Abstract
Addiction can be compared to a feeling that emerges from the individual need for approval and acceptance of equal rights. An average majority suffer a strong feeling of not being in a position to overcome certain pressures of life.
Addiction is the feeling of an external pressure persuading someone to a certain activity. Any form of addiction is harmful in one way or another to the affected individual or those associated to them. Support is the basic cure for addiction.
The addict need to openly indicate their need for assistance since counselling is a procedure that entails understanding that one has a problem, accepting it and thus finding ways of managing it. (Matthynssens, 2009) Any form of addict will at one instance relay on the external support especially the moral sustenance.
Introduction
Any form of addiction is enslaving because it prevents achievement of goals by affecting participation in healthy and more productive activities. There are various types of addictions ranging from food, drugs, sex, play, work and many more. Drug addiction carries enormous quantity of ambiguity and brings about misunderstandings due to huge amount of information required to address its related problems.
Arguably the other forms of addictions are often side effects of drug abuse and addiction. (Matthynssens, 2009) It is common to find a person who is addicted to pornography due to other substance abuse and also often to find someone trying to find other alternatives in the aim of fighting alcohol or tobacco addiction.
Addiction to food requires urgent assistance to avoid eating disorders just like the alcoholics it would require some form of therapy at rehabilitation centres. Food might be one of the hardest addictions to deal with since it is a basic need for the survival of living things. One is not in a position to stop eating abruptly as compared to other forms of addictions. It is a continuous battle to keep to a certain limit.
Being addicted to the internet is a very common phenomenon today especially among the youth. In future, it is probably going to be harder than food because eventually we all need to use the net for communication as well as getting access to important information. The technological advancement today requires everyone to be in apposition of using the computers and the network and addiction to its use can equally tear off the abusers lives just like the alcohol or tobacco would do.
The common addictions today are hard to control because they involve inevitable choice of living such as reading, playing and eating. It also involves entertainment such as watching television, browsing the net and many more. This implies that addiction is an everyday life situation and therefore addicts are common people suffering due to lack of support from friends. The first cure to addiction is friends and ability to enjoy a moment of laughter. Addicts need to ensure they are around caring and happy people for the support they need for a successful quit.
Although addiction is a negative influence over personality, depending on the type it can be a positive force supporting the decision making procedures and helping to settle for the best option in tough situations for instance addiction to reading. When one accepts to put up with negative addiction, they end up giving up the personal trusts and values thus the pressure becomes a form of a negative force.
Thesis Statement
“The affects of drug addictions and its influence on other forms of everyday addictions” This paper is an analysis of the effect of everyday addictions its effects and possibilities as well as implications over future endeavours. It is an analysis of the behavioural patterns and lastly it analyzes the available perspectives into breaking the vice. The paper narrows the scope to the issue of drug abuse and addiction since this is arguably the basic source of information for the other forms of addictions as well.
Objective/significance of the study
The main objective of the paper focuses on forms of addictions and ways of evaluating the developmental problems associated with this type of vice. Another significance of the study focuses on the global approach towards curbing the vice and creating public awareness over everyday addiction.
The paper also forms an analysis over issue of other probable cause in the subject matter. Are people utilizing the appropriate measures to get rid of the vice? The analysis of what determines addictions. Lastly, it addresses the issue of utilizing the new professionally suggested measures to breaking from this common phenomenon of addictions.
The Method of the study
The literature reviews will enable better understanding of the topic. Preparation of the research proposal over the chosen topic enhances and quantifies the research as a study topic and prepares for respondents.
Information collected tabulates and ranks the findings to broad areas and helps to narrow the scope to the objectives of the study analysis. The analysis then draws the conclusion from generally analyzed data in the literature review.
Purpose of the study
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate possible ways of the society braking the everyday addictions and offer suggestions from the research on ways of reducing or eliminating this social problem in current common settings.
Literature review
Insinuations for understanding addiction behaviour
These daily additive behaviours such as eating, sleeping, working or reading seem to inextricably link with rewards and availability of the opportunity to perform them. The distinction between these addictive behaviours and others lies upon their final effects to the addict, society and the desirability of the behaviours. Differences in the type of everyday addictions bring forth different attitudes.
Some of the substances are illegal; others such as tobacco or alcohol are legal for the adults despite their negative effects while others such as reading or entertainment are not governed by any form of rule. The human reaction towards behaviour heavily influences the dependences’. (Matthynssens, 2009) Considering tobacco, today people have accepted the issue of passive smoking as revealed through scientific evidence. Regardless of the enough evidence over the negative effects such as cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcohol the drug is easily and readily available for adults. The addiction to gambling is common due to its open nature of any-time access.
