Non-Chemical Addiction

Shopping Addiction

From hitting the mall with your friends on weekends to holiday spending on gifts that go under the tree, shopping could be called someone’s full-time job. Giving in to the occasional impulse buy is normal. After all, the majority of people enjoy shopping. The problem occurs when you or someone you know has succumbed to obsessive shopping. Most people go shopping to buy new clothes for work or a small trinket for a friend.

For others, however, shopping is much more than an enjoyable pastime, and in some cases, it is a real and destructive non-chemical addiction that can turn into a financial disaster. Overspending and compulsive buying can be defined as inappropriate, excessive, and controlled phenomena, as we see in other addictions. Impulsiveness is the key feature. Basically, lack of control over one’s impulses leads to damages. “shopaholism” shopping addiction is a non-chemical addiction that can wreak havoc on a person’s life, family, relationships, physical and mental health, and finances. 

Shopping Addiction

“Shopping, done to excess, can spin out of control and lead to bigger problems, spoiling rather than enhancing your quality of life. The more you use shopping as an attempt to fill an inner void, manage your feelings, repair your mood, or pursue a ‘perfect’ image, the more likely it is that you need to take a closer look at what this behavior is costing you. At times, you start using shopping as a defense mechanism against your negative emotions or feelings. You can temporarily escape from your problems but at the end of the day, they still exist. And what makes you more miserable is their existence. Shopaholics get some kind of high when they buy something, which means that endorphins and dopamines, naturally occurring opiate receptor sites in the brain, get switched on, and the person starts feeling elated. Once they feel good, their behavior will automatically reinforce, and they will fall prey to the trap of addiction that is a non-chemical addiction. When it happens to you, a negative change in your spending habits is quite noticeable. For instance, you are likely tempted to dash off to the mall to buy items you don’t really need.

 You will feel like buying new things every day, no matter whether you need them or not; this is something in your head that constantly keeps you focusing on buying stuff. Ruling out normal buying behavior is very important. Some people’s leisure time is often spent on shopping. If they spend a lot of time shopping, it does not necessarily mean a shopping addiction that is a non-chemical addiction. Shopping sprees are also common among people who have recently acquired a large inheritance or won a significant sum of money. As such, the apparent impulsive buying done by these people does not necessarily constitute an addiction to shopping. The situation will be alarming when you start seeing dysfunctionality in different areas of your life. There can be several reasons for getting into compulsive shopping, e.g., emotional deprivation in childhood, Inability to tolerate negative feelings, pain, loneliness, boredom, depression, fear, anger, need to fill an inner emptiness and longing inside, pleasure-seeking, Approval seeking, low self-esteem perfectionism, genuinely impulsive and compulsive and need to gain control.

Gadget Addiction

Gadgets in Life

Science has provided mankind with ground-breaking and technological mechanisms, the gadgets that are a part of everyone’s life these days. From cell phones to hi-tech televisions, from multimedia gaming sets to music players, everything is a gadget and has carried the world just inside one’s pocket. Innovation in technology and communication has produced numerous gadgets. Every other second, a new gadget is being launched in the consumer bazaar. People have now reached a point where they cannot live without these fancy gadgets. This eventually results in gadget addiction which is also a non-chemical addiction. This addiction has become a grave issue in the world, especially among adolescents.

Gadget Addiction

Gadget addiction, as you know, is a non-chemical addiction that can be defined as taking pleasure in a particular activity, such as laptops, PlayStation, and iPods, and spending a lot of time doing it.   Today, it is tricky to visualize a contemporary teenager without a mobile phone or any other gadget. The perturbing research found that 97 percent of teenagers from 11 to 16 years old possess a mobile phone. Gadget addiction is the reason for the wish to get more freedom and the desirability of gadget applications.

Consequently, this addiction may cause a detrimental lifestyle among teenagers and influence their academic performance. Cell phones, particularly smartphones, have played a ground-breaking role in the lives of people, particularly teenagers. The phone has become a necessity these days; on the other hand, it has the whole thing just a few keys away. Networking, email, movies, games, music, the internet, and even calling, everything is just a matter of a few clicks. Every other child is a gadget addict.

