonin. A deficiency of serotonin is associated with a vast array of mental-health problems — including addiction. Doing 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a day can be as effective as medication in elevating serotonin levels without the unwelcome side effects. Activities that are most likely to stimulate the production of serotonin include running, brisk walking, aerobics, bicycling, swimming, and high-energy sports such as soccer or rugby.
