What Is Addiction? Definition, Signs, Treatment, and More

Most people with opioid use disorder develop high levels of tolerance and experience withdrawal when stopping use. In short, all addiction treatment aims to help people find healthy new ways of handling life’s difficulties and rebuild the life that was derailed by addiction. Overcoming addiction usually entails finding meaningful goals to pursue, to provide the brain with rewards more naturally. Over time—usually how to store pee for drug test months—successful treatment reverses the changes in brain circuitry that make substance use hard to control. In addiction, nerve pathways of attention and motivation change in ways that cause a person to preferentially notice, desire, and seek the psychoactive substance or behavior. Activity in the brain’s decision-making center weakens, so that what started as a choice becomes a compulsion.

A Basic Guide to Addiction Treatment and Recovery

Wet brain is the colloquial term for the nutritional brain bomb of severe thiamine deficiency that occurs with chronic abuse of alcohol. It is medically known as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy or Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. It arises when people get a large proportion of their calories from alcohol, because the substance interferes with the intestinal absorption of thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. Thiamine is critical for energy production and serves as a cofactor in many enzymatic reactions regulating glucose utilization by mitochondria, the power factories inside all cells.

Alcohol Use Disorder

Withdrawal from opioids has been likened to a bad case of the flu, with whole-body discomfort, abdominal pain , and nausea and diarrhea lasting several days. That is one reason why those quitting opioid use are frequently advised to seek medical supervision for doing so. Deaths due to accidental heroin overdose rose nearly 300 percent between 2002 and 2013. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism cites two patterns of drinking that can lead to the risk of alcohol use disorder—binge drinking and heavy alcohol use.

Addiction Symptoms

On the other hand, hedonic short videos usually revolve around humorous or cute pets, appearances, song and dance performances as their main content, offering users hedonic pleasure and meeting their entertainment needs. Some scholars have conducted research to explore the relationship between two types of videos and users’ usage behavior. It has been observed that the continuous how to make yourself pee use of functional short videos by users is inadequate, while hedonic short videos captivate a large number of users due to their appeal in terms of interest, novelty, stimulation and aesthetics. This phenomenon has led to significant social consequences (Tian, 2023). Therefore, the focus of this paper is mainly on the issue of addiction to hedonic short videos.

The Psychology of Addiction

In addition, mounting evidence suggests that the brain changes of addiction do not reflect abnormal processes—they are the same processes involved in all learning. And the addicted brain returns to normal, gradually rewiring itself after substance use stops. Adi Jaffe, Ph.D., is a lecturer at UCLA and the CEO of IGNTD, an online company that produces podcasts and educational programs on mental health and addiction.

1. The view of addiction as a disease is consonant with some facts about the condition.
2. Through the actions of the neurotransmitter dopamine, the brain become extremely efficient in wanting the drug effects, and eventually becomes imprisoned in the wanting.
3. Gambling disorder became the first—and so far, only—behavior singled out for addictive potential.
4. The key to addressing the issue lies in gaining a profound insight into its nature.
5. What data do show is that early, heavy, and frequent use of marijuana creates a risk for psychosis.

Instead, a deeper reflection on technological products such as short videos should be conducted from the perspectives of social development and user needs. For example, why do different users have different attitudes toward short videos? If the shaping of technology by society or individuals is ignored and the impact of short videos on individuals and society is analyzed unilaterally, the measures taken to prevent short video addiction may lag or be ineffective. Research has shown that the stimulation from short videos activates the brain’s reward pathway.

To date, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5) includes gambling disorder in its section on substance use disorders. Discussions on whether or not to classify behavioral addictions as mental disorders continue. Imaging studies also reveal that many substances of abuse are related to reduction in volume of specific areas of the cerebral cortex, reflecting a pruning of synapses to make the brain highly efficient in drug-seeking.

Removing the drug does not instill understanding of the underlying causes of the addiction. Nor does it repair damage done, provide needed psychological and behavioral skills, or furnish a goal in life, something necessary for creating feelings of reward that the substance formerly provided. Nor does it solve the problem that made use of a psychoactive substance so attractive in the first place. What must follow “detox” is treatment aimed at rebuilding a person and a life. That process can take months or years, and many types of help and supportive resources can be accessed all along the way.

Obviously, these people didn’t choose to face these health challenges. The same applies to people with addiction problems such as drug addiction. This makes addiction disorders very similar to other diseases and disorders. For example, people with diabetes need to regularly check blood sugar levels and count carbohydrates. People with heart disease must opt for a healthier diet and exercise programme.

The term addiction does not only refer to dependence on substances such as heroin or cocaine. Some addictions also involve an inability to stop partaking in activities such as gambling, eating, or working. You can also experience both physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms. Psychological dependence is a term that describes the emotional or mental components of substance use disorder, such as strong cravings for the substance or behavior and difficulty thinking about anything else. Many people struggle to achieve lasting recovery from alcohol dependence, highlighting the need to individualize patient treatment based on their life history, genes, coexisting illnesses, and other issues.

We are beginning to understand the biological forces that influence behaviour, both humans and animals. By Michelle PugleMichelle Pugle, MA is a freelance writer and reporter focusing on mental health and chronic conditions. As seen in Verywell, Healthline, Psych Central, Everyday Health, and Health.com, among others.

Substance use disorder is marked by a pattern of pathological behaviors related to use of the substance. Discover how doing less can break your sober house boston worst habits with the EAT cycle. Since success tends not to occur all at once, any improvements are considered important signs of progress.