The problem of dependent (addictive) behavior in the modern world has turned out to be perhaps the most confusing and intractable of all those facing humanity. Most people have a traumatic experience of addiction, ranging from sweets, the desire to immerse themselves in the roar of hard rock, and ending with nicotine, alcohol and drugs. The standards of modern consumer society through advertising require the maintenance of various types of addictions. In our case, we will talk about the most destructive types of addictive behavior.
Addiction- this is a way of adapting to difficult conditions for an individual and, then, a “space” that allows you to “relax”, “rejoice” and return again (if possible) to real life. A suitable addictive agent (cigarette, alcohol, drug) comes “to the rescue”, changing the state without much effort, taming the soul and body into slavery. Addictions are the psychological causes of personal disasters, destruction and illness.
Addictive behavior- one of the types of deviant (deviant) behavior with the formation of a desire to escape from reality by artificially changing oneself through the use of certain substances or constant fixation on certain ones with the aim of developing intense emotions.
The severity of addictive behavior can vary - from almost normal behavior to severe forms of addiction, accompanied by severe somatic and mental pathologies.
Types of addictive behavior
Alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse, smoking (chemical addiction);
- gambling, computer addiction, sexual addiction, prolonged listening to music based on rhythm;
- eating disorders;
- complete immersion in some type of activity while ignoring vital responsibilities and problems, etc.
For an individual and society, not all these types of addictive behavior are equivalent in consequences.
A person usually strives for psychological and physical comfort. In everyday life, such a comfortable state is not always achievable or is not stable enough: various external factors, troubles at work, quarrels with loved ones, insufficient understanding in the family, destruction of the usual stereotype (downsizing, changing jobs, retirement, etc.) ; features of biorhythms (seasonal, monthly, daily, etc.), seasonality of the year (summer, autumn) affect the overall tone of the body, the rise or fall of mood, .
People have different attitudes towards periods of low mood; as a rule, they find the strength to cope with them using their internal resources, communicate with friends and loved ones, considering periods of decline as natural cycles of life. For others, fluctuations in mood and psychophysical tone are perceived as difficult to bear. In the latter case we are talking about people with low frustration tolerance, i.e. personalities. This can be facilitated by both individual personality characteristics (anxiety, addiction, inadequacy, etc.) and.
The roots of addictive mechanisms, no matter what form of addiction they lead to, are found in childhood, in characteristics. At home, in the parental environment, the child learns the language of interpersonal contacts and emotional relationships. If a child does not find support or emotional warmth from his parents, and experiences a feeling of psychological insecurity, then this feeling of insecurity and mistrust is transferred to the larger world around him, to the people he meets in life, which forces him to seek a comfortable state through taking substances. , fixation on certain activities and objects.
Addiction is a way to control and eliminate slump periods. Using any means or stimulus that artificially changes the mental state or improves mood, the person achieves what he wants, satisfies the desire, but in the future this is no longer enough. Addiction is a process that has a beginning, develops and has an end.
V. Segal, (1989) identifies the following psychological characteristics persons with addictive forms of behavior:
- reduced tolerance to the difficulties of everyday life along with good tolerance to crisis situations;
- a hidden inferiority complex, combined with outwardly demonstrated superiority;
- external sociability, combined with fear of persistent emotional contacts;
- the desire to tell lies;
- the desire to blame others, knowing that they are innocent;
- the desire to evade responsibility in decision making;
- stereotypical, repetitive behavior;
- addiction;
- anxiety.
An addictive personality has a phenomenon of “thirst for thrills” (V.A. Petrovsky), characterized by an incentive to take risks. According to E. Bern, there are six types of hunger in humans:
hunger for sensory stimulation;
hunger for recognition;
hunger for contact and physical stroking;
sexual hunger;
hunger by structuring hunger;
hunger for incidents.
As part of the addictive type of behavior, each of the listed types of hunger worsens. A person does not find satisfaction in the feeling of “hunger” in real life and seeks to relieve discomfort and dissatisfaction with reality by stimulating certain types of activities.
The basic characteristic for an addictive personality is.
For self-defense, addicts use a mechanism that in psychology is called “thinking at will,” in which the content is subordinated. A hedonistic attitude in life is typical, i.e. the desire for immediate pleasure at any cost.
Addiction becomes a universal way of “escape” from real life, when instead of harmonious interaction with all aspects of reality, activation occurs in one direction.
