What is addiction?
According to the name – it is a state of mental or physical dependence on a particular psychoactive substance. This dependence causes a compulsion to take the substance (to get specific effects or to avoid the unpleasant symptoms of its absence in the body). This is the classical understanding of the term. „Addiction” understood in this way usually appears in the context of drug problems, but also in relation to alcohol, cigarettes or coffee.
However, it seems that in a rapidly developing world, in which modern technologies play an increasingly important role, such a definition is not sufficient. What if the addiction involves doing an activity that is not the use of a particular substance? Can we then also talk about addiction?
In that case, we are talking about behavioral addiction. It’s a term introduced back in the 1940s. It was developed in the 1970s by Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel. Nowadays, behavioral addiction, or functional addiction, is called any behavioral disorder that is addictive in nature and not related to the intake of psychoactive substances. Importantly, these activities are usually socially acceptable. Activities that can become an addiction include. Use of cell phone, computer, internet, shopping or taking care of appearance.
How do you recognize behavioral addiction?
The criteria for diagnosing addiction (not just behavioral) were defined in 1990 by Aviel Goodman. According to him, our concerns should include. The following symptoms:
1) lack of resistance to impulses that drive us to perform a certain activity,
2) feeling increasing tension just before its execution,
3) a sense of relief or pleasure when we perform an activity (while feeling out of control of our behavior),
5) the presence of at least five of the following symptoms:
– Frequent preoccupation with a particular activity or preparation for it,
– Increasing the amount of time devoted to an activity or increasing the intensity of its performance;
– Making unsuccessful attempts to control the time spent practicing an addictive activity;
– Spending a large amount of time on activities needed to perform a certain behavior, either related to that behavior or as a result of it;
– Frequent undertaking of a given activity when it is necessary to fulfill other duties: professional, academic, domestic or social;
– Continuing a given behavior despite knowing that it causes losses (social, financial, family);
– The need to perform an activity more and more intensively or more often;
– feeling irritated or annoyed when there is no opportunity to engage in the behavior we are addicted to.
Another symptom that may indicate that one is dealing with an addiction is if some of these symptoms persist for at least a month or occur frequently over a long period of time. What can one become addicted to? There are many behavioral addictions. These include, for example, shopaholism, addiction to gambling, pornography, food, exercise.
If you observe the above symptoms in yourself, you should consider going to a specialist – a psychiatrist and/or psychologist – for help.
Bibliography:
https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/uzaleznienia;3992023.html
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