Addiction: What is it?

An Introduction to Addiction, and to the post
No matter how major, or minor, an addiction may be, at the end of the day it is an addiction. Within this post, I will mainly be addressing behavioural addiction. However I may address other forms and types of addiction. I would also like to say thank you all ever so much for even opening my thread, and reading this far. I hope you all enjoy what you read. Of course if, after reading it, you feel there's something that I should go over in more detail, or perhaps it's too detailed, or maybe I might of even made a mistake, please don't hesitate in letting me know. After all, I'm only human. Once again, thank you, and I hope you enjoy!

Addictive Behaviour
An addictive behaviour is any form of activity, discipline or behaviour which, over time, gradually progresses to become a huge aspect and focus of someone's life to the extent in which a person may stop doing certain activities/events because of this behavioural addiction. Or, they may start to psychically or mentally start to hurt other people, especially when they feel that the person involved may be trying to, effectively, stop their addiction. For example, removing a computer from a person's room or cutting the important wires with a pair of scissors or a knife. Anyone can become addicted (obsessed, dependent) on anything. There are certain items which have been proposed to 'feed the addiction'. Things such as heroin, alcohol and several others. Addictive behaviour may come in the form of shopping, extreme fitness/excessive exercise, food and eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, gambling, sex, nicotine and several others. The main issue is that the behaviour, in most - if not all - cases, will be excessive. These addictive behaviours produce, it is said, the feeling of being 'high'. Since this 'high' feeling appears to be great, amazing, unbelievable, then the person involved will most likely end up finding themselves in an addictive cycle if they continue to engage in trying to maintain this feeling "great" feeling. Due to this, if the person does end up in an addictive cycle, they become physically addicted to their brain chemicals, which then leads on to the continuation of the addiction, thus making it worse, even if it may result in a negative result. Eg. skipping class to play an online game. Inevitably, any form of addiction will eventually escalate.

TzP's Story of Addiction
*Please note: This story is one hundred per cent true, however it did not happen to me, it happened to a friend of mine. For obvious reasons, I will not give any personal details of theirs away. Also, for personal reasons, I will be substituting my friend's name for "x".

X, my friend, has always been a very confident person. Whilst I have known him I have never known him to not be confident, not until a few months back anyhow. It all started on a pretty normal day at school. X had just finished class, and was walking over to the cafeteria to get some lunch. As he was queuing up, with a couple of his mates, a couple of older, bigger pupils walking up to him and pushed him straight out of the line. Since X was always confident, he never has been any different, he got back up, brushed himself down, and then asked them why they did that. They answered, "Cuz' you're gay." X, being X, simply walked past them, back to the original place in the queue. The bigger pupils really didn't like his gesture, and picked up by his collar and threw him into a nearby table. X was then immediately bombarded with insult after insult. Thus, lowering his confidence slightly. This, however, hasn't got anything to do with an addiction, so, I'm sure you're wondering, why am I saying this? All will be explained now. After getting home from his worst day at school, X was very upset. His parents weren't in, and, even if they were, they weren't the sort of people he could turn to at the time he needed it most. Depressed, upset, hurt and down-hearted, X didn't have the motivation to do anything. He didn't want to eat, drink, play football, nothing. All he wanted to do was be himself, which, since he was getting bullied at school, he couldn't do at school. He decided he would let the internet resolve his issues, and then deal with the consequences 'when he felt like it'. On the internet he could be himself, although he wouldn't have to put up with the general negativity at his school. He found out about sites, games, communities and forums; "Who needs friends, eh?". His internet commitments would increase, he would get into more games, and would gradually lose contact with his social life. Due to the fear of not wanting to get bullied, abused and offended, he would never try something new. He would just do what he had to do (school, etc) and that's it. Eventually, he completely lost contact with many good friends and relationships. He had no one to talk to, well, at least that's what he thought. X and I had always been very strong, good friends who understood each other well. However it was a while before he opened up to me. He explained, after several long months of bottling it up, his situation. I was shocked as to how serious it had gotten. I was also upset that he didn't come to me earlier. He knew I was a very sensitive, genuine person, and dealing with this sort of thing single handedly wouldn't solve anything. After a long chat, and several cans of coke later, we, together, decided that together we can resolve X's situation. At first, I told him to start cutting his computer time down, and start coming out with me at the weekends every now and then. Which, in time, would bring his confidence back up. Then, as time progressed, he started coming out a lot more regularly, and his social-life became back to how it used to be.

