Addictions

New theories have come about with regard to the causes of addiction and how it affects us. Everyone has some sort of addictive behavior, but some addictions are obviously more harmful than others. Regardless of why people have addictions, whether it is a lack of self-control or genetic programming, we need to look at this problem with a feeling of hope and to help each other with this problem.

Addiction is a word used to describe those in our modern society who we as a whole shun from our front doors. It used to mean a person that couldn’t stop using drugs, or couldn’t stop drinking. Then it became the term to use for people who couldn’t stop doing anything, such as sex, gambling, working, surfing the internet, and so much more. In our society it has become a word synonymous with “problem” and as such the people suffering from it are considered just that, society’s problem. Now, scientists are finding that addiction is nothing like what we once thought it was, the downfall of any good person.

The brain operates on a reward system. When the body gets something it likes, the brain rewards us with the appropriate feeling to get us to re-introduce that original stimuli. All animals are made the same in this, so that when a rat eats a piece of cheese he knows its good and will go back to it, or when a person goes from a cold area to a warm spot he will be more tempted to stay in the better climate. Animals are different from humans however, in that different stimuli will affect the brain differently. Tests have shown that while rats can be made dependent on alchohol, they still wont drink it unless another positive reinforcement is added. Even with the pain of alchohol withdrawal they will shun away from the very chemicals that will keep their body from a pain they normally wouldn’t be accustomed to.

The term addiction can apply to many things as Steven Childers, a well known physiologist, states “What we now call “addictions,” in this sense, are cases of a good and useful phenomenon taken hostage, with terrible social and medical consequences.” The general medical feeling is that you must have a pleasant experience with the stimulus, a building of tolerance in the body and a time of withdrawal when the stimulus isn’t brought into the person’s body. Every person suffers from addictive behavior; it’s a natural occurrence in all people, however that doesn’t mean that it’s normal on an all around scale. Some addictions hamper people in their daily lives more than others, while others are as harmless as singing while you walk.

Everyone has a different opinion when it comes to addiction. Some believe it’s a matter of not having self-control, some say it’s a tool of the devil, and there are even those that believe people are born to be addicts; genetically programmed to a life of servitude to their addiction of choice. No matter what the reason, addiction is a problem in our modern society that needs to be looked upon with a feeling of hope, not desperation and is something that everyone needs to help each other deal with.