In accordance with the concept of N. Pezeshkian, there are four types of “escape” from reality:
- “escape into the body” - there is a reorientation to activities aimed at one’s own physical or mental improvement. At the same time, a passion for health-improving activities (“paranoia”), sexual interactions (“searching for and catching an orgasm”), one’s own appearance, the quality of rest and methods of relaxation become hypercompensatory;
- “flight to work” is characterized by a disharmonious fixation on official matters, to which a person begins to devote excessive time in comparison with other matters, becoming a workaholic;
- “flight into contacts or loneliness”, in which it becomes either the only desired way to satisfy needs, replacing all others, or the number of contacts is reduced to a minimum;
- “escape into fantasy” - interest in pseudo-philosophical quests, religious fanaticism, life in a world of illusions and fantasies.
The roots of addictive mechanisms, no matter what form of addiction they lead to, lie in childhood, in characteristics. The works of 3. Freud, D. Winnicott, I. Balint, M. Klein, B. Spock, M. Maller, R. Spitz indicate that the painful experiences of a child in the first two years of life (illness, loss of the mother or her inability to satisfy the emotional needs of the child, a strict diet, the prohibition to “pamper” the child, the desire to break his stubborn temperament, etc.) are associated with the subsequent dependent behavior of children. How often, instead of physical contact (“gets used to sitting in your arms”) and emotional warmth, a child receives a pacifier or another bottle of drink. An inanimate object “helps” the child cope with his experiences and replaces human relationships. It is in the parental environment that the child learns the language of interpersonal contacts and emotional relationships. If a child does not find support, physical stroking, or emotional warmth from his parents, then he experiences a feeling of psychological insecurity and mistrust, which is transferred to the big world around him, to the people he meets in life. All this will force you to seek a comfortable state in the future by taking certain substances, fixating on certain objects and activities. If the family does not give the child the necessary
love, then over time he will experience difficulties in maintaining self-respect (remember the current conversation of alcoholics “Do you respect me?”), inability to accept and love himself. Another problem may be parents who are accompanied by alexithymia. The child learns from his parents to hush up his experiences (understand, speak out), suppress them and deny them. However, in those families where the parents are alcoholics, dependent behavior in the child does not always develop (the risk is quite high), the individual characteristics of a particular person play an equally important role.
Social factors contributing to the formation of addictive behavior include:
- technical progress in the food and pharmaceutical industries, throwing new objects of addiction onto the market;
- activities of drug dealers;
- urbanization, weakening interpersonal connections between people.
For some social groups, dependent behavior is a manifestation of group dynamics (teenage group, informal association, sexual minority, just male company).
An important factor in the formation of addictive behavior is played by the psychophysiological characteristics of a person, typological (adaptability, sensitivity), character type (unstable, hyperthymic, epileptoid accentuation in alcoholics and drug addicts), low stress resistance, personality development, obsessive (building protective mental structures) or compulsive (liberation from anxiety, for example, overeating, drunkenness).
Addiction often has a harmless beginning, an individual course (with increasing dependence) and outcome. behavior is different at different stages.
Stages of addictive behavior (according to T.P. Korolenko and T.A. Donskikh):
The first stage is “First tests”. Initially, acquaintance with the drug occurs episodically, with the acquisition and maintenance of control.
The second stage is “Addictive rhythm”. A stable individual rhythm of use with relative control is gradually formed. This stage is often called the stage of psychological dependence, when the drug actually helps to improve the psychophysical state for a while. Gradually, addiction to increasing doses of the drug occurs, at the same time socio-psychological problems accumulate and maladaptive behaviors intensify.
The third stage is “Addictive behavior” (addiction becomes a stereotypical response mechanism). Characterized by an increased rhythm of use at maximum doses, the appearance of signs of physical dependence with signs of intoxication and complete loss of control. The addict's defense mechanism is expressed in persistent denial of his existing psychological problems. But on a subconscious level, a feeling of anxiety, restlessness, and trouble arises (hence the appearance of defensive reactions). Occurs between “I am the same” and “I am addicted.”
The fourth stage is the complete predominance of addictive behavior. The original "I" is destroyed. The drug ceases to bring pleasure, it is used in order to avoid suffering or pain. All this is accompanied by gross personality changes (even mental disorder), contacts are extremely difficult.
The fifth stage is “Catastrophe”. Personality is destroyed not only mentally, but also biologically (chronic intoxication leads to damage to organs and systems of the human body).
At the final stage, addicts often violate public order, extort money, and commit thefts; There is always a risk of committing suicide. Main motives: despair, hopelessness, loneliness, isolation from the world. Emotional breakdowns may occur: rage, which are replaced by depression.
A characteristic feature of addictive behavior is its cyclical nature. Let us list the phases of one cycle:
- presence of internal readiness for addictive behavior;
- increased desire and tension;
- anticipation and active search for the object of addiction;
- receiving an object and achieving specific experiences, relaxation;
- phase of remission (relative rest).
