ADDICTION

WHAT IS ADDICTION? 

Addiction is the psychological symptom under which an individual involves himself in an activity and is unable to stop partaking in the activity later. In most of the cases, we reflect drugs and other chemical consumption as addiction only while it has a broader tail. Hence, in a wider sense, “anything or activity that we partake, in order to provide ourselves a temporary pleasure which is unhealthy and take us away from our milestone is an addiction”. Now the range of addiction can vary from high to low. A very high-level addiction covers individuals having zero percent self-control on the activity they are indulged into and cannot live another second without its occurrence while the low-level addiction can be considered as listening to one song hundreds of times a day.

Addiction can be of many types like Alcohol addiction, Drug addiction, Prescription drug addiction, Internet/ social media addiction, Food addiction, Gambling addiction, gaming addiction, Shopping addiction, Stealing addiction, Exercising, spiritual obsession and etc.

Now, in the above list as you go on analyzing the level of addiction falls from highly unhealthy to highly healthy.

WHY DO WE GET ADDICTED TO THINGS?

                                

Sometimes in life, things are feeling so good and mostly they are usually, related to our survival like eating, shopping, etc. similarly, there are things that offer the identical level of pleasure but aren’t healthy in nature such as consumption of some drug or outlaying too much time on the internet. But, as it provides the same feeling of pleasure and relaxation, that this may lead to addiction in our brain.

Inside our brain, we have a reward pathway that is located in the Limbic system which is accountable for the creation of our emotions and memories.

Our mind reward pathway rewards us for currently doing the action by producing a neurotransmitter called Dopamine. That supports us to focus on the current activities in the process along with conveying the message to the brain to hopefully repeat that action in the future.

But you can see where this can go erroneous, if our brain said a similar thing about drugs or other harmful behaviors.

Along with this, other considerable factors are written as follows:-

1.  It provides a temporary escape from the problem that can be any daily problem as well as routine stress.
2.  It can be due to social and peer pressure as well.
3. Mostly activities like this need a less initial investment, therefore our mind and body intend to intimidate towards it easily.
4. There is a sense of purpose and a goal while performing such activities.
5. Parting with some addiction is always painful like the loss of a loved one, sometimes as well result in seeking a substitute for the old source of pleasure.

HOW WE CAN GET OUT OF ADDICTION?               

Just like for achieving something requires a lot of energy, patience, and commitment. Similarly upholding good habits requires a lot of discipline.

The following are the steps that can be followed to get out of any addiction and much likely to commit to a good addiction.

1. Firstly one needs to be self-aware of bad habits or addiction in him. That can be any specific behavior, attitude, and mindset. Acknowledging that you have a problem is always the first step to overcome it.
2. Enlist the harmful effects of your addiction.
3. Enlist the positive changes you want in your life.
4. Seek personal and professional support
5. Identify your trigger points or situations and make sure not to push that hard. Thus, kindly avoid it.
6. Last but not least, the will to do it and getting your environment ready for it anyhow.

CONCLUSION:-

Addiction is an involuntary process. It may not be fair to associate a person’s addictive behavior with his moral standards or characters. One has to transform his desire for problems, into a hunger for mindfulness.  At last apart from therapy and medicine overcoming addiction requires a lot of love, support, motivation, and understanding of self.

Addiction

Yes, I am addicted!
Being a li'l child
I am addicted to my parents' benign!
But as I grow
Growin' growin'
I saw someone's love
someone's Bhai
someone's apple of eyes.......
                             

                                (click to continue read poem)

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