Addiction often leads to a lot of conflict or tension. People with addiction not only have to deal with the addiction itself, but also the stigma surrounding addictions. But how does a person become addicted? And how is it that some people become addicted and others do not?
When do you have an addiction?
Something that is nice, we want to have as much of it as possible. However, some people do not have a "stop button" and can become addicted. We speak of an addiction when you start using more and more or more long-term substances or start exhibiting certain behaviors. You want to reduce or stop, but you can't. You suffer from a continuous craving that is difficult to suppress and takes up much of your time. This dependence can range from mild to severe or chronic use. We distinguish two different types of addiction: addiction to behavior (such as Internet surfing and gaming) and addiction to substances (such as drugs, alcohol, medication or nicotine).
How does drug addiction develop?
In developing an addiction, the reward system in your brain plays a big role. When you use drugs, alcohol or nicotine, more dopamine is produced in your brain. This substance makes you feel satisfied and rewarded. This nice feeling can cause you to use drugs (including alcohol and nicotine) more often. Overuse of substances makes your brain less sensitive to your natural reward system. The substances (neurotransmitters) that make you feel good, such as dopamine and endorphins, normally bind to a receptor (receiver) on your brain cells.
With excessive drug use, the receptors can increase, decrease or change. When you increase, the neurotransmitters can bind to more places, enhancing the fine feeling. When your receptors decrease, the neurotransmitters may actually bind to fewer places. This can also cause you to feel feelings such as anxiety and sadness less strongly. Your receptors can also change so that your neurotransmitters bind much better or not at all. This process causes you to fall into a vicious cycle and need alcohol, drugs or nicotine to feel good. Such a pattern is very difficult to break and often has a lot of negative impact on your daily life.
How does behavioral addiction occur?
A behavioral addiction occurs in a similar way to a drug or alcohol addiction. In a substance addiction, you stimulate the reward system directly and in a behavioral addiction, you stimulate it indirectly. Also with a behavioral addiction, the repetition of certain behaviors creates a positive feeling and releases dopamine, just like with drug use. This causes you to develop a dependence for certain behaviors, such as in the form of a sex addiction, porn addiction, eating addiction or gambling addiction.
Stigma and addiction
A person with addiction suffers not only from the negative consequences of addiction, but also with prejudice in society. The stigma surrounding addiction is often more severe than for other mental illnesses. Also, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about addiction. The biggest misunderstanding is still that a person chooses to become addicted. As a result, people with addiction are often excluded and rejected.
Addiction often occurs in combination with other mental illnesses, so people with addiction problems often face a double stigma. This stigma makes being open about your addiction very difficult. Recognizing and acknowledging addiction can therefore be difficult and ultimately creates a barrier in seeking professional help.
Quote
Stigma is something that kills human beings sometimes far more than the disease.
Nelson Mandela
The causes of addiction
Why someone develops a dependency for certain substances or behaviors has to do with a number of factors. The main causes are genetic vulnerability, the type of drugs you use and environmental factors.
Whether you are susceptible to addiction is probably 40-60% determined by your genetic predisposition. The environment in which you grow up and experiencing trauma also play a role. If you develop mental health problems due to an unpleasant event or an unsafe childhood, this increases your chances of developing an addiction. People with behavioral addiction also often develop this dependency to seek distraction from their real lives. With substance addiction, the type of drug also affects you. Not every drug has the same effect on your brain, making some drugs more addictive (e.g., heroin) than others (such as cannabis).
Characteristics of addiction
How do you recognize addiction?
Usually addiction leads to many conflicts. Sometimes you can no longer fulfill your most important obligations. You give up leisure activities and social or professional activities. You try to downplay it, out of shame or guilt. However, your tolerance gets higher and higher, so you need more and more of something to still achieve the desired effect. How addiction manifests itself is different for each person, but the symptoms below are typical for many addicts.
- Tolerance
- Withdrawal symptoms|
- Guilt
- Giving up obligations
Addiction treatment U-center
U-center treats you as a person, not just the diagnosis. We look beyond just the addiction, starting from a set of basic interventions. For addiction, this is primarily detox and cognitive behavioral therapy. Additional interventions include body-oriented treatments, expressive therapies and lifestyle change interventions. U-center also pays attention to underlying causes and personality traits. This involves individual consultations, group therapy, partner relationship and system therapy. It is important that you become active again and build up a daily rhythm, structure and physical condition. The treatment takes place in a fixed team with several therapists, tailored to your specific situation.