Addiction is a Disease
Addiction is all around us. It may be that cup of coffee in the morning for the caffeine stimulation, the cigarette that is smoked for the nicotine, or an alcoholic drink used to relieve a stressful day or situation. For some, the addiction may not be to a substance, but to compulsive behaviors such as gambling, playing video games, or shopping. Consequences to addictions can impact an addict’s physical or mental state. Addiction can also have detrimental impact on the people that surround them. Watching a relationship fall apart because a person has an addiction to drugs, alcohol, or another addictive behavior is a sad thing to happen to anyone. Unfortunately, those with addictions usually won’t admit they even
When looking at addiction for a neurological point of view, there are a series of chemical reactions going on. Dopamine is a good-feel hormone produced in the brain when satisfaction is gained chemically by substances or by a self-gratifying act. When substances such as drugs and alcohol are used or certain behaviors are performed, a person experiences an unnatural high, so to speak, which is many times greater than the natural reward system produced in the brain. Some individuals may be more susceptible to getting hooked on this feeling.
Certain people can be specifically more vulnerable than others to taking on an addiction. The vulnerability to addiction can be due to their genetic dispositions. “With prominent advances in whole genome sequencing, the search for genetic variations underlying drug addiction is continuing at an escalating pace; however, genetic factors likely explain about fifty percent of the risk for addiction” (Maze and Nestor 99). Some believe that one can have an addictive personality. An addictive personality will always be susceptible to having at least one kind of addiction. Quite subsequently, an addictive personality type is addicted to addiction itself. If one addiction was given up, another one would be taken on, moreover, it is commonly found for an addicted person to be addicted to several addictions at the same time. This increases the level of the individual suffering, and no matter what the addiction, it