You never completely eliminate something you learned that young, but you can learn to recognize it in yourself and take action to avoid it in the future, not unlike a recovering addict in a 12-step program.
Many people don't understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. They may mistakenly think that those who use drugs lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop their drug use simply by choosing to. In reality, drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will. Drugs change the brain in ways that make quitting hard, even for those who want to. Fortunately, researchers know more than ever about how drugs affect the brain and have found treatments that can help people recover from drug addiction and lead productive lives.
Most drugs affect the brain's "reward circuit," causing euphoria as well as flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine. A properly functioning reward system motivates a person to repeat behaviors needed to thrive, such as eating and spending time with loved ones. Surges of dopamine in the reward circuit cause the reinforcement of pleasurable but unhealthy behaviors like taking drugs, leading people to repeat the behavior again and again.
No one factor can predict if a person will become addicted to drugs. A combination of factors influences risk for addiction. The more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that taking drugs can lead to addiction. For example:
More good news is that drug use and addiction are preventable. Results from NIDA-funded research have shown that prevention programs involving families, schools, communities, and the media are effective for preventing or reducing drug use and addiction. Although personal events and cultural factors affect drug use trends, when young people view drug use as harmful, they tend to decrease their drug taking. Therefore, education and outreach are key in helping people understand the possible risks of drug use. Teachers, parents, and health care providers have crucial roles in educating young people and preventing drug use and addiction.
This publication is available for your use and may be reproduced in its entirety without permission from NIDA. Citation of the source is appreciated, using the following language: Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"Addiction" and "addictive behaviour" are polysemes denoting a category of mental disorders, of neuropsychological symptoms, or of merely maladaptive/harmful habits and lifestyles.[9] A common use of "addiction" in medicine is for neuropsychological symptoms denoting pervasive/excessive and intense urges to engage in a category of behavioral compulsions or impulses towards sensory rewards (e.g. alcohol, betel quid, drugs, sex, gambling, video gaming).[10][11][12][13][14] Addictive disorders or addiction disorders are mental disorders involving high intensities of addictions (as neuropsychological symptoms) that induce functional disabilities (i.e. limit subjects' social/family and occupational activities); the two categories of such disorders are substance-use addictions and behavioral addictions.[15][9][13][14]
However, there is no agreement on the exact definition of addiction in medicine. Indeed, Volkow et al. (2016) report that the DSM-5 defines addictions as the most severe degree of the addictive disorders, due to pervasive/excessive substance-use or behavioural compulsions/impulses.[16] It is a definition that many scientific papers and reports use.[17][18][19]
"Dependence" is also a polyseme denoting either neuropsychological symptoms or mental disorders. In the DSM-5, dependences differ from addictions and can even normally happen without addictions;[20] besides, substance-use dependences are severe stages of substance-use addictions (i.e. mental disorders) involving withdrawal issues.[21] In the ICD-11, "substance-use dependence" is a synonym of "substance-use addiction" (i.e. neuropsychological symptoms) that can but do not necessarily involve withdrawal issues.[22]
Drug addiction, which belongs to the class of substance-related disorders, is a chronic and relapsing brain disorder that features drug seeking and drug abuse, despite their harmful effects.[25] This form of addiction changes brain circuitry such that the brain's reward system is compromised,[26] causing functional consequences for stress management and self-control.[25] Damage to the functions of the organs involved can persist throughout a lifetime and cause death if untreated.[25] Substances involved with drug addiction include alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opioids, cocaine, amphetamines, and even foods with high fat and sugar content.[27] Addictions can begin experimentally in social contexts[28] and can arise from the use of prescribed medications or a variety of other measures.[29]
Drug addiction has been shown to work in phenomenological, conditioning (operant and classical), cognitive models, and the cue reactivity model. However, no one model completely illustrates substance abuse.[30]
The diagnostic criteria for food or eating addiction has not been categorized or defined in references such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM or DSM-5) and is based on subjective experiences similar to substance use disorders.[32][31] Food addiction may be found in those with eating disorders, though not all people with eating disorders have food addiction and not all of those with food addiction have a diagnosed eating disorder.[32] Long-term frequent and excessive consumption of foods high in fat, salt, or sugar, such as chocolate, can produce an addiction[33][34] similar to drugs since they trigger the brain's reward system, such that the individual may desire the same foods to an increasing degree over time.[35][32][31] The signals sent when consuming highly palatable foods have the ability to counteract the body's signals for fullness and persistent cravings will result.[35] Those who show signs of food addiction may develop food tolerances, in which they eat more, despite the food becoming less satisfactory.[35]
Chocolate's sweet flavor and pharmacological ingredients are known to create a strong craving or feel 'addictive' by the consumer.[36] A person who has a strong liking for chocolate may refer to themselves as a chocoholic.
The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), version 2.0, is the current standard measure for assessing whether an individual exhibits signs and symptoms of food addiction.[37][32][31] It was developed in 2009 at Yale University on the hypothesis that foods high in fat, sugar, and salt have addictive-like effects which contribute to problematic eating habits.[38][35] The YFAS is designed to address 11 substance-related and addictive disorders (SRADs) using a 25-item self-report questionnaire, based on the diagnostic criteria for SRADs as per DSM-5.[39][32] A potential food addiction diagnosis is predicted by the presence of at least two out of 11 SRADs and a significant impairment to daily activities.[40]
The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, specifically the BIS-11 scale, and the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior subscales of Negative Urgency and Lack of Perseverance have been shown to have relation to food addiction.[31]
Addiction can exist in the absence of psychotropic drugs, which was popularized by Peele.[44] These are termed behavioral addictions. Such addictions may be passive or active, but they commonly contain reinforcing features, which are found in most addictions.[44] Sexual behavior, eating, gambling, playing video games, and shopping are all associated with compulsive behaviors in humans and have been shown to activate the mesolimbic pathway and other parts of the reward system.[33] Based on this evidence, sexual addiction, gambling addiction, video game addiction, and shopping addiction are classified accordingly.[33][45]
Gambling provides a natural reward that is associated with compulsive behavior.[33] Functional neuroimaging evidence shows that gambling activates the reward system and the mesolimbic pathway in particular.[33][45] It is known that dopamine is involved in learning, motivation, as well as the reward system.[48][26] The exact role of dopamine in gambling addiction has been debated.[48] Suggested roles for D2, D3, and D4 dopamine receptors, as well as D3 receptors in the substantia nigra have been found in rat and human models, showing a correlation with the severity of the gambling behavior.[48] This in turn was linked with greater dopamine release in the dorsal striatum.[48]
Gambling addiction has been associated with some personality traits, including: harm avoidance, low self direction, decision making and planning insufficiencies, impulsivity, as well as sensation seeking individuals.[50] Although some personality traits can be linked with gambling addiction, there is no general description of individuals addicted to gambling.[50]
Internet addiction does not have any standardized definition, yet there is widespread agreement that this problem exists.[51] Debate over the classification of problematic internet use considers whether it should be thought of as a behavioral addiction, an impulse control disorder, or an obsessive-compulsive disorder.[52][53] Others argue that internet addiction should be considered a symptom of an underlying mental health condition and not a disorder in itself.[54] Internet addiction has been described as "a psychological dependence on the Internet, regardless of the type of activity once logged on."[51] Problematic internet use may include a preoccupation with the internet and/or digital media, excessive time spent using the internet despite resultant distress in the individual, increase in the amount of internet use required to achieve the same desired emotional response, loss of control over one's internet use habits, withdrawal symptoms, and continued problematic internet use despite negative consequences to one's work, social, academic, or personal life.[55]
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