What Is Addiction?

How an addiction does start? Where from?
We all say I’m addicted to that; I’m addicted to this; but if we like to do things or if we enjoy them that doesn’t mean we also have am addiction. For example how many times haven’t you done something just because you like it? No, that that addiction either.

For a long period of time people have considered that addictions are nothing more than an uncontrollable habit of using alcohol or smoking. In the present people scientists shown two types of addictions: physical and mental.

An addiction appears when you experience something you like and you continue on doing it even it makes you feel bad, even it makes you lose time, disable your balance. It is a behavioral disorder and the most obvious symptom is that the person reaches a point when she just can’t turn back, she can’t control his actions. It’s like this addiction is controlling you, and even if the addicts see that this kind of behavior harms them they continue the compulsive actions.

Physical addiction is the result of a frequent and abusive use of harmful substances and the adaptation of the body to them, until the point when the body raises its tolerance and it need the substance just to function properly. You can tell that you have an addiction when certain symptoms appear in the psychical and mental plan.
In the beginnings the addiction was described as the lack of will, power or motivation for one reason. In the present life it is considered a real disease with psychological, genetic, and psychosocial aspects.

Depending of its depth the addiction may be part of our normal life or part of a psychic illness, a disorder for which you will have to go to therapy and probably to a psychiatrist. The addiction is not related only to thing but also to persons, real people. For instance if you’re a man and you’re madly in love with a woman which doesn’t even knows about your existence, or ignores you, you may find yourself in the posture of being named obsessed. Now you may wonder why. Are you thinking of her? Does she make you feel good when nothing else does? Is this one of the reasons why you want to see her?

Most addictions tend to appear as a result of the childhood of an adult. Adults don’t realize why they are gambling, smoking, drinking or doing different things which can create addictions. Most of them are harmful for most of us but in the same time they are sweet and tender as some would say.

Let’s take the gambling addiction! “When I gamble, I feel the adrenaline! I feel that my life ends there and that anything couldn’t stop me from realizing my dreams… even if I know that I may lose I still to it for the thrill.” Says a gambler… “Sometimes I don’t play to win and I also know it will not bring me happiness, but I still do it. Yes sometimes I find myself covered in dues… But that’s not important enough to quite playing”. For these people the game, the addiction is part pleasure part pain. To be more clear they feel good when they “live” it and when they stop playing, smoking or drinking they feel guilt, disappointment or anger on themselves because of their weakness.

About Iris Lulea

Psychologist specialized in Family, Couple and Children Therapy at S.P.E.R.