With so many different kinds of addictions, I was curious as to what the definition in general meant. How could I beat it, if I didn’t even know the definition. After I looked into it and went through recovery myself, here is a recovered addicts definition of addiction in general.
The term ‘addiction’ is generally used to describe the propensity to indulge in specific kinds of conduct to an unordinary and perhaps unsafe extent. Addicts frequently find it challenging or difficult to end such conduct without external intervention, or even with it.
Such conduct frequently includes drugs (amphetamine, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, etc.), but this is not necessarily the case; in prevalent parlance, one can be dependent or addicted to work, sex, sports, pornography, or even work (obsessive workers).
There are two noteworthy models of addiction, the chemical or medical (psychological and the physical) (Eysenck 79). As pointed out by research, the term ‘addiction’ has little scientific significance, being utilized in different ways by several writers, and having no concurred elucidation or basic hypothesis.
It is not even established whether addictions (utilizing the term in its common sense and broad meaning) is particular to one activity or substance, or general that is, covering various zones.
Regularly, the term is utilized in a pejorative sense to propose that the conduct being referred to is a type of disease, requiring medicinal mediation.
Voss gave a rundown of the criteria for recognizing habituation (or resource utilization) and genuine or medical clinical addiction: (1) need/want; (2) freedom of choice; (3) mental reliance; (4) physical reliance, increased resilience, elevated levels of dosage, withdrawal, craving; (5) moral weakening; (6) intellectual decrease; (7) mental disintegration; (8) social breakdown (Eysenck 79).
Eysenck (79) points out that while drugs and alcohol fit all except one of these (choice freedom), smoking does not; nor does it eliminate freedom of choice.
This does not eliminate the likelihood that drugs and alcohol may likewise have a resource part; the garrulous utilization of the term ‘addiction’ for habituation has no important purpose.
It might have some meaning when applied to certain people and to certain drugs. No speculation ought to be offered without specific evidence covering Voss’ eight points.
These encapsulate what may be referred to as ‘genuine’ or ‘medical chemical’ additions; in this excerpt, the term is utilized in a lot more extensive, non-medical domain.
The view taken here is that the term ‘addiction’ alludes to particular kinds of conduct that can be translated as comprising a resource for the individual concerned; as such, the conduct gives certain benefits to that individual, and thus the conduct being referred to is continued despite the fact that there might be some undesirable results, typically happening in a statistical manner (risk ratios), and after a significant amount of time frame.
During the recovery process, it is critically important to obtain support from the society, i.e. both spiritual and social support (peer support).
Footnotes
- Eysenck, H. J. “Addiction, personality and motivation.” Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental 12.S2 (1997): S79-S87