If you’re grappling with alcohol or drug addiction, we’re certain that you see no light at the end of the tunnel, however, full recovery from addiction is possible. This article will act as your guide towards successful addiction recovery.
Addiction Statistics
Whether it’s an issue with Cocaine, Opioids, alcohol, or other substance, drug addiction claims several Americans on yearly basis and affects countless lives. Addiction is a mental problem that forces a person to consequently abuse a substance or get into bad behaviors although they come with dangerous consequences. To put it in perspective, addictions break friendships, careers, families, and even worse, but the person’s essential safety and health are at risk.
- It has been seen that between 1999 and 2017, over 700,000 Americans have died due to drug overdose
- Close to 20% of USA citizens with anxiety or depression problems also depict drug use disorder
- Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 have a likelihood of using addictive drugs
- Drug and alcohol addiction incur the USA economy at least $600B yearly
- The deaths related to drug overdose have tripled from 19990.
Types of addiction
Addiction can fall in either behavioral or physical, and in most cases, they are correlated. Even though tobacco and alcohol are mainly popular addiction types, there’re indeed myriads of types of scientifically and medically recognized addictions.
Physical addictions
These types of addictions are popularly known. Sometimes, they may be referred to as chemical addictions. When somebody is addicted to substances, we say they have a physical addiction. Some commonly known physical addictions are:
- Opioids
- Alcohol
- Tobacco
- Cocaine
- Marijuana
- Prescription drugs
- Inhalants
- PCP
- Hallucinogens
- Amphetamines
Also, physical addictions may be overall be categorized into 3 main groups: prescription drugs, illicit drugs, and alcohol.
Behavioral addictions
This type of addiction is when a person loses track of their undertakings for them to do things that end up in short-lived happiness. That individual ends up becoming so reliant on the good feelings that are achieved due to particular habits and starts to mandatory proceed on that habit. Some known behavioral addictions are:
- Using cell phones/ or computers
- Playing video games
- Sex
- Food
- Working
- Gambling
- Shopping
- Seeking pain
- Spiritual obsession
In general, individuals who are suffering from substance abuse problems always undergo behavioral addiction also. Behavioral addiction and substance addiction share a lot of things. In both, excitement is generated that comes from behavior or use.
Signs & symptoms of addiction
Addiction shows itself in different ways in every person, and signs and symptoms differ depending on what the individual is obsessed with. Drug abuse makes the body to be different, particularly the brain, and side effects can be physically visible.
Major signs of addiction
- Continuous unexplained outings and in most cases with a sense of clamor
- Unusual and new friends
- Financial instability
- Secretiveness
- Stealing
- Lying
Major symptoms of addiction
- Unusual mood changes like extreme happiness, anxiousness, etc.
- Looking unwell sometimes and okay at another period
- Difficulty in controlling the behavior of addiction
- Persistent and unexpected sniffles or coughs
- Sleeping too much than the normal pattern
- Weight gain or weight loss
- Unpredictable energy
Contributory factors for addiction
Your age, medical history, environment, and genetics are some key factors that may contribute to your addiction. There’re some specific drugs and modes of using that may be so addictive compared to others.
Age
Research has shown that young individuals who are between 18 and 24 years are at risk of becoming alcoholic and so is the addiction disorder. Such early use can interfere with brain development.
Medical history
If you have a mental health problem, then you remain at higher risk of addiction. In such conditions, addiction setting in can increase the extent of mental health issues you may have.
Environment
For teens, the absence of parental guidance can make kids experiment or risk-taking alcohol and even some other addictive drugs.
Genetics
In case you have a person in your family who has suffered from addiction, then chances are high that you’ll experience it as well.
Mental impacts of addiction
The use of a particular substance every time leads to addiction that causes different impacts on our mental health. It has different effects on both nuclear and extended families. Family members might try to cut off ties with those addicted users. This leads to one feeling abandoned, embarrassed, or guilty. These kinds of persons will also seclude themselves from the rest of the family thus affecting their social life. They will prefer staying by themselves at all times because they do not see anything good from socializing with others. Also, this can result in some depression and anxiety on the user.
With drug abuse, the user can lose his or her memory. This, therefore, leads to poor decision-making that can in turn adversely affect the entire family or anyone involved. This makes daily living so complicated.
On the other hand, excessive gaming addiction causes some negative emotions that can lead to poor academic performance among youths and children. This is usually characterized by maladaptive coping strategies therefore our minds will only be fond of already established strategies won’t be focused on coming up with any new ideas. Excessive playing videos are well known to distort both the structure and performance of our minds to adapt to only playing these video games.
Workplace impacts on addiction
Different addictions have different impacts on our workplaces. Drug addiction will lead to lower productivity among workers. These workers report to work late with some hangovers thereby not performing their work in the right manner. Drug abuse distorts both attention and concentration on work. Additionally, there is poor decision-making among the managers of the firms and workplaces. This can lead to the failure of these companies.
Also, the addicted users can resort to some bullying or fighting during some scenarios in the workplace. This can lead to some injuries or even the death of some workers.
Video gaming addiction makes workers change their workplaces to video gaming centers. They spend most of their time online playing some games rather than concentrating on their tasks. This leads to poor performance with no positive results. Such users can be so hard to control and therefore you might resort to some skilled workers in your workplace due to this kind of addiction.
Tips to recover from addiction
The first way of recovering from any kind of addiction is to own up to the addiction and be willing to recover from it. This makes your mind ready for a change. You can then concentrate on ways of making changes in your life step by step. You do not need to push yourself so hard but you ensure that you make some accomplishment at least once in a while.
On the other hand, you should always be careful about what you usually concentrate on during your free time. This means that you should engage yourself in some positive tasks that divert your mind from the addiction that you are trying to curb. In one way or the other, you will have accomplished those changes with time.