Dependent behavior does not necessarily lead to illness, but naturally causes personality changes and social maladjustment. Ts.P. Korolenko and T.A. Donskoy focus on the formation of an addictive attitude - a set of cognitive, emotional and behavioral characteristics that cause an addictive attitude towards life.
Addictive installation is expressed in the appearance of an overvalued emotional attitude towards the object of addiction (worries about a constant supply of cigarettes, drugs). and conversations about the object begin to dominate. The mechanism of rationalization is strengthened - the intellectual justification of addiction (“everyone smokes”, “you can’t stop without alcohol”). At the same time, “thinking at will” is formed, as a result of which criticality towards the negative consequences of addictive behavior and addictive environment is reduced (“I can control myself”; “all drug addicts are good people”). Distrust of “others” also develops, including specialists trying to provide medical and social assistance to the addict (“they can’t understand me because they themselves don’t know what it is”).
(from the English addiction - inclination, addiction; lat. addictus - slavishly devoted) - a special type of forms of destructive behavior, which is expressed in the desire to escape from reality through a special change in one’s mental state (see addiction). There are main types of addictions: abuse of one or more substances that alter the mental state, for example. alcohol, drugs, medications, various poisons; participation in gambling, including computer games; sexual addictive behavior; overeating and starvation; “workaholism” (“workaholism”); long-term listening to music, rhythm-based voices, manipulation of one’s psyche; unhealthy passion for literature in the style of “fantasy”, “lady’s novels”, etc. When addiction forms, there is a reduction in interpersonal emotional relationships. In a narrow sense, addictive behavior is limited to only one type of addiction. Addiction and addictive behavior are relatively new concepts, and at the moment there is a lot of disagreement among psychologists in its definition. For example, Ilyin E.P. defines addictive behavior as behavior caused by “bad habits of adolescents and young men.” Of course, the concept of addiction and addictive behavior is much broader, and, as a rule, it is not correlated with deviant forms of behavior. Addictive behavior is considered by most of the authors who were at the beginning of the development of this issue (Ts. P. Korolenko, A. S. Timofeeva, A. Yu. Akopov, K. Chernin) as one of the forms of destructive (destructive) behavior, that is, causing harm person and society. Addictive behavior is expressed in the desire to escape from reality by changing one’s mental state, which is achieved in various ways: pharmacological (taking substances that affect the psyche) and non-pharmacological (focusing on certain objects and activities, which is accompanied by the development of subjectively pleasant emotional states). Alcoholism, for example, as one of the forms of addictive realizations is considered by the authors (Ts. P. Korolenko, A. S. Timofeeva, etc.) as a disease, the emergence of which was caused by addictive forms of behavior. In the emergence of addictive behavior, personal characteristics and the nature of environmental influences matter. Persons with low tolerance to psychologically uncomfortable states that arise during natural periods of decline in everyday life are more at risk of developing an addictive fixation. This risk can also increase when encountering difficult, socially unfavorable, psychologically traumatic situations such as loss of previous ideals, disappointment in life, family breakdown, job loss, social isolation, loss of loved ones or friends, and a sharp change in habitual life patterns. The role of personal and social factors in the emergence of destructive implementations has been noted by many authors previously. A. Adler, for example, used his doctrine of the inferiority complex for a psychoanalytic, but freed from a sexual basis, explanation of behavioral destructiveness (alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.), which, in his opinion, develops in a person from a feeling of helplessness and alienation from society. But he believed that in an alcoholic, for example, the aggressiveness, conflict, and cockiness that develop in him from the same complex of infringement or inferiority manifest themselves most noticeably in a state of intoxication. So, in fact, sometimes perversely, the symptoms of the clinical picture of intoxication are understood, the etiology of which entirely depends on the pathophysiological patterns of the work of the human central nervous system, which is under the narcotic, toxic influence of alcohol. But, however, despite this, many authors note personal and social factors as the root cause of destructive behavior.
Addiction- this is an annoying desire, manifested in an urgent need to accomplish it or perform some activity. Previously, this term was used only to designate chemical addictions (drug addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction), but now it is actively used to designate non-chemical addictions (gaming addiction, food addiction, shopaholism, Internet addiction and others).
Addiction is characterized by the fact that it is accompanied by an increase in tolerance (addiction to an ever-increasing dose of stimulus) and psychophysiological changes in the body.
In psychology, addiction is the designation of an individual’s desire to escape from the real world through “clouding” of consciousness.
Addictions and addictive behavior are studied by such sciences as: addictionology, sociology, which explore the causes, characteristics of the addict’s behavior and methods of treating this condition.
There are some acceptable forms of addictions in society: meditation, creativity, workaholism, spiritual practices, sports. Socially unacceptable addictions: drug addiction, alcoholism, substance abuse, . Along with scientific and technological progress, other addictions have developed: computer addiction, Internet addiction, TV addiction, addiction.
