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What is addiction and what causes it? There’s many people in this world who don’t understand the insidious nature of what is medically classified as a disease, not a choice. Addiction doesn’t make the addict a bad person, the addict just makes poor decisions and poor judgement calls because of the mental state they are in during active addiction. Addiction affects the mind, body, behavior, and soul of an addict, making them seem as if they are a completely different person, but what is addiction?
What Is Addiction?
Addiction is a medical illness that results from a person ingesting a substance (whether it be alcohol or drugs, or even gambling or food for that matter), and continues to engage in this activity that starts out pleasurable, but after continued use, becomes compulsive and starts interfering with the being’s ordinary life and their responsibilities. People who become addicted to whatever substance or action that they found pleasurable eventually start spiraling out of control, and they essentially don’t have control of their own thoughts and behaviors, which then starts causing problems for themselves, and others. Their jobs, relationships, and lives in general start to get affected by their addiction and their life becomes unmanageable. You’ll start to see that your addicted loved one’s behavior and mental state will start to gradually change, and start displaying elusive signs of addiction. Normally, it all starts out as a habit (which is done by choice) but then turns into an addiction (which is when the addict no longer has the choice to use, they have to to “survive”). There’s addictions such as substance dependence, but there is also behavioral addiction; such as gambling addiction, love addiction, codependency, and even food addiction. But what causes addiction?
What Causes Addiction?
Now that you’ve learned what addiction is, you may be wondering what causes it? The matter of what causes addiction can be a very controversial subject, due to many people thinking that addiction is a life choice; that’s not exactly true. Addiction has a lot to do with the brain, which is chemically different than someone who doesn’t have the disease of addiction. People who are born with the disease think and act very differently than someone who does not have it, from the very start. For instance, an alcoholic brain is not satisfied with just one drink, and the mind will want to continue to drink, looking for a certain “feeling” that it produces. Someone without the alcoholic brain is fine with just one drink, or even drinking half of their glass and leaving the rest. People with the disease of addiction can build a tolerance to the substance that they have become addicted to, leaving the risk higher for not only addiction, but further medical risks. In many cases, addiction was brought on by life-changes, habitual upbringing, and lack of coping skills. Regardless of what addiction is and how it is caused, it is a major disease that is unfortunately killing many people throughout our communities. Although there is no cure for the disease of addiction, there IS a solution, which is brought by the first step: admitting you have a problem and getting help.
Addiction Help
There are many different options for addiction help out there today, but knowing the facts and what resources are available to you will make the search process that much easier. Although it is a stressful and difficult time learning that you or your loved one may be suffering from this disease, making one simple phone call can be the call that changes your life forever. Recovery Society has information and resources available with some of the top addiction treatment centers in the country, so if you’re ready to get help, call (866) 323-6590 today.
