You Are Probably Addicted to This

Addiction is no longer limited to injections, imbibitions, or inhalations. It can involve technology, emotions, or health obsessions.

Coping With Obsessions

Love is an addition. Or, you could love an addiction. A mate can consume your waking thoughts and in your absence, trigger withdrawal pangs. Computer programming or gaming can stimulate a compulsive nature.

Affecting teens through adults, people are more prone to admit their legal addictions but many are overlooked. The Huffington Post asks, “Is Everyone Addicted To Something?” Research reveals a wide range of obsessions, compulsions, and addictions that affect many people in developed countries:

Fourteen million Americans abuse alcohol; three million American teens between ages 14 and 17 are problem drinkers. (alcoholics-info.com)
There is a conservative estimate of two million cocaine addicts, 1.4 million regular methamphetamine users, and 800,000 hardcore heroin addicts. (addictionnomore.com and pbs.org/frontline)
Nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved prescription opioids. Drug overdoses have since become the leading cause of death of Americans under 50, with two-thirds of those deaths from opioids. (NYTimes.com)
Fifteen million Americans display signs of gambling addiction. Researchers call gambling the fastest-growing teenage addiction: 42 percent of 14-year-olds, 49 percent of 15-year-olds, 63 percent of 16-year-olds, and 76 percent of 18-year-olds. (overcominggambling.com/facts.html)
Forty million adults in the United States regularly visit pornography sites; ten percent of them (four million) admit to having a sexual addiction to pornography. (reliableanswers.com)
In 2007, 60 million Americans (24.2 percent of the population) were current cigarette smokers, 13.3 million smoked cigars, 8.1 million used smokeless tobacco, and two million smoked tobacco in pipes. (www.cdc.gov/tobacco)

Investors urge Apple to research the effects of smartphone overuse on children and develop appropriate software safeguards. (foxnews.com) The Apple response is within iOS 12 Screen Time, which children began breaching within a week of its public release.

Can’t Do Without

There is debate over whether everyone has an addiction. But it cannot be denied that a high percentage of the population is affected. So what’s your addiction: alcohol, body modification, caffeine, drugs, food, gambling, exercising, gaming, porn, sex, smoking, tattoos, television watching, texting, sexting, or work? Perhaps it qualifies as specific disorder like anorexia nervosa, bulimia, OCD or OCPD? Each compulsion or addiction may fall under the umbrella of Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS).

You Are Probably Addicted to This

What is Reward Deficiency Syndrome?

RDS is a biogenetic psychological theory first noted by American neuropsychopharmacologist Kenneth Blum in 1996. It involves reward-seeking behavior affected by neurological chemical reactions (dopamine and serotonin). Those with RDS experience less pleasurable stimulation than the typical population. So, they seek fulfillment in more extreme forms. Various drugs, stressors, or behaviors can create changes within the brain that may cause temporary RDS.

Basic explanation: When D2 receptor activity is inadequate, activity levels of neurons within the nucleus accumbens and hippocampus becomes reduced. The individual feels unpleasant emotions and/or cravings for substances that release dopamine, thereby providing temporary relief from unpleasant emotions.
Cascade theory: Neurons responsible for releasing serotonin in the hypothalamus become excited and release enkephalin (an opioid peptide). This inhibits the activity of neurons that release GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter) and dopaminergic neurons release dopamine which leads to a “cascade effect.”

RDS involves the interactions of powerful neurotransmitters and results in abnormal craving behavior. Five important facts that could help translate to potential therapeutic targets include:

Consumption of alcohol in large quantities or carbohydrates binging stimulates the brain’s production of and utilization of dopamine;
In the mesolimbic system the enkephalinergic neurons are near glucose receptors;
Highly concentrated glucose activates the calcium channel to stimulate dopamine release from P12 cells;
A significant correlation between blood glucose and cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of homovanillic acid the dopamine metabolite;
2-deoxyglucose (2DG), the glucose analog, in pharmacological doses is associated with enhanced dopamine turnover and causes acute glucoprivation.

Some can successfully break free from an addiction. However, if someone weans off a drug (or addictive behavior) without addressing the underlying causes, (s)he often ends up switching the addiction to something else. Ex-smokers frequently increase their food intake. Addiction is more about a set of behaviors than it is about a particular substance. Taking away something that our body is used to constantly having will almost always lead to a bad reaction. —Listverse

Experiencing euphoria that diminishes over time from the same level of activity leads some people to become consumed with increasing the intensity.

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You Are Probably Addicted to This

Coping With Obsessions

Can’t Do Without

What is Reward Deficiency Syndrome?

Follow ClinicalPosters on YouTube for updates as we develop more video content.

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You Are Probably Addicted to This

Coping With Obsessions

Can’t Do Without

What is Reward Deficiency Syndrome?

Follow ClinicalPosters on YouTube for updates as we develop more video content.

Access full article.

Read next article