Causes of addiction
It is impossible to say that there is any single reason for the occurrence of addiction, because almost always a combination of various unfavorable factors causes the occurrence of addiction. For example, the unfavorable environment in which a child grew up, his low adaptation to various social institutions, lack of support and understanding, plus personal characteristics (psychological instability, inadequate) contribute to the development of addictive behavior. There are four groups of causes of addictive behavior.
Psychological – immaturity of the individual, constant stress, inability to conduct internal dialogue, inability to solve problems, unacceptable options for solving problems.
Social – instability of society, social pressure, lack of positive traditions.
Socio-psychological – consolidation of negative images in society, lack of respect and mutual understanding between generations.
Biological – unawareness of what is happening, the effect of a stimulus on the body (a strong motivating moment) and its consequences (addiction).
Types of addictions
Addictions and addictive behavior are aimed at the need to perform some action. The variety of addictions can be divided into two categories:
1. Chemical, it includes physical addictions;
2. Behavioral includes psychological addictions.
Chemical addiction is the use of various substances, under the influence of which the physical state of the person taking them changes. The presence of chemical addiction causes great harm to health and leads to organic damage.
Alcohol addiction is the most widespread and has been the best studied. Its presence leads to the destruction of the body, almost all internal organs suffer, and the mental state worsens. Alcohol addiction is most strongly expressed when a person is unable to overcome the uncontrollable desire to drink, get a hangover, cope with internal discomfort, and a negative attitude towards the world.
At a time when a computer helps solve many problems, a person’s intellectual abilities decrease, which leads to the degradation of the mind. A person’s personal characteristics also change. If previously he was cheerful and positive, then after constantly being at the computer he gradually became pedantic, irritated and detached. The motivational structure of an Internet addict is dominated by destructive motives, primitive impulses aimed at constantly visiting social networks, computer games, hacking, and more.
Having unlimited access to the Internet and the information it contains exacerbates addiction. However, in the modern world, even if parents try to limit access to the Internet at home, the child still finds a way to access the Internet. For example, replenishing his phone account, he receives megabytes or asks a friend for a phone, sits in a computer class, goes to an Internet club.
If the Internet is the only way a person communicates with the world, then the risk of Internet addiction may increase and the sense of reality will be lost forever if help is not given in time.
Internet games are the most common Internet addiction among teenagers, which also has very negative consequences. Children and adolescents who spend a lot of time playing games gradually develop a negative perception of the world, aggression and anxiety arise if there is no opportunity to play.
Communication on social networks and other services created for communication is fraught with many dangers. On the Internet, absolutely every person can find an ideal interlocutor in all respects, someone whom you will never meet in life, and with whom there is no need to constantly maintain communication in the future. This happens due to the fact that people in virtual communication can imagine themselves as something they are not, they idealize their image too much, try to be better and more interesting than they really are. Communicating with such an interlocutor, people develop dependence and disdain for communicating with people in real life. Along with a negative attitude towards the real world, depressed mood, insomnia, and boredom appear. Other types of activities after becoming interested in the Internet and computer fade into the background, are very difficult and are accompanied by a negative mood.
Food addiction
Food addiction has several forms of expression - overeating, starvation, anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Food addiction is both a psychological and physical addiction. As food acquires great addictive potential, the sensation of hunger is artificially stimulated. Thus, every person prone to overeating can create a zone of increased metabolic balance. After eating, the feeling of hunger arises immediately and it is very difficult for an addictive person to endure this state calmly. The physiological mechanisms of the body are inconsistent, so the addict begins to eat everything indiscriminately. At a certain point, a person develops a feeling that increases after eating. Under the influence of this feeling, the addict begins to diligently hide his addiction and takes food in secret; the alarming situation causes an even greater feeling of hunger.
As a result of such nutrition, a person develops compulsive overeating, weight gain, metabolic disorders, and malfunction of internal organs and the digestive system. A person completely loses control over his food intake and consumes such amounts of food that can provoke potentially life-threatening problems.
The second disorder, which is a form of food addiction, is starvation. Fasting addiction can be caused by one of two main options: medical and non-medical mechanisms. The medical mechanism is applied through fasting diet therapy.
In the first phase of a hunger strike, a person may experience certain difficulties with a constant appetite and the need to suppress it.
During the next phase, the state of the body changes. A person’s uncontrolled craving for food disappears, his appetite decreases or disappears completely, a person feels that he has new strength, a second wind, his mood improves and a desire arises to feel physical activity. Patients who reach this stage become very positive. They are satisfied with this state, they even want to prolong it in order to feel the lightness of the body and organism for a longer time.