In most cases, it would be invariable to have a linkage between development of the brain and the behaviours emulated by addicts. Scientifically the argument over the link indicates that under high emotional influences, there are some conditions at the maturing front part of the brain that necessitate devastating inexplicable performance, leading to poor decision making such as use of drugs. (Santrock, 2006)
People have the ability and rationale to differentiate between the right and wrong. This is an indication that the brain has the capacity to demonstrate some mental ability over decision making, but the addicts might have acted in opposition to these expectations.
According to Nestler and Malenka, (2004) the brains is under some less optimal control mechanisms and thus under higher probability to act from guts or instincts in submitting to the option of taking drugs when confronted with stressful or emotional strains. Under such conditions, they are not able to be thankful for any instantaneous outcomes for their accomplishments.
The addiction details
There have been various public policies regarding addiction in which case some encourage while others prohibit the acts. Today a hypothesis of well-being assists to reduce the negative acts. The campaigns against some of the vice give discouraging statistics. For instance, the UK has the highest number of abusers with approximately 12 million adult smokers and approximately 1% of them dying of the act every year.
Such statistics continue to explain the habit as a preventable one where 70 percent of the addicts having tried to quit. The statistics over dependency offers a negative influence and the social rules place harsh measures to ensure that the public remain highly alerted over the abusive nature associated with alcoholism or smoking. This is useful especially among the youth who are under high chances of abuse considering the peer pressure they might undergo.
Compared to adults, on average, the adolescents are more impetuous, insistent, volatile emotionally, high risk takers, proactive and reactive to strain or stress and are susceptible to external influences or pressure. (Nestler and Malenka, 2004) They focus on the short time payoffs, which they over estimate to a point of underrating any long-term consequences that may be involved.
They are prone to overlooking the alternative course of actions. The uses of tranquillizers show that majority are addicted to the drug due to abuse. These are legalized drugs and the counter measures to the addiction indicate the decline to such addictions and researchers mainly predispose the lighting upon the illegal drugs instead.
The developing brain and everyday addiction
Young people are often curious about addictive activities especially those that have been prohibited. They face a stage of experimenting and seeking novelty.
The survey conducted in the U.S. indicates that the use of drugs such as tobacco and alcohol is a common phenomenon among the youths before they hit the legal age for the use. (Johnson et al., 2006) The survey also indicated that at least half or more of the teenagers try out the drugs during the adolescent stage and nearly all have tried before reaching the legal age. Today the youth show higher rates of alcohol problems and other forms of addiction as opposed to the older age groups. (Spear, 2002)
Vulnerability to everyday addiction
Addiction is a warning sign for poor well being and emergence of harmful behaviours because of lacking something better to niche to the specified time frame.
The issue of well being is highly questionable in developed countries such as the UK and US. People with socially unacceptable behaviours are found to be chronically addicted to illicit drugs. The society lacks the required initiative because given the opportunity to change majority would be willing to heal. This indicates the need to finding the right partner, job or creative and benefiting activity. Some of the bad and mostly illegal behaviours that cause social discomforts are due to sensitivity to addictions and the effects associated with it.
These social effects can bring about pleasurable social experiences such as feeling of less shyness than the expectations. (Spear, 2002) The effects are enormous on the youth who seem more venerable compared to the same effects on an adult. The hormones also play a vital role in the everyday addiction. The adolescents have novelty to seek and promote social competitiveness. The production of hormones promotes addiction because of the original occurrence of pressure for the individual to seek social approval from friends. (Mclemore, 2008)
Human growth and development
When an addict isn’t considered as one
During their life spans, human beings expectation to grow and change socially, emotionally, behaviourally, physically and cognitively is very important.
Through analysis of some developmental life-span struggles, there is a possibility of determining disorders or crisis affecting everyday addicts. The counsellors face the challenge of thinking widely and know what kind of behavioural pattern to expect so as to be in a position of suggesting developmental concerns and appropriate actions to take.
In line with Mclemore writing (2008), there are some expectations regarding differences in physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns with regard to individuals. Genetic predisposition, positive self-esteem and the relationship between the child and parent are some of the contributory factors that lead to the addiction.
Most people have enthusiasm for health as opposed to addiction which takes away the meaning of life. An addiction is a behaviour that takes over ones life fully and conflicts with any other positive activity or those related to the victim. Addiction causes withdrawal symptoms during the procedures to quit, tolerance and the need to engage more in the activity.
The dependence also causes relapse if one does not engage in the activity. The addicted activity is never important at hand but when one cannot engage in it. For instance, a smoker will think about smoking when engaged in a situation where they are not in a position to do it such as in a long-hour flight.
The biggest challenge to the society is that, when people think about everyday addiction there focus shifts to the illegal or harmful substances but not other behavioural addictions. Addicts especially the youthful need to find some basis to make decisions, they feel the need to explore and deal with novel emotional feelings concern with uncertain and impulsive activities. (Stantrock, 2006) Quitting the addictive is a transitional issue requiring critical concerns in the counselling procedures. On this context, the issues of neglect, self-esteem and emotional development are some key considerations during counselling procedures.