To you, that may just seem like a load of crap. However I can assure you that if you took the time to read carefully through X's situation, and then substituted your issues and scenarios to X's, you may be able to relate to his situation. The purpose of me posting X's story, is so that users/readers can get an understanding of a real life scenario, and something that if a user/reader is addicted, they can then relate to X, and maybe use what happened to him as a warning so that they can resolve their current situation.

"I'm Addicted; What should I do?"
First of all, you need to now whether or not you're actually addicted. Some of the more common signs of an addiction are:

• Difficulty when trying to cut down on the addictive behaviour.
• Opposite effects when not taking the substance, expressing the behaviour as to if they were.
• Activities not addiction related having less of a impact in a person's life, and their life gradually becomes focused around the addiction.
• Preoccupation in regards to the addiction; planning, engaging in the addictive behaviour.
• Extreme mood swings. All of sudden, you may gone from being overly happy to overly sad.
• Sleeping at irregular pattens, or a lot longer, or less, than usual.

​

After reviewing what has been explained and discussed over the thread so far, if you still consider that you may have an addiction, I am positive you're wondering how you can resolve this addiction?

First of all, the most important thing to do is to try and break the addictive cycle you may of got yourself into. Even if it means by 10 minutes, or by 1 cigarette, no matter how small the change, it's a start. Next, I strongly recommend you talk to someone. It would highly benefit if you speak to a professional, however family is just as recommended, along with good friends. If you're come to the conclusion you're addicted, and you've talked to someone about it, together, try and resolve the situation. At the start, it will be tough. Just keep thinking of what you're goal is, - whether that be purely stopping, cutting down, getting your social-life back or whatever - that way you'll have a motive to continue on. If you feel there's no one to talk to, I'm here. I'll be more than happy to have a long, detailed chat with you, no matter how bad, or not so bad, your situation is. Don't worry, I will not need any personal details what so ever. If you have a question, or there is an aspect, concept or statement within my thread which you're unsure with, leave a reply, or send me a PM and I will be more than happy to go through it with you. This is my first contribution to the sythe.org forums, and I will be updating it whenever I feel there is a need to. I'll also be posting more complex, psychological related threads in the very near future. Thanks for your time, TzP.


PS: Sorry all you picture-lovers, this is the sort of thing which can't be explained with a picture. Also, if you don't like big blocks of text, I'm also sorry. However this is intended to help those who consider themselves addicted, and since it is a very serious topic, there needs to be enough detail to cover it.


​

 

Not really a good guide, technically not even a guide at all.
You said a couple signs of addiction and told a story.
I'm not trying to be a jerk, it's just doctors go to college for years to work/deal with addictions.
I don't think your qualified enough to teach me or anybody about it.

I mean bro. . .

You couldn't even spell that right, like 20 times, and there is a spell checker.

And half those signs you listed, also could be signs of Stress, depression, and sleep deprivation.

 

Basically if your addicted Tell a family member. Which is really hard to do, but do it and they will hopefully force you into a rehab. I had a mother who had to go to jail and do rehab for over 2 years to finally quit.

I did not read the whole story but your addiction spectrum is to wide or big . every addiction is different and should be treated different

 

That would be the British spelling there, chief. Lrn2notbeignorant when you're trying to sound informed.

 

I may not be qualified in your eyes, however practically everyone within this section isn't qualified. You're entitled to your opinion, however I don't agree with it.

Thanks v3.

 

What if you don't have family? What if you're family abuse you?

 

Also, I never said this was a guide. However I figured this would be the best place to put it.