Fasting is repeated without medical supervision, on your own. As a result of repeated fasting, at a certain moment a person experiences a state of euphoria from abstaining from eating and how good he feels when he feels light. At such a moment, control is lost and the person does not start eating even when he should have ended the hunger strike. An addict goes hungry, even if this poses a danger to his health and life, the person completely loses a critical look at his condition.
Treatment of addiction
None of the addictions go away on their own, neither physical nor psychological. A person’s inaction, lack of control, unwillingness to fight addiction can lead to very sad consequences, which are sometimes simply irreversible. In very rare cases, a person with an addiction is able to ask for help, but most are unable to critically assess their current condition. Especially those with psychological addictions - gaming addiction, food addiction, shopaholism - do not understand the real scale of their disorder.
In some cases, it happens that several signs of addictive behavior are observed, but only a psychiatrist competent in this field can accurately determine whether this is the case. As a result of a detailed conversation with the patient, collecting family history, detailed information about the patient’s life and personality, the doctor concludes that there is addictive behavior. In the process of such diagnosis, the doctor carefully observes the client’s behavior during a conversation, in which he may notice characteristic markers of addictive behavior, such as stuck speech or reactivity, negative statements in his direction, and others.
The main method of treating addictions is psychotherapy. If the addiction is very serious and long-term, for example, drug or alcohol addiction, then the patient may still need to be hospitalized to detoxify the body.
The direction of family psychotherapy (strategic, functional, structural) is used to a greater extent, since the manifestation of addictive behavior most often occurs under the influence of an unfavorable growing up environment, in particular, family troubles. The psychotherapeutic process is aimed at identifying the factors that caused deviant behavior, normalizing family relationships, and developing an individual treatment plan.
Prevention of addictions will be much more effective if started on time. The first stage in the early prevention of addiction is the diagnostic stage, at which the tendency of children to deviant behavior is identified; it should be carried out in educational institutions.
Prevention of addictions is of great importance if it is carried out at school. Children need to be told what types of addiction exist, the causes of their occurrence and consequences. If a child is aware of the damaging effects that chemical addiction can have, he or she will be less likely to want to use alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs.
The example of parents plays a big role. If parents do not have bad habits, but lead a healthy, fulfilling lifestyle and raise their children in the same spirit, then the likelihood of addictions in the child is low. If a child is brought up in a dysfunctional family where alcohol is abused, he has a high probability of becoming an addict.
Conversations between parents and children about problems, support in difficult situations, understanding and accepting the child for who he is will help avoid the child’s desire to leave the real world for the imaginary one.
The second stage of preventing addictive behavior involves preventing the involvement of children, in particular adolescents, in various forms of addiction, both chemical and non-chemical. At the same stage, information is provided on methods of combating anxiety, bad mood and stress, and training in communication techniques is provided.
The next stage in rehabilitation is the correctional stage, at which the correction and destruction of bad habits and addictions occurs. Corrective work must take place under the supervision of a qualified specialist (psychotherapist).
Prevention of addictions can be individual or group. Group classes use techniques and training for personal growth, which involve the correction of certain negative characteristics of the individual and his behavior.
If a person, after a course of treatment, has gotten rid of harmful addictions, measures should be taken for his social adaptation in society, taught techniques for interacting with people, leading an active life, and preventing relapses.
(from the English addiction - inclination, addiction; lat. addictus - slavishly devoted) - a special type of forms of destructive behavior that are expressed in strong dependence on something.
Addictions are divided into the following types:
1. Psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs, etc.)
2. Activity, involvement in the process (hobbies, games, work, etc.)
3. People, other objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality, causing various emotional states.
Escaping reality is always accompanied by strong emotional experiences. Having put a person on an “emotional hook”, it is very easy to control him. Emotions are part of addiction. A person actually depends not on the drug, but on emotions. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the addiction.
Depending on the means by which escape from reality is carried out, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, substance abuse, drug addiction, tobacco smoking, gaming addiction, workaholism, computer addiction, sex addiction, and food addiction are distinguished.
All these types of behavior are nourished by the powerful force of the subconscious and this gives them such qualities as irresistible attraction, exactingness, insatiability and impulsive unconditionality of fulfillment. Addictive behavior is characterized by a wide range of pathologies of varying severity from behavior bordering on normal to severe psychological and biological dependence.
The main cause of all addictive disorders is a controversial topic that has not yet been revealed.