Chemical Addiction

Teenagers these days are smarter than their parents; they are not involved in social gatherings but social networking; they do not go outside to parks to play but have play stations and video games; they do not have human friends but gadgets, and most amusingly they do not have hobbies or habits but, addiction.

Gadget addiction can be defined as taking pleasure in a particular activity, such as laptops, PlayStation, and iPods, and spending a lot of time doing it. Today, it is tricky to visualize a contemporary teenager without a mobile phone or any other gadget. The perturbing research found that 97 percent of teenagers from 11 to 16 years old possess a mobile phone. Gadget addiction or non-chemical addiction is the reason for the wish to get more freedom and the desirability of gadget applications.

Consequently, this non-chemical addiction may cause a detrimental lifestyle among teenagers and influence their academic performance. Cell phones particularly smartphones have played a ground-breaking role in the life of people particularly teenagers. The phone has become a necessity these days; on the other hand, it has the whole thing just a few keys away. Networking, email, movies, games, music, the internet, and even calling, everything is just a matter of a few clicks.

Every other child is a gadget addict. Teenagers these days are smarter than their parents, they do not involve in social gatherings but social networking, they do not go outside in parks to play but have the play stations and video games, they do not have human friends but gadgets and most amusingly they do not have hobbies or habits but, addiction.

Workaholism

Workaholism

Workaholism can be defined as a condition where individuals experience an emotionally crippling compulsion to work, which is usually driven by the need to either gain approval or public recognition of success. People who can be classified as workaholics tend to have a myopic fixation with an ambitious objective or accomplishment. They jump from one assignment to another and try to meet their self-imposed demands. In this effort, they lose sight of their ability to regulate their work habits and tend to overindulge in their work.

They dwell excessively on work-related issues and bring them home with them as well. This comes at the expense of other social activities and has detrimental consequences on their physical and emotional well-being. It is unfortunate that this form of non-chemical addiction has not received its due share of attention owing to the fact that its seriousness is often underestimated. 

The gravity of the problem is not comprehended mainly because it takes a comparatively lesser emotional and physical toll on people than a disorder such as a drug addiction does. However, a compulsive pattern of behavior towards work can also cause dysfunctional ties in personal, occupational, and social domains, much like substance addiction which is also a from of non-chemical addiction. Another reason why the issue of workaholics has failed to capture attention as a serious problem is that it is slightly difficult to differentiate between a genuine compulsion to overwork and a passion for one’s occupation.

The lines between the two can appear blurry, but it is usually the far-reaching dysfunctionality caused by an unhealthy compulsion to work that serves as the differentiating factor. While a hard worker manages to strike a healthy balance between his work and personal responsibilities, the workaholic remains caught up in the struggle to achieve one accomplishment after another. This causes the workaholic to be emotionally absent from his friends and family while having negative repercussions for his social life as well. If the problem is not addressed in a timely manner, workaholism can lead to the development of more serious physical and psychological ailments.

In view of the hazards that accompany the problem of compulsive overworking, it is imperative to look at it as a serious issue that demands structured psychological intervention. Treatment for workaholism firstly addresses the ambivalence that surrounds their problem. This is usually because they can simultaneously find reasons for both changing their behaviors and persisting with them. Much like the treatment of other forms of addictive behaviors, it is crucial to raise the problem awareness of workaholics.

They need to be made aware of the deep-seated consequences that have been brought on by their addictive tendency towards work. The realization can help them work towards achieving a balance between their personal and professional lives. As people suffering from the problem of workaholism tend to neglect the importance of relaxation and socialization, proactively incorporating activities in their lives that allow time for them serves as another effective means of defeating their non-chemical addiction. It allows them to reconnect with an important part of their lives that they had been overlooking. The treatment strategies that we adopt for dealing with workaholism usually focus on the following principles:

Improving

Improving the workaholic’s awareness regarding his problem in order to facilitate the therapeutic process.

Focusing

Focusing on establishing realistic and attainable goals rather than chasing lofty objectives.

Emphasizing

Emphasizing directly the behavior of engaging in excessive work apart from addressing the consequences brought on by it.

Introducing

Introducing alternative activities in the client’s routine that allow time for relaxation.