Table of contents:
- What is addiction?
- Addiction is different from habit
- How do I know if I have an addiction?
- What are the causes of addiction?
Do you have an addiction to something? In fact, everyone can have their own addiction to something. Whether it's addiction to food, work, play video games, alcohol, sports, shopping, to drugs. Actually, what causes addiction? How do you know if you have an addiction? Is addiction normal? Or is it a psychological disorder?
What is addiction?
Addiction is a condition in which a person loses control of what he is doing - due to a strong desire or indulgence for something - and occurs for a long time. People who have addictions have no control over what they do, use or consume over the things they become addicted to.
Addiction does not only occur in physical objects that you can consume, it turns out that according to experts there are many types of addiction to a behavior that you may not be aware of. Addiction conditions that occur in a person can have a negative impact on their health, especially psychological health. It is not impossible that addiction causes behavior, habits, and even brain function to change.
Addiction is different from habit
Of course, addiction is different from habits that are repeated over and over again. When you do a habit that you always do, you can stop it at any time according to the conditions that occur. But not with addiction, you really find it hard to stop the behavior, whatever happens to stop it.
In essence, you lose control and control over what you are doing and are unable to stop the activity. Disorders of a person's psychological aspects can also be one of the causes of addiction.
How do I know if I have an addiction?
Some of the characteristics that indicate someone is experiencing addiction, namely:
- Can't stop doing a habit
- Unstable emotional changes
- Increase appetite
- Causes insomnia
- Withdrawing from the environment due to his favorite things
- Doing a lot of denial and always justifying himself in what he did
- Experiencing problems in a romantic or social relationship.
What are the causes of addiction?
Before knowing the causes of addiction, this condition is basically in three stages, namely:
- Early stage where the desire for the object arises
- Second stage, begin to like the object and then lose control over themselves in carrying out activities related to the object.
- Last stage that is, it occurs when the behavior continues to become a habit that is hard to break.
The thing that causes addiction is actually the feeling of pleasure in the brain. Whatever the activity, whether it be sex, psychoactive drugs, abundance of wealth, or food that tastes good, will be interpreted the same thing in the brain. The brain will respond to all the pleasures through a similar response, namely by producing the hormone dopamine or pleasure hormone. This hormone will increase when you feel satisfied, happy, and happy about something.
In this condition, it turns out that dopamine not only responds to the pleasures you have just faced, but this hormone also causes excessive feelings of liking which can lead to addiction. If the dopamine levels produced by the brain are normal, it will not cause addiction. But when you are addicted, the object to which you are addicted stimulates the brain to produce too much dopamine.