Addictive behavior from the point of view of classical psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)
“Classical psychoanalysis views individual behavior as the result of the interaction of three key personality subsystems: id, ego and superego.” Where the id is “the unconscious, mental, it is saturated with the energy of drives and instincts, primarily sexual. Ego is the psyche connected with the outside world, governed by the Id, in accordance with the requirements of reality. Superego is a system of values, social norms, ethics.” When the demands of the Ego, the Id and the Superego do not coincide with each other. And what’s more, they contradict each other; a personal conflict arises. And if the Ego cannot rationally cope with this conflict, then the person includes psychological defense mechanisms. If the psychological defense mechanisms do not help, then the person uses objects that can console him (take him into the world of illusions, where there are no problems). Gradually he gets used to them and becomes dependent on them. Also, to understand addictive behavior, psychoanalysts turn to the sexual stages of personality development. Thus, “in people who have problems such as overeating, smoking, talkativeness, and alcohol abuse, psychoanalysts note fixation at the oral stage of sexual development (oral fixation of pleasure).” And psychoanalysts consider such a phenomenon as drug addiction “as masturbation, which is the main form of sexual activity in adolescence.”
Addictive behavior from the point of view of ego psychology (E. Erikson)
Central to the theory of ego psychology created by Erik Erikson is the proposition that: during his life, a person goes through eight stages that are universal for all humanity. Each stage occurs at a specific time for it (the so-called critical period), and a fully functional personality is formed only by passing through all stages of development. The characteristic model of a person’s behavior depends on how he will solve crises at a given stage of development. From the standpoint of ego psychology, dependent behavior is explained as an unresolved conflict between dependence and independence (autonomy). Also, from the point of view of ego psychology, the emergence of addictive behavior is influenced by the problem of identifying one’s self.
Addictive behavior from the point of view of individual psychology (Alfred Adler)
"A. Adler was the first to draw attention to the phenomenon of inferiority as a source of self-improvement.” He believed that in order to understand human behavior, it is necessary to find out in what ways a person feels inferior and how he overcomes his inferiority, as well as what goals he sets when overcoming it. From the point of view of individual psychology, addictive behavior is an escape from reality caused by a person’s desire to overcome his inferiority complex.
Addictive behavior from the point of view of the phenomenological direction of humanistic psychology (Carl Rogers)
The phenomenological direction denies that the world around us is something that exists in itself, as an unchanging reality, in itself. It is argued that material or objective reality is a reality consciously perceived and interpreted by a person at a given moment in time. Therefore, human behavior must be viewed through the prism of his subjective perception and understanding of reality. Accordingly, the emergence of addictive behavior is influenced by the subjective ability to comprehend reality.
Addictive behavior from the point of view of transactional analysis (E. Bern)
Transactional analysis (from the English transaction - deal) is a psychotherapeutic method developed by the American psychiatrist Eric Berne. Berne developed the concept of “psychological game”. A game in transactional analysis is a form of behavior with an ulterior motive in which one of the subjects receives a psychological or other advantage. Addictive behavior, in his opinion, is also nothing more than a kind of psychological game. For example, “Drinking alcohol allows a person to manipulate the feelings and actions of others. At the same time, drinking alcohol is important not in itself, but as a process leading to a hangover.”
Types of addictive behavior have their own specific characteristics and manifestations; they are not equivalent in their consequences. When involved in some activity, a psychological dependence develops, which is milder in nature. But all these types share common addictive mechanisms. Let's take a closer look at individual forms of addictive behavior.
Types of addictive implementation:
Alcoholism.“According to the World Health Organization, the alcohol problem, considered only from a medical aspect, ranks third after cardiovascular and tumor diseases. The role of alcohol abuse in modern society is especially increasing given the psychological and socio-economic consequences associated with this phenomenon.”
The beginning of the development of alcohol addiction can be the first encounter with alcohol, when intoxication is accompanied by intense emotional experiences. They are recorded in memory and provoke repeated alcohol consumption. The symbolic nature of drinking alcohol is lost, and the person begins to feel the need to drink alcohol in order to achieve a certain desired state. At some stage, thanks to the effect of alcohol, there is an increase in activity, increased creativity, improved mood and performance, but these sensations, as a rule, are short-lived. They can be replaced by low mood, apathy and psychological discomfort. “The appearance of such a state is one of the options for the development of alcoholic addictive behavior, since a person begins to strive to “reproduce” it, for which purpose he intensively resorts to alcohol.” “The emergence of mechanisms of addictive behavior associated with the doping effect is especially dangerous in cases where the latter is expressed in the emergence of a mental state that subjectively facilitates the creative process in people involved in painting, writers, poets, musicians, etc.” Often, addicts impose their style of behavior on friends and family, which happens without any fear of the possibility of persistent alcohol dependence. Traditional anti-alcohol propaganda is ineffective, because it can only strengthen the addict’s confidence in the safety of the chosen means of addictive implementation, because his own experience of drinking alcohol contradicts the content of propaganda declarations. Recently, a network of institutions has been growing that call for getting rid of alcohol or nicotine addiction using coding or other methods that are not based on serious psychological work with the causal mechanisms of addiction, adequate personal correction and support. The advertising of such services is quite intense, but, firstly, it is intrusive, which can provoke a reaction of rejection, and, secondly, it helps to strengthen the illusion that you can get rid of destructive addiction at any time and without much effort.
