What is Addiction?

Addiction is an uncontrollable need for a substance or behavior that negatively impacts an individual’s life, disrupting social, occupational, and personal functioning. It involves not only physical dependency but also psychological dependency. Individuals with addiction experience temporary relief from engaging in certain behaviors or using substances, but over time, these actions become uncontrollable and lead to negative consequences.

Addiction types often develop as coping mechanisms or ways to suppress certain emotional states. Based on my clinical observations, I will share some common types of addiction and the emotions they are often used to suppress:

Alcohol Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Anxiety, stress, sadness, loneliness
– Explanation: Alcohol temporarily reduces anxiety and stress and can facilitate social interactions.

Drug Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Post-traumatic stress, depression, anger
– Explanation: Drugs provide temporary relief by distancing the individual from emotional pain.

Food Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Anger, loss, insecurity, distorted body image
– Explanation: Food, especially comfort food, offers temporary relief and satisfaction.

Gambling Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Boredom, sadness, thrill-seeking
– Explanation: The release of adrenaline and dopamine during gambling creates feelings of excitement and satisfaction.

Shopping Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Feelings of emptiness, low self-esteem, unhappiness
– Explanation: The process of shopping and acquiring new items provides short-term happiness and satisfaction.

Sex Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Loneliness, worthlessness, insecurity
– Explanation: Sex can temporarily create feelings of connection and acceptance.

Technology and Social Media Addiction:

– Suppressed Emotions: Loneliness, low self-esteem, worthlessness
– Explanation: Social media offers instant validation and a sense of connection, though it is often fleeting and superficial.

While these addictions may temporarily ease emotional pain, they can harm emotional health in the long run and often lead to more severe issues. Developing healthy coping mechanisms and seeking professional help is crucial for maintaining emotional well-being.

What Causes Addiction?

The causes of addiction are complex and multifaceted. Several factors can contribute to the development of addiction:

Epigenetic Factors: Individuals with a family history of addiction are at a higher risk of developing an addiction. Epigenetic research offers intriguing insights into the development of addiction. Essentially, epigenetics is a field of science that helps us understand how our genes respond to environmental events. Most changes in our genes do not directly alter our genetic code but can affect how active certain genes are. Emotional traits, like physical ones, can be passed down through genes. How our ancestors dealt with specific emotions is recorded in their genes, which can be inherited through generations. However, which emotional traits become active is related to environmental conditions. Factors such as stress and trauma can change how our genes function. For example, a highly stressful event might cause certain genes to become more active or suppressed. This explains why we often hear people say, “I never touched a cigarette for years, but suddenly became addicted in my 40s, and I don’t understand why.”

Escape from Negative Emotions: Many negative emotions underlie addictions, regardless of the type. For example, let’s consider shopping addiction. The individual can wait half an hour before shopping and observe their feelings. The emotions they feel are likely those they find unbearable and try to suppress through shopping. Therefore, one of the most critical aspects of dealing with addiction is identifying the emotions underlying that specific addiction and working on those emotions.

How to Overcome Addiction?

Overcoming addiction can be challenging, but success is possible with the right steps. Here are some strategies to overcome addiction:

Awareness and Increased Emotional Contact: As individuals become aware of and name their emotions, and as they allow themselves to experience those emotions, the emotions gradually fade away from the system. Thus, there is no need to suppress them. Considering addiction as a means of suppressing intolerable emotions, it can be said that as the ability to tolerate negative emotions increases, the addictive behavior will decrease.

For instance, a person with sex addiction might explore which emotions they are trying to escape by engaging in random sexual encounters. Understanding this can help them gain control over their addiction. To comprehend this, they can wait for half an hour or an hour when the urge to have sex arises and observe which emotion they feel. Suppose they start feeling emptiness; this indicates that they are using sex to escape the feeling of emptiness. In this case, instead of trying to resist the urge to have sex, they should examine the role of the feeling of emptiness in their inner world. Did they experience feelings of emptiness as a child? Where do they feel it now? Is the feeling of emptiness prevalent in their family? Who might have passed this feeling on to them? What were the moments when they felt empty as a child? By exploring these questions with professional support, they can overcome sex addiction.

Freeing oneself from addictions is a process that requires time and effort, but by taking these steps and seeking professional support, it is possible to manage addiction and take steps toward a healthier life. Remember, overcoming addiction is a journey, and every step taken on this journey leads to a healthier and happier future.

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