Addictions today have become more common than we dare to accept. Many types of addictions have become socially acceptable, in these times of moral and spiritual bankruptcy. Good things when misused can become addictions.

What is addiction?
It is the dependence on a certain substance or behavior that is impossible to break without timely intervention. It destroys the person, demoralizes the family and everyone associated with it.

Society has a general tendency to consider different types of substance abuse as addiction, ignoring certain patterns of behavior that are equally addictive. Food, shopping, gambling, work or sex can become behavioral addictions and create problems that are just as destructive as substance abuse.

• Workaholics would be surprised to be told that work has become their addiction. They believe that frenetic activity is good for mental health and well-being. People want to carve out positions of power and honor through their professional achievements. What starts out as a worthy ambition soon turns into an addiction. Without work they feel weak and depressed.

• Food becomes an emotional pacifier to satisfy longings, loneliness, or low self-esteem. People eat when under stress. The act of digesting food turns off that part of the brain mechanism that makes you tense. The increase in serotonin when they eat food makes them feel good. Those who live alone and are sad or depressed are vulnerable. A woman who was eating all the time said, “I miss my husband and my stomach doesn’t know the difference between hunger and love.” Frenetic eating is an addiction. It is a vicious circle. When a depressed person snacks, their blood sugar level rises and they feel good. But the insulin spikes in the blood and after a while, the blood sugar drops. So you feel down again and reach for a hot chocolate or a cookie.

• Gambling: Lotteries, card games, number games, casino games, betting on races, or even cricket and other sporting events can become addictive. Even losing money does not determine them. They believe that luck is just around the corner. The adrenaline rush overshadows the guilt over lost money and accumulated debts.

• Shopaholics are compulsive shoppers. Whenever they are angry or frustrated, they find relief in buying an expensive pair of shoes or dress, regardless of the money and time wasted. It makes them get out of their moods.

• Relationships: Some people develop an over-dependence on a particular person to make them feel whole or satisfied. This can lead to harassing, threatening, or harming the very person they claim to love.

• Sexual addiction is when the need for sex becomes a compulsive obsession whether it is marital, extramarital, or same-sex. 44% of sex addicts are ashamed of what they do, but can’t help it and won’t seek treatment. Fetishes, porn, rape, frottage (groping women) exhibiting, are some of the ways they get their orgasm. This addiction is to the neurochemical changes that occur during sex. Sex addiction in women is becoming a major problem.

• Mood-altering chemicals like cocaine, heroin, LSD, amphetamines, ketamine, and prescription drugs like cough syrups, sedatives, and tranquilizers are habit forming. Even caffeine (a cup of coffee contains 150 mg of caffeine) is addictive. Drugs provide a sense of well-being and a false sense of power and control.

• Alcohol is a threat to modern civilization. With free availability, younger age groups are getting hooked on alcohol. Alcoholism is said to reduce a person’s life by twelve years. It is a depressant that affects the central nervous system immediately. Without a doubt, it temporarily reduces tension and produces relaxation. But in the long run, it destroys a person mentally and physically.

• Smoking is a very difficult habit to break. It has damaging effects on the liver, the heart, and is implicated in causing cancer.

All addictions, whether behavioral or chemical, are destructive. They gradually rob one of willpower or self-control. With drugs and alcohol, the body becomes tolerant to small amounts. Therefore, larger amounts are needed. The drug mix increases potency, but it also increases the dangers. Health deteriorates. There is loss of control and inability to manage one’s own affairs. Even routine jobs are difficult to perform. Behavior becomes erratic.

Causes of addiction:

1. Friends or family may present the impressionable young teen with a glass of beer or a cigarette. This may be the beginning of a love for these substances. Recently, the case of a five-year-old boy who drank brandy was reported. His parents started giving him aguardiente every day to prevent asthma attacks.

2. Having bad company. Peer pressure can be very persuasive.

3. Disorganized home environment where parents are poor role models. There is no love, warmth or appreciation for a sensitive child. Parents may fight frequently or there may be domestic violence.

4. Poor and unsafe neighborhoods where drunkenness, violence and abusive behavior is a way of life.

5. Lack of direction with no moral standards to live by. Young people can be easily swayed down the wrong paths.

6. Exaltation of alcohol, drugs and vices through cinema, television, advertising.
7. Easy availability of alcohol and drugs.

How to break the bondage of addiction:

• First admitting that one has a substance or behavioral problem; that life is completely out of control; that there is a loss of dignity.

• Seeking help from trained counselors or psychiatrists. They will help get to the root of the problem – Injustice? Fear? Worthless? Gonna? Life is not a bed of roses.

Everyone has problems, but one must learn to deal with them without the help of substances. It is important to be aware of your own vulnerabilities.

• The approach to alcohol and substance abuse is multidisciplinary. You need admission to a center that deals exclusively with these problems. Medical measures will include detoxification and treatment of withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological management will be through:

1. Individual counseling, whereby you are psychologically conditioned to stay away from drugs or alcohol. Each member of your family must also cooperate with the addict’s treatment, through love, understanding and compassion.

2. Group therapy will help the addict realize that they are not alone and that there are others in a similar situation. Here there is mutual understanding, acceptance, sharing of individual problems and sympathy.

3. Sociotherapy consists of teaching the addict effective methods of adaptation to normal life. You should not be left in a high-risk environment. Community supports such as recreation clubs, Alcoholics Anonymous, and job availability will be helpful.

Rehabilitation can be a long and hard battle depending on whether the addiction is to a substance or to a behavior. It depends on the addict’s desire and determination to heal, and on the support he receives from his loved ones. Relapses may occur. But there must be the will to start all over again. Sometimes it can be a lifelong struggle, especially with drug addicts and alcoholics. Therefore, it is important to find support groups.

Along with therapy, dependence on God is essential. A daily walk with God will strengthen a person enough to overcome life’s injustices and dispel lurking fears.

The seeds of addiction are within all human beings. We need to periodically examine ourselves and see if there are things that we have a hard time letting go of and that have the potential to become addictions.