Are you feeling that your son/daughter or a loved one in your family is behaving quite unnaturally over the last few weeks? Have you noticed signs like abnormal sleep timings, weight issues, poor appetite, habits of lying and stealing, in him/her? Are you concerned about his/her new friend circle? You might need to take the matter quite seriously because it might be a case of addiction.
Addiction can be defined as physical and emotional dependence upon certain behaviors, psychoactive substances like alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco, heroin and other drugs which may temporarily alter the brain milieu i.e. the surrounding or nature of the brain. Addiction does not necessarily refer to the negative habits! You can feel addicted to any person, your clothes, music, television etc. Some individuals may remain engaged in a behavior over a period of time without becoming "addicted'' while others are not able to control their behavior and they have to go with the flow.
Most Common Behavioral Patterns Shown by an Addicted Person
- The person who is addicted to anything has tried to get out of that addiction but has failed to do so.
- The person's needs go on increasing! He gets engaged more in addictive behaviors or increases the degree of substance abuse. For example, he can start consuming alcohol to an increased extent just to enjoy that particular state of mind.
- The person is unable to meet the responsibilities of family members or to perform the household duties. He experiences problematic relationships with his friends, relatives and colleagues.
- A person becomes desperate to use the substance of addiction, for example, a cigarette, inspite of knowing its harmful effects on his body and mind.
- He faces difficulty in cutting down or controlling the addictive behavior.
Signs that Might Tell You Whether a Loved One is Addicted or Not
- You can notice extreme mood changes or mood swings, like happy, sad, excited, nervous, etc in a person close to you.
- Sleeping for more number of hours than usual, and sleeping at odd timings like in the afternoon or evenings can also lead you to suspect that a loved one is addicted to drugs.
- The person would show secretive behaviors by which he would try to hide certain facts and acts.
- You can observe changes in his social groups with the inclusion of new and unusual friends accompanied by odd cell-phone conversations.
- His health would also show certain signals in the form of weight loss or a sudden weight gain. You can also observe significant changes in his energy levels.
- He would develop a lying habit with an intention to hide his acts.
- He might try to steal money or other valuables in order to raise funds for his drug purchases.
Causes of Addiction
- Genetics: Addictions like alcoholism can be hereditary in nature. It has been seen that people belonging to alcoholic families are more likely to develop other forms of addiction as well! For example, people belonging to alcoholic families may have other addictions like overeating or cigarette smoking!
- Environmental Factors: Peer pressure or friends' influence might cause you to develop addictions like gambling which has got nothing to do with heredity. Some children who are adopted by alcoholic parents or drug addicts can indulge in the same habits just because of the environment faced by them during the crucial years of their identity and personality formation.
- Emotional Disorders: Emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress often increase the risk of substance abuse and addictive behaviors, especially amongst those who are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. Individuals often use drugs, alcohol, food, exercise or work as a way to treat themselves and to escape the symptoms of their primary disorder.
- The Substance Itself: Some substances such as cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine have high doses of chemicals in them and these are highly addictive and can make you depend on them very easily.
- Lower Tolerance Levels: Often individuals with low tolerance levels get addicted to substances as they tend to get frustrated very easily. They often experience stress too fast and try to find an escape route by getting into substance addictions.
Various Types of Addictions
- Physical Addiction: Physical addictions refer to the abusive use of addictive substances like alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.
- Psychological Addiction: The cravings for a drug or any such substance might hit the emotion or the psychology of a person. In that case, he may even try to steal or lie to get his hands on his desired objects.
Tips to Overcome Addiction
- Accept It: The first thing will be to understand that you are addicted to something! Acceptance is very important for you to help yourself. You should understand that a change is required in your life for a better health, a better job and a more secured future.
- Increase Your Awareness: Do some researches on your addiction. Increase your levels of awareness about it so that it becomes easier for you to cope up with it and its withdrawal symptoms, if any.
- Make a List: Make a list of reasons why you want to get away from that particular addiction! Is it for health or for the betterment of your family? The list of reasons will keep you motivated throughout.
- Replace with Good Habit: If you want to get rid of one habit, replace it by another one and this time a better one! For example, if you are a cigarette addict then slowly cut down on the number of cigarettes per day and set up a quitting date. Replace the cravings by drinking loads of water. This will not only give a feeling of fullness to your stomach, but will also kill oral craving.
- Eat Healthy: Eat mint, celery bar, healthy biscuits and drink fruit juices to keep your mouth busy.
- Distract Yourself: Go for a walk, watch entertaining shows on television. Do some exercises; listen to music and read books to distract you. Do something that you like to do apart from the addiction. Explore other things that you have wanted to do since long. Indulge in activities like sports, dance, painting, sketching and hand writing analysis.
There are some addictions that will need medical intervention, especially if they start affecting your psychological wellbeing along with your physiological health. Behavior change treatments are effective and performed by experts like counselors and psychologists. Medical detoxification is required for alcohol addicts. Behavioral therapy benefits the patients or those who are affected by addiction severely. They aim for the following:
- Experts help the patients to build skills to resist the addiction related activities.
- The methods encourage and motivate people to get out of their addictions and to help build a new perspective in life.
- They help to replace the old behaviors and addictions with new ones that are constructive and useful to the addicts.
- The therapy helps them to improve their problem solving ability.
- The procedure also helps the addicts to improve their interpersonal skills.
Rehabilitation needs family support, love and guidance from people who are knowledgeable and resourceful. Family therapy is very important for teenagers who are affected by addictions. The essence of addiction management is to find a path that is problem free and that which eliminates addiction behavior along with throwing a focus on the brighter side of life!
