Supporting Humanity

What Is Addiction?

Addiction is a chronic dysfunction of the brain system that involves reward, motivation, and memory. It’s about the way your body craves a substance or behaviour, especially if it causes a compulsive or obsessive pursuit of “reward” and lack of concern over consequences.

In simple words, Addiction is not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you. Addiction is most commonly associated with gambling, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, porn & sex, among others but it’s possible to be addicted to just about everything such as work, internet, solvents & shopping.

Over time, addictions can seriously interfere with your daily life. People experiencing addiction are also prone to cycles of relapse and remission. This means they may cycle between intense and mild use. Despite these cycles, addictions will typically worsen over time. They can lead to permanent health complications and serious consequences like bankruptcy.

We, at Supporting Humanity, aim to focus on 5 main types of addiction, i.e. Alcohol, Drugs, Sex, Porn & Gambling. We will be looking at each type of addiction in detail along with the signs and causes of addiction to better understand and therefore enhance the experience for our service users.

Types Of Addiction

Alcoholism:

Alcoholism is the most severe form of alcohol abuse and involves the inability to manage drinking habits. It is also commonly referred to as alcohol use disorder. Alcohol use disorder is organized into three categories: mild, moderate and severe. Each category has various symptoms and can cause harmful side effects. If left untreated, any type of alcohol abuse can spiral out of control.

Individuals struggling with alcoholism often feel as though they cannot function normally without alcohol. This can lead to a wide range of issues and impact professional goals, personal matters, relationships and overall health. Over time, the serious side effects of consistent alcohol abuse can worsen and produce damaging complications.

Sometimes the warning signs of alcohol abuse are very noticeable. Other times, they can take longer to surface. When alcohol addiction is discovered in its early stages, the chance for a successful recovery increases significantly.

Common signs of alcoholism include:

● Being unable to control alcohol consumption
● Craving alcohol when you’re not drinking
● Putting alcohol above personal responsibilities
● Feeling the need to keep drinking more
● Spending a substantial amount of money on alcohol
● Behaving differently after drinking

Drug Addiction:

Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a "relapsing" disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drug.

Most drugs affect the brain's "reward circuit," causing euphoria as well as flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine. A properly functioning reward system motivates a person to repeat behaviours needed to thrive, such as eating and spending time with loved ones. Surges of dopamine in the reward circuit cause the reinforcement of pleasurable but unhealthy behaviours like taking drugs, leading people to repeat the behaviour again and again.

Common symptoms of drug addiction:
● Having the urge to consume the drug frequently.
● Having to increase the quantity of the drug to get the same effect.
● Spending more money on the drug even when one can’t afford it.
● Neglecting one’s own responsibilities such as work, family, etc.
● Going to the extent of stealing cash in order to purchase the drug, when one doesn’t have sufficient funds.
● Spending hours to have the drug in possession. Making sure that one has a stock at home.
● Coming to a realization where one intends on stopping drug consumption because of its negative effects, yet, being unable to resist the urge, returns back to the same old habits.

Sex Addiction:

Sex addiction is described as a compulsive need to perform sexual acts in order to achieve the kind of “fix” or “high” that a person with alcohol use disorder gets from a drink or someone with opiate use disorder gets from using opiates.

Sex addiction should not be confused with disorders such as paedophilia or bestiality. For some people, sex addiction can be highly dangerous and result in considerable difficulties with relationships. Like drug or alcohol dependence, it has the potential to negatively impact a person’s physical and mental health, personal relationships, quality of life, and safety.

It’s believed that a person with sex addiction will seek out multiple sex partners, though this in itself is not necessarily a sign of a disorder. Some report that it may manifest itself as a compulsive need to masturbate, view pornography, or be in sexually stimulating situations.

A person with sex addiction may significantly alter their life and activities in order to perform sexual acts multiple times a day and are reportedly unable to control their behaviour, despite severe negative consequences.

Common symptoms of sex addiction:

● chronic, obsessive sexual thoughts and fantasies
● compulsive relations with multiple partners, including strangers
● lying to cover behaviours
● preoccupation with having sex, even when it interferes with daily life, productivity, work performance, and so on
● inability to stop or control the behaviours
● putting oneself or others in danger due to sexual behaviour
● feeling remorse or guilt after sex
● experiencing other negative personal or professional consequences

Porn Addiction

Pornography addiction is an addiction model of compulsive sexual activity with concurrent use of pornographic material, despite negative consequences to one's physical, mental, social, or financial well-being.

It’s important to note that “porn addiction” isn’t an official diagnosis recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), neither the DSM-5 nor the ICD-11 classify compulsive pornography consumption as a mental disorder or addiction, but experiencing an uncontrollable compulsion to view porn can be as problematic for some people as other behavioural addictions.

Common Symptoms of porn addiction:

● find that the amount of time you spend watching porn keeps growing
● Increased isolation from family, friends, spouse, and/or sexual/romantic partner
● feel as though you need a porn “fix” — and that fix gives you a “high”
● feel guilty about the consequences of viewing porn
● spend hours on end perusing online porn sites, even if it means neglecting responsibilities or sleep
● insist that your romantic or sexual partner views porn or acts out porn fantasies even though they don’t want to
● are unable to enjoy sex without first viewing porn
● are unable to resist porn even though it’s disrupting your life

Gambling Addiction:

Gambling addiction is the uncontrollable urge to continue gambling despite the toll it takes on one's life. Gambling is addictive because it stimulates the brain's reward system much like drugs or alcohol can. An addiction that can have many negative psychological, physical, and social repercussions. It is classed as an impulse-control disorder.

In fact, gambling addiction is the most common impulse control disorder worldwide. People who live with this addiction may experience depression, migraine, distress, and other anxiety-related problems. Some gamblers are seeking excitement or action in gambling, others are looking more for escape or numbing.

Common symptoms of gambling:

● Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
● Is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
● Has made repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
● Is often preoccupied with gambling (e.g., having persistent thoughts of reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble)
● Often gambles when feeling distressed (e.g., helpless, guilty, anxious, depressed)
● After losing money gambling, often returns another day to get even ("chasing" one's losses)
● Lies to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
● Has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, education, or career opportunity because of gambling
● Relies on others to provide money to relieve desperate financial situations caused by gambling

Supporting Humanity offer emotional support to those who are suffering from a substance or non-substance addiction. Our sessions will consist of providing, support, reassurance, acceptance, and encouragement as well as promoting the emotional well-being of adults through support and guidance. Our Emotional Support Workers will Set time aside with no distractions, either face to face/online/telephone.

We understand It is important to provide an open and non-judgemental space with and let our clients share as much or as little as they want to with open ended questions. We may offer them help in seeking professional support and provide information on ways to do this by sign posting them to another organisation or the GP.