Addiction
It’s true that we all love something, but “love”can become so great the object consumes the individual. This consumption is known as addiction, and most times it can make you forget about the world that you’re living in.
The Palix Foundation once stated that “People struggling with addiction are unable to control their actions or make rational decisions about their behaviour, even in the face of negative consequences”.Addiction can range from major issues such as drugs or alcohol, to minor ones like video games or work. Mainly there are two kinds of addictions; substance related addictions and behavioral or process addictions. Substance related addictions include dependence on tobacco, alcohol, prescription and street drugs. Behavioral or process addictions are related to gambling, food, sex, the internet, video games,and work. Though there is little research on behavioral or process addictions, scientist believe that the sensation given to an individual through the process is what captivates them and slaves them to the action.
Addiction can cause many social problems as well as conflicts between family members. A girl came to school crying one day, I had no other connection to her apart from our science class, yet the bruises that covered her body concerned everyone. She had been missing school for a couple of days and none of us had any idea why. She refused to tell anyone, and many times she’d refuse to even speak. Eventually the truth came out; she was abused at home due to a slight addiction that her mother had to alcohol, and her dad had been gone for years, unable to support the family due to his dependence on cannabis sativa. This may be an extreme case but this is what addiction can lead to, and in many cases the effects can be much worse.
Overdose can lead to death and most extreme addictions can lead to problematic families in one way or another. Kimberly S. Young, a Psychology doctor stated that “Anecdotal reports indicated that some on-line users were becoming addicted to the Internet in much the same way that others became addicted to drugs or alcohol, which resulted in academic, social, and occupational impairment”. Though internet addiction is overlook, our society is becoming more and more dependent on technology, meaning virtual addiction is increasing, whether this is an addiction to the internet or a video game it can consume your life. Addiction is something that we can never escape. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease affecting the brain’s reward, motivation, and related systems.
According to albertafamilywellness.org, people struggling with addiction cannot control their need for the substance or action because it changes the way the brain works. It affects everyone including the victim, their friends, and their family. Addiction is a problem that has few solutions because the body becomes so dependant on certain actions or substances that nothing will be able to replace them. Paul J. Gruenewald, Ph.
D states that “regulations on the availability of alcohol have been used to moderate alcohol problems in communities throughout the world for thousands of years” but even so no progress has been made in stopping the rate in which addiction is growing. Many scientists have stated that the cause for the growth rate of addiction is the independence given to teens who start abusing certain materials. People fear that the world will soon be filled with addicts in every category and, personally, I fear this too. I’m scared of the future but I know that there are things that can be done. One important step would be to teach addicts who will become parents how to care for the child they will soon have, and how any addictive substance will harm the baby. It is an important step to help abusers understand the importance of the life they are going to care for.
To conclude addiction and addicts may prove a threat to the generations that come after but there is no way to completely eliminate addiction because every substance can hook a human so deep that they cannot escape the grasp. It’s almost unacceptable but it’s a sad reality that we can only hope to lessen since it cannot be eliminated. According to Liebertpub.com, addiction is a leading cause that results in problematic families.
