In medical terminology, addiction awarness is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence, as in drug addiction. When the drug or substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms.
Addiction is generally associated with increased drug tolerance. In physiological terms, addiction is not necessarily associated with substance abuse since this form of addiction can result from using medication as prescribed by a doctor. Learn more @addictionawarness.com
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 behaviours that are not generally recognised by the medical community as problems of addiction awarness , 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 to the individual’s health, mental state or social life.
Not all doctors agree on the exact nature of addiction or dependency. Traditionally, addiction has been defined with regard solely to psychoactive substances (for example alcohol, tobacco cigarette substitute:ruyan and other drugs) which cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the chemical milieu of the brain.
However, “studies on phenomenology, family history, and response to treatment suggest that intermittent explosive disorder, kleptomania, pathological gambling, pyromania, and trichotillomania may be related to mood disorders, alcohol and psychoactive substance abuse, and anxiety disorders (especially obsessive-compulsive disorder). However, such disorders are classified by the American Psychological Association as impulse control disorders and therefore not as addictions.
Many people, both psychology professionals and laypersons, now feel that there should be accommodation made to include psychological dependency on such things as gambling, food, sex, pornography, computers, work, exercise, cutting, shopping, and religion so these behaviours count as diseases as well and don’t cause guilt, shame, fear, hopelessness, failure, rejection, anxiety, or humiliation symptoms associated with, among other medical conditions, depression, epilepsy, and hyperreligiosity.
In depression related to religious addiction “The religious addict seeks to avoid pain and overcome shame by becoming involved in a belief system which offers security through its rigidity and its absolute values.
While religion and spirituality may play a key role in psychotherapeutic support and recovery, it can also be a source of pain, guilt and exclusion, and religious themes may also play a negative role in psychopathology.
Although, the above mentioned are things or tasks which, when used or performed, do not fit into the traditional view of addiction awarness and may be better defined as an obsessive-compulsive disorder,withdrawal symptoms may occur with abatement of such behaviors. It is said by those who adhere to a traditionalist view that these withdrawal-like symptoms are not strictly reflective of an addiction awarness, but rather of a behavioral disorder.
However, understanding of neural science, the brain, the nervous system, human behavior, and affective disorders has revealed “the impact of molecular biology in the mechanisms underlying developmental processes and in the pathogenesis of disease”. The use of thyroid hormones as an effective adjunct treatment for affective disorders has been studied over the past three decades and has been confirmed repeatedly.
In spite of traditionalist protests and warnings that overextension of definitions may cause the wrong treatment to be used (thus failing the person with the behavioral problem), popular media, and some members of the field, do represent the aforementioned behavioral examples as addictions. It is hopeful that this article gives you a better understandind about addiction awarness.