Long-term use of alcohol leads to physical dependence. It is characterized by the following symptoms: alcohol withdrawal symptoms (“hangover syndrome”), loss of situational and quantitative control, increased tolerance to alcohol by 8-10 times compared to the original (the need for a larger dose to achieve the same effect). Mnestic processes are gradually disrupted, the range of interests is reduced, frequent mood swings, rigidity of thinking, and sexual disinhibition are observed. Criticism of one's behavior and sense of tact decrease, and a tendency to blame one's troubles on an unsuccessful marriage, job, situation in the country, etc. appears. Social degradation occurs (family breakdown, loss of job, antisocial behavior). As alcohol addiction progresses, people with this style of behavior exhibit similarities in their motives, interests, habits, and entire lifestyle.
Addiction. In most cases, the use of narcotic substances is associated with the desire for new sensations, to expand their spectrum. New methods of administration, new substances and different combinations of these substances are being sought in order to achieve maximum effect. The most common are soft drugs (marijuana). They quickly cause psychological addiction: a feeling of high, increased imagination, physical activity, philosophizing. From soft drugs there is a fairly rapid transition to stronger substances in the form of inhalants (cocaine, ecstasy) and in the form of intravenous injections (heroin), which almost immediately cause physical dependence. But the path “from marijuana to heroin and so on is not always a necessary phenomenon; often it starts with alcohol, immediately with heroin or other drugs, or marijuana remains a “drug for life.” Long-term use of marijuana and many other substances (mescaline , LSD, etc.) provoke mental illness. Drug addiction is more pronounced than alcohol addiction. Everything that is not related to addiction is very quickly repressed, emptiness sets in faster. Introversion increases. The social circle covers mainly those who are united by drug addiction. Drug abusers try to attract more people into their circle and prevent them from leaving this environment. In parallel with personal disintegration, serious disorders develop at the organ and mental levels. The increasing need to increase the dose can lead to loss of control and death from overdose. Drug addiction often associated with criminal activity, since the problem of having funds to purchase drugs is always relevant.
Taking medications in doses exceeding therapeutic ones. Taking tranquilizers (Elenium, Relanium, etc.) leads to a certain relaxation, it seems that intelligence and the ability to control one’s condition increase. The risk of addiction occurs when these drugs begin to be used regularly as sleeping pills. Symptoms of physical dependence appear (frequent cases of use, attempts to stop taking and relapses). The slightest psychological discomfort becomes a reason to take tranquilizers. A number of disturbances appear: drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, absent-mindedness (due to this there is a risk of becoming a victim of an accident), twitching of the muscles of the arms and face. Conditions of this nature are sometimes misdiagnosed. Abuse of sleeping pills (barbiturates) causes a psychoorganic syndrome: headaches, memory impairment, poor tolerance to heat and stuffy rooms, dizziness, sleep disturbances, loss of control over the dose taken, as a result of which a person may die.
Psychotropic drugs (psychedelics) are attractive because they sharply enhance perception, especially visual perception. These drugs quickly cause lasting changes: illusions, hallucinations, a feeling that time is passing for a long time, increased mood, sudden changes in mood.
Taking household chemicals. The desire to take highly toxic substances usually arises in adolescence out of curiosity and is of a collective nature. These inhalants are often used by children. The effect is that a state develops “reminiscent of intoxication, dizziness, “take-off”, elevated mood, carelessness. Visions (hallucinations) such as fast-moving animation frames may occur.” Inhalation of vapors of organic solvents (gasoline, aerosols, solvents, ether, chloroform, adhesives, etc.) causes “irreversible severe damage to internal organs, brain and bone marrow, leading to death.” There may be cases of death during inhalation as a result of paralysis of the respiratory center and asphyxia. Regular use leads to persistent mental disorders: memory impairment, disturbances in the emotional-volitional sphere, decreased intelligence, delayed development of mental abilities. The use of inhalants is accompanied by poor academic performance, violation of disciplinary standards, aggression, and illegal actions.
Sexual addictive behavior characterized by an overvalued attitude towards sex, the perception of persons to whom sexual attractions arise, not as individuals with their own characteristics and aspirations, but as sexual objects. In this case, the “quantitative” factor becomes very significant and the target. Sexual addiction can be masked in behavior by deliberate righteousness, chastity, decency, while becoming the shadow side of life. This second life gradually becomes more and more important, destroying the personality.
