Definition of Addiction
What is addiction? The most important thing to understand is that addiction is a DISEASE, as defined by the American Medical Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). According to ASAM, over 80 experts agreed to define addiction is a “primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry.”
Traditionally, addiction had a more narrow definition of an uncontrollable physical or psychological dependence to substances such as alcohol and drugs (including but not limited to marijuana, cocaine, and heroin).
More recently it has been more accepted that addiction can also involve many other things. It can also mean that you are psychologically dependent on certain activities to feel normal, such as gambling, video games, food, sex, pornography, shopping, etc. etc.
What Does This Mean?
Now what does this mean to an addict? This means that if you have an addiction, there are physical changes to your brain that is similar to other mental illnesses such as depression and it is a real medical disorder that affects the brain. These changes lead to the characteristic physical, mental, and social SYMPTOMS of addiction. This also means that addiction can be TREATED and you can RECOVER. In fact, in a 2005 study where 4,442 people with alcoholism participated, 75% recovered to the point where they were no longer considered alcoholics.
Addicts Should Not Be Embarrassed
While addiction is a harmful behavior, an addict should not be embarrassed about it. According to studies from National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), it is possible for anyone to develop an addiction. There are some people who are genetically more likely to become addicts and there are others who become one based on what they are exposed to. We just need to accept and understand that almost ANYTHING that is deeply enjoyable can become an addiction.
Addicts Can Control Their Future
The issue is not the fact that someone has an addiction, since anybody can develop it in some form or another, from celebrities to people close to you. What is more important is the addict’s desire to take back control of his/her life and deal with the addiction. Various long term studies of multiple types of addiction show that many people meet the criteria of addiction while they were younger, and recover without any treatment since they simply just “age out” of the problem. Other more serious forms of addiction require treatment and support groups. However this still comes back to the addict and his/her ability to admit the problem and want to do something about it. The purpose of this site is to help addicts who want to take back control of their lives and invest a STAKE in their future.
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