Addiction

We are all vulnerable to becoming addicted to any activity or substance that gives us pleasure.  For example: drug of addiction, alcohol addiction, gambling addiction, or food addiction to name a few.  So many activities and substances which many of us enjoy and that have no negative impact on our lives can easily take over our life and destroy us and our relationships if not managed sensibily.

Do I Have an Addiction?

Answer the following questions and decide for yourself if you could have an addiction:

• Do I spend a lot of time thinking about my problem activity?
• How often do I overdo it, intentionally or un-intentionally?
• Do I need to indulge in the activity more frequently, to get any satisfaction?
• If I try to give up my activity do I experience withdrawal symptoms?
• If I manage to stop one activity do you replace it with another addictive activity?
• Have you attempted to quit a few times?  And
• Does the activity badly affect other areas of your life?

Drug of Addiction

The most common drug of addictions are the legal substances such as: Caffeine (coffee), Nicotine (cigarettes), and alcohol which cause the most problems to your health and are a major contributor to many of our social problems.

However, any activity or substance that becomes addictive eventually decreases our ability to function well in life and to have rewarding relationships with the special people in our lives.

Addiction doesn't want to let go until it has bled us dry, destroyed our psychological and physical health and collapsed our confidence and self-esteem.  Addiction often is not satisfied with destroying just us but will seek to destroy our most important relationships as well.

Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol is widely used and enjoyed in Australia.  It forms part of most of our social life and interaction with people.  Alcohol is a depressive drug and in low quantities it causes people to become less inhibitive.  However, in high quantities it damages our health and can even cause death.  There is some supportive research that says that alcohol consumption at a low to moderate level offer some health benefits.

This is not the case with high alcohol consumption.  High alcohol consumption increases the risk of heart, stroke and vascular diseases, liver cirrhosis and some cancers.  It also contributes to disability and death through accidents, violence, suicide and homicide.  High risk consumption has increased from 8.2% in 1995 to 10.8% in 2001 and 13.4% in 2004-5.

Binge drinking is a popular pastime in Australia.  Research shows that among people aged 18 years and over, 48% of males and 30% of females consumed alcohol at risky/high risk levels in the short term on at least one occasion in the last 12 months.  Short-term risky/high risk consumption of alcohol equates to seven or more standard drinks for males and five or more standard drinks for females on any single occasion.

Alcohol is the second largest cause of drug-related deaths and hospitalisations in Australia (after tobacco).  Additionally, alcohol is the main cause of deaths on Australian roads.  In 1998, over 2,000 deaths of the total 7,000 deaths of persons under 65 years, were related to alcohol.

Gambling Adiction

There are over 290,000 people in Australia who have a gambling problem.  More than half of these people say they have borrowed money to aid their addiction, nearly half have chosen their addiction over food and 25% have suffered separation or divorce as a result of their addiction.  Additionally, one in eight have admitted they thought about committing suicide.

These are just statistics, cold hard facts.  However, the reality is that addicts are people who are hurting because of addiction problems and this addiction is probably having a huge impact on their family, children, and others close t them.

Unfortunately only about 15% of addicts actually seek assistance.  Most try to solve their problem on their own and in some cases succeed.

Addiction Help

Removing alcohol, drugs, and gambling from our society would not necessarily solve this problem addiction.  Many would just transfer their addiction to another form of addiction.

If you are experiencing difficulty with an addictive behaviour or activity then proper rehabilitation can be achieved with effective counselling.

Counselling

Counselling will help you understand what addiction is and why addiction hijacks your brain and sucks you in.  Counselling will suppy you with information and skills that will help beat your addiction such as: why withdrawal doesn't have to be painful or difficult, how addiction stops us getting our needs met, see through the illusions addiction offers us, and how to protect yourself in the future and avoid switching from one addiction to another.  Visit here to find help for yourself.