The forms of manifestation of sexual addiction are different: Don Juanism (the desire for sexual relations with as many women as possible), attachment to porn products in all its diversity, various types of perversion of sexual activity. The latter include such phenomena as fetishism (intense fixation on any objects, the touch of which causes strong sexual arousal), pygmalionism (fixation on photographs, paintings, sculptures of non-pornographic content), transvestism (the desire to cross-dress in clothes of the opposite sex) , exhibitionism (intense sexual desire to expose the genitals to people of the opposite sex, children), voyeurism (desire to spy on people naked or having sexual intercourse). With all these manifestations, a “surrogate substitution, a violation of real emotional relationships with people” occurs. Sex addicts face the risk of developing sexual disorders. Their sexual behavior is divorced from the personal aspect, it attracts and causes harm. In addition, the risk of AIDS is real. The roots of sexual addiction are laid at an early age in emotionally cold, dysfunctional families, in families where the parents themselves are addicts, where cases of sexual trauma in childhood are real.
Gambling are not associated with the use of state-altering substances, but are distinguished by characteristic features: constant involvement, increased time spent in a gaming situation. Repression of previous interests, constant thoughts about the game process and loss of control (inability to stop playing in time). A state of discomfort outside of a gaming situation, physical ailments, discomfort and a gradual increase in the rhythm of gaming activity, a desire for risk; decreased ability to resist fatal addictions. Along with this, abuse of alcohol, drugs, etc. may occur in order to stimulate activity and heighten sensations. Defects in upbringing in the family can contribute to the risk of developing an addiction to gambling: hypoprotection (insufficient attention of parents to raising children), emotional instability, excessive demands, desire for prestige and overestimation of the importance of material wealth.
Work addiction represents a danger simply because it is considered an important link in a positive assessment of a person and his activities. In our society, in the field of industrial relations, in almost any work collective, specialists who devote themselves entirely to their work are highly valued. Such people are always set as an example to others, they are encouraged financially and verbally, reinforcing their characteristic style in their behavior. Workaholism is difficult to recognize not only by others, but also by the workaholic himself. Unfortunately, behind the external generally accepted respectability of workaholism there are deep disturbances in the emotional sphere of the individual and in the sphere of interpersonal contacts. “Like any addiction, workaholism is an escape from reality through a change in one’s mental state, which in this case is achieved by fixating attention on work. Work here is not what it is under normal conditions: a workaholic does not strive to work in connection with economic necessity, work is not perceived by him only as one of the components of life - it replaces affection, love, entertainment, and other types of activity." The development of the addictive process during addiction of this type entails personal changes: emotional emptiness, disruption of the processes of empathy and sympathy, preference for communication with inanimate objects. Escaping reality is hidden behind successful activities and success in career aspirations. Gradually, the workaholic stops enjoying everything that is not related to work. Outside of work, a feeling of discomfort arises. Workaholics are distinguished by conservatism, rigidity, a painful need for constant attention and positive evaluation from others, perfectionism, excessive pedantry, and extreme sensitivity to criticism. Narcissistic traits and manipulative strategies for interacting with others may be clearly expressed. With complete identification with work, personal qualities and humanistic values fall out of the zone of attention.
Food addictions. We are talking about food addiction when food is not used as a means of satisfying hunger, when the component of getting pleasure from eating begins to predominate and the process of eating becomes a way of distracting from something. Thus, on the one hand, there is an avoidance of troubles, and on the other hand, a fixation on pleasant taste sensations occurs. Analysis of this phenomenon allows us to note one more point: in the case when there is nothing to occupy free time or fill the spiritual emptiness, reduce internal discomfort, the chemical mechanism quickly turns on. In the absence of food, even if there is no hunger, substances that stimulate appetite are produced. Thus, the amount of food eaten increases and the frequency of food intake increases, which entails weight gain and vascular disorders. This problem is especially relevant in countries with a high standard of living, along with which there is a high level of stress in society. The development of food addiction is also possible in situations where food is accessible due to the characteristics of the profession (bar, restaurant, canteen).
The other side of food addiction is starvation. The danger lies in a unique way of self-realization, namely in overcoming oneself, conquering one’s “weakness.” This is a specific way to prove to yourself and others what you are capable of. During the period of such a “struggle” with oneself, a heightened mood and a feeling of lightness appear. Food restrictions begin to become absurd. Periods of fasting are followed by periods of active overeating. There is no criticism of one's behavior. Along with this, serious disturbances in the perception of reality occur.
Thus, we examined the types of implementation of addictive human behavior, their characteristics and causation. In connection with the modification of the structure of mental and behavioral disorders and deviations at the present stage, it became necessary to highlight addictive behavior in the international classification of diseases, 10th revision, which is presented below.