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In today’s society many struggle with addiction. What exactly is addiction though? Addiction is the result of the consumption of a substance or the participation of an activity to the extent where it is uncontrollable and interferes with the responsibilities of life (PSYCH). Addiction can be anything from drugs, alcohol, and gambling to exercise, video games, and food.
There are many different definitions in which people provide regarding addiction. May (1988) describes that addiction “is a state of compulsion, obsession, or preoccupation that enslaves a person’s will and desire” (p. 14). Individuals who suffer from addiction provide their time and energy toward other things that are not healthy and safe. The book
People argue whether drug addiction is a disease or a choice. Today, I will be discussing this argument in hopes to have a better understanding as to why this topic is so controversial. Throughout my research, I easily found information on this topic and I am still not sure I have found any answers.
Day after day we read in the newspapers and about the political turmoil and the candidates and email and the struggle of American politics. I strive to read more than just those articles, since I want to learn about the real struggles of the American people. I want to learn about the bigger problems behind the scenes in the US and what can be done to help. This was the reasoning for the choice of my article for this week’s critique on addiction and the story of Amanda with a heat wrenching addition to Heroin and her journey through it all.
What is addiction? According to authors Brian Shaw, Paul Ritvo and Jane Irvine in their book, Addiction & Recovery for Dummies, addiction is “. . . a combined experience of mental and physical dependence” (p. 10) On a daily basis, addiction affects millions of people across the United States and has become one of the nation’s biggest health problems. So when does a habit cross the line into addiction?
A behavior becomes an addiction when it brings negative consequences; it impairs their health, endangers their life, and undermines their personal relationships. If it doesn’t do any of these things, we can’t call those people
According to the website MentalHealth.net, addiction is when “a person compulsive dependent upon a particular kind of stimulation to the point where obtaining a steady supply
Main Point: What defines an addiction? According to Psychology Today, “Addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance…. or engages in an activity….that can be pleasurable but the continued use/act of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary life responsibilities, such as work, relationships, or health.” This can range anywhere from drug use to eating disorders, to gambling, to even texting in today’s generation. Shocking to say the least, especially when most people do not even know they are addicted or are an addict until they realize this definition.
Drug abuse and addiction are issues that affect people everywhere. However, these issues are usually treated as criminal activity rather than issues of public health. There is a conflict over whether addiction related to drug abuse is a disease or a choice. Addiction as a choice suggests that drug abusers are completely responsible for their actions, while addiction as a disease suggests that drug abusers need help in order to break their cycle of addiction. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that addiction is a disease, and should be treated rather than punished. Drug addiction is a disease because: some people are more likely to suffer from addiction due to their genes, drug abuse brought on by addictive behavior changes the brain and worsens the addiction, and the environment a person lives in can cause the person to relapse because addiction can so strongly affect a person.
Addiction is a very strong word that brings along many negative connotations. When we think of an addiction we imagine someone who depends on a certain substance, most likely alcohol to have their needs met. Addiction is defined by the Webster dictionary as, "a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal." Even though our society sees addiction and only applies the word to drug addicts and alcoholics, there is a much wider range of subjects that fall under the umbrella of what an addiction truly is. An addiction is a dependency on any kind of materialistic object that you use on a day to day basis that brings
The world involving drug addiction is a taboo topic to many. However, drug addiction is a very real topic that occurs worldwide. The widespread use of drugs is not restricted to the United States, with roughly five percent of the world’s population using in the past few months (Mosher & Akins, 2014). Many scientists, doctors, and specialists study addiction and try to find an explanation for why so many become addicted.
Addiction, Is it just an issue or is it one’s choice? Although no one chooses to walk around in their life and decides if he or she has or wants an addiction. An addiction is a “condition of being addicted to a particular substance” (Peele, 2016). One can be addicted to nicotine, drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, and even shopping if it has an impact on their everyday life. Consequently, some people with an addiction may reach a point in their life where it can turn harmful, therefore, people need to look for assistance. Even so, people still neglect to talk about addictions because people are ashamed, or in denial, and it is probably not one’s choice of topics that is brought up at your breakfast table, or you may never have confronted anyone before. Still, addiction is all around us, and most people today still do not understand or have misconceptions about addictions because addiction is a disease, and studies have indicated that addictions are a physical defect in the brain, thus, making it hard for some people to give up their addictions on their own.
Ten years ago 330,000 Americans underwent plastic surgery. This year that number has increased to over 6 million, of which 335,000 are under the age of 18 (So you want a famous face). The increase in numbers of plastic surgeries could be attributed and/or directly proportionate to the increase in extreme makeover shows. According to Charles Cooley, “a person’s sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others.” We will use Charles Cooly’s looking-glass-self theory to argue that mass media has created a social mirror for millions of women, the consequence of which is a “cosmetic surgery addiction”.
Addiction is a chronic brain disease characterized by compulsive drug and substance use. Despite its harmful consequences to the human body, addicts continue to seek for more drugs to keep their systems active. Millions of people abuse drugs and substances in the world today. As a result of substance abuse, addicts can easily lose control of their actions. Addiction is a long-lasting brain illness that disrupts the normal body functioning. It holds the brain hostage.
If one was to look at society today, they would find many addictions that haunt people’s every day life. Most often society thinks as an addiction being only to some sort of drug or alcohol. They think that people can only be addicted to drugs, like heroin, cocaine, PCP, or LSD. We always look at addictions as being bad. By looking at the bad side to everything we tend to ignore the good that comes from some of our small addictions, some we probably did not even know we had. Addiction is the inability to function without the addictive substance that is dismaying, the dependence of the organism upon a certain experience and an increasing inability to function normally without it. My little addiction is wearing a baseball hat.
Mariam Websters Dictionary- defines an addiction as “compulsive need for and use of a habbit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well defined physiological symptoms by tolerance and by well defined physiological symptomps upon withdrawal; broadly ;persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.”