Things To Know About Addiction
Have you ever had a gripping desire to feel wonderful or to get rid of pain? To some degree our answer could be yes. The word addiction is reserved for drug dependents. But we need to know that there are compulsions that have the same impact as those who use Drugs! There are some chemical, psychological, and social common denominators between all forms of habitual behaviors. One of the key determinants in addiction is persistence. We continue the behavior in spite of harmful outcomes. Nevertheless, how wonderful you feel at the moment the end result is devastating and debilitating.
Addiction doesn’t remain steady; it usually takes more and more of a person’s energy and resources that it comes to a point of destruction and even fatal. As it progresses it becomes a way of life. How come that a person gets hooked?
Life is a circuitous journey. One experiences happiness, sadness or pain. But one is in constant pursuit of happiness and peace. Please bear in mind that we are always seeking for things that are rewarding and positive, if we feel good about it, we tend to do it again! We believe that we can be nurtured by events or objects in order to get temporary relief from the pain and pressure in life. Thus, this nurturance becomes a lifestyle; we try to nurture ourselves by avoiding responsibility and denying reality. Gradually, we depend on the process of nurturing and look for the mood alteration. The acting out helps avoid the negative feelings. As this process continues, we now spend more time on our addiction rather than the act of reaching out to others for help. We now isolate our self, for in distress we turn to our addiction not by the compassion of our loved one. We no longer trust others to provide the acceptance we need.
Compulsive behavior is best understood as an individuals’ self defeating adjustment to one environment, it represents habitual style of coping.
Stages of Addiction:
Stage One: The person repeatedly seeks the illusion of relief to avoid unpleasant feelings or situations.
Stage Two: The episodes of behaviorally out of control become more frequent.
Here are the indicators of this stage:
· The person lies when it would be easier to tell the truth
· The person blames others, knowing it’s not true
· Behavior becomes ritualized
· The person withdraws from others
Stage Three: The person starts to breakdown due to the tremendous stress caused by the increased pain, anger, and fear which results from continuously acting out. One of the strong possibilities on this stage is the person cannot break away from the addictive nature unless a person gets help. My guide to Parenting Our Inner Child is also a very effective way to overcome addiction. Overcoming it is not an easy task, we need to take the Step by step process to achieve sobriety and be compulsion free.
These are the forms of Addiction:
Romance Addiction
Relationship Addiction
Sexual Addiction
Food Addiction
Power Addiction
Religious Addiction
Activity Addiction
Indications that a person has this addiction will be presented in my future hubs.