The addicts’ appearance to others is an important issue because one believes they own unique problems and all the public attention focuses particularly upon them. The quitting procedures bring about the challenges of discovering their identity in terms of vocation, relationship, sexuality, gender, life interests, personality and culture/ethnicity. (Santrock, 2006)
Personal opinion over everyday addiction and possible solutions
Human beings have to make decisions every now and then based on the challenge at hand. There are many different reasons why people suffer from everyday addiction such as alcohol usage, probably to relax, have fun, find rest, forget problems, and mostly to emulate friends. The youth mostly engage in drugs because they know someone who does the same and is successful. They fancy the lives of others and thus mimic their style in the aim of trying to find their personal styles.
People have different external or internal anxieties and thus addiction is a fine act as long as it serves the role of substantiating the feeling or determining the outlook that people would wish to talk about or emulate or even to relieve strain or stress.
The reason for discussing everyday addictions is the problems they cause. People in a groups act differently and do some weird activities they would probably not do on their own. This is the identity of a group as opposed to that of an individual. For instance a person will always engage in gambling when they meet a certain friend. There is a behavioural pattern for achieving a certain goal at that particular time. The control placed on these behaviours can easily crumple before the achievement of that valued need.
Addiction is more often hard to resist because it is equally very hard to notice. The wisest decision one would make is to have a personal pull or reflection of life and be aware of the consequences by understanding the achievement or aims of that particular engagement. According to Mclemore, (2008) personal choices are very important even when the addictive pressure seems irresistible.
The root course of addiction to any indulging activity is the probability of it commencing early in life. For example early initiation into drug usage means a higher tendency of addiction in future beside the likelihood of influencing others compared to the counterparts who begin usage later into their lives.
Today their is a common trend of addiction such as to pornography, internet usage or video games among school or college aged pupils and the dependence gets a continual peak if not controlled at the same age. An addict who has been smoking for the last thirty year have bigger problems associated with quitting compared to one who has been an addict for five years.
Various forms of addictive behaviours that are facing ignorance by the society are a strong indication of future problems. Addicts face a huge challenge of lifestyle changes that easily leads to unemployment, marriage related problems such as marital conflicts, and reduced chances for termination of drug usage. The existence or of social settings where most daily addiction exist without being noted suggests signs that the trends may form part of our lives and the trendy easily resumes for those who may have quit.
In line with Mclemore, (2008) “the escalation or maintenance of high level of addiction often results from biological, psychological, and psychiatric characteristics of an individual.” There are also chances of habitat or settings causing more vulnerability to indulging in the activities that are available in the home settings. The psychological and psychiatric traits may also be catalyzed from abusive parents.
The vulnerability of everyday addiction highly depends on the characteristics of the user or the lifestyle as opposed to the characteristic of the addictive activity. The maladjustment on these social and psychological characteristics is what mainly characterizes precedence to the initial signs of addiction. For instance one may be used to taking coffee or tea in the morning and with time they become highly addicted to the caffeine.
What cause everyday addiction?
The properties that lead to everyday addictions are not present at psychoactive therapies. One becomes deceived by various factors such as availability or pressure and only tends to do so for a while but becomes highly exposed to probability of becoming addicts. Addicts psychologically get involved to the additives that easily lead to advanced future consequences because of the emotional and psychological involvements.
Conclusion
Social settings can give the impression that everyday addiction is under control because the societal analysis is mainly based upon the illicit or illegal activities. A closer look at the phenomenon indicates that everyday a person is starting to use and becomes addicted to a certain task that can lead to problems compared to the wellbeing it can bring about.
Possibly the addiction comes about due to the pressure involved among the peer groups and is great for most of them to resist unless there is an intervention by the authorities and mainly the parents. (Mclemore, 2008) Today the biggest problem in the societal setting involves identification of the main addictive activities.
People are working tooth and nail to handle the common addition to drugs such as tobacco or alcohol and forgetting the other everyday addictions people suffer from. There is need to speak out the problem and analyze the effects of the dangers involved before things are out of hand.
Further proposals
This paper is an outline of the various types of addictions and the influence the drug addiction has over them. It opens up the chance for further research with the aim of reviewing the repercussions the other forms of addiction may have and reveal any catastrophic impacts they may have caused or will result to.
There is important need for intervention by the society in resisting the negative influences directly connects to everyday addictions through guidance based on the research findings.
References
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (2006). Monitoring the Future national Survey results on drug use, 1975-2005. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Matthynssens, C. (2009). Addiction – Do Not Let it Steal Your Future. Web.
Mclemore, P. (2008). The Causes of Addiction. Web.
Nestler, E. J., and Malenka, R. C. (2004). The addicted brain. Scientific American Journal, 290 (3), 78-85.
Santrock, J. (2006). Life-span development (10th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Spear, L. P. (2002). Alcohol’s effects on adolescents. Journal of Alcohol Health and Research World, Vol 26(4), Pp. 287-291.