We have spoken all the time about alcohol addiction, drug addiction by all kinds, but we never did it about addiction itself. What the heck means addiction and where come from, how many types are, who is considered addict, and so on. The term "addiction" usually describes an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence. In medical terms addiction is described as a chronic neurobiologic disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions.
The most known cases are the drug, alcoholism and nicotine addiction, but there are a lot of other types of addiction, like gambling, crime, money, work addiction, compulsive overeating, Oniomania (compulsive shopping), computer addiction, video game addiction, pornography addiction, television addiction, etc.
Generally, addiction is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance despite its detrimental effects, impaired control over the use of a drug (compulsive behavior), and preoccupation with a drug's use for non-therapeutic purposes (i.e. craving the drug). Addiction is often accompanied by the presence of deviant behaviors (for instance stealing money and forging prescriptions) that are used to obtain a drug.
Tolerance to a drug and physical dependence are not defining characteristics of addiction, although they typically accompany addiction to certain drugs. Tolerance is a pharmacologic phenomenon where the dose of a medication needs to be continually increased in order to maintain its desired effects. For instance, individuals with severe chronic pain taking opiate medications (like morphine) will need to continually increase the dose in order to maintain the drug's analgesic (pain-relieving) effects.
Physical dependence is also a pharmacologic property and means that if a certain drug is abruptly discontinued, an individual will experience certain characteristic withdrawal signs and symptoms. Many drugs used for therapeutic purposes produce withdrawal symptoms when abruptly stopped, for instance oral steroids, certain antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opiates.
However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviors that are not generally recognized by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.
The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his individual health, mental state, or social life.
For more documentation about drug effects and drug rehabilitation, visit our site, "DrugRehab.ca". You may find also useful information on our blog, "Find A DrugRehab".
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2 comments:
Sometimes rehab is the only way to get better. Getting away from a regular environment and being in a safe, more insular environment can help.
Addiction, everything in this world can be addicting that if you consume too much, and too much is bad for you that becomes addiction. Now if that will be a teenager that would be more portent to once life. Today we thank to all the people who help our teen specially promoting adolescent drug treatment since these are the years where one cannot fully control their needs and wants.
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