Unfortunately, widespread understanding of many types of addiction is still lacking. Addiction is a chronic disease, and the cycle of addiction involves one or more behaviors that you cannot stop doing even though it is hurting you and others around you.
Types of Addiction
People can be addicted to all kinds of things. Here are a few common examples of addiction someone may suffer from:
- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Gambling
- Gaming
- Social Media
- Sex
Addiction creates physical changes in the brain over time, that make beating any type of addiction extremely difficult without professional help. Thankfully, there are many centers for mental health and drug addiction treatment. Treatment focuses on educating you about your addiction and any co-occurring mental health disorders. Then, with new information and coping skills, you can start on your own recovery.
So, if you think about it, there are not technically different types of addiction, just different things that you can suffer an addiction from. The whole thing revolves around the physical changes in your brain in response to the pleasurable behavior.
Addiction Effects on the Brain
Addiction mainly affects three parts of the brain:
- Basal Ganglia – This area of the brain is responsible for positive motivation; it is also called the reward or pleasure center. When you are carrying out your addictive behavior, this area of the brain is then stimulated. Over time, you need more stimulation for the same amount of pleasure to occur.
- Extended Amygdala – This area of the brain controls your stress response. When people are carrying out their addictions, this area of the brain is usually turned down. As you turn this area of the brain off more and more, it becomes more sensitive, and you become increasingly anxious and irritable.
- Prefrontal Cortex – This is the thinking area of your brain. This is where you make conscious decisions to do things. Having the other two regions of the brain off causes problems in this area. The rest of your mind is telling you to engage in more and more addictive behavior to survive. So, this area of the brain tells you that decisions to keep up the addiction are more important than anything else.
The deeper that you get into the cycle of addiction, the worse the addiction symptoms, and the harder it is to get out. This is why you hear about people hitting rock bottom before they can finally quit. Many people try to quit cold turkey without understanding the deeper causes of their substance use. Co-occurring disorders rehab, or dual diagnosis treatment, examines a mental health disorder and substance use disorder so you can better understand your triggers and desires to use.
How to Stop Addiction in its Tracks
Quitting any addiction is extremely hard, but if you want to do it, you can! There are whole communities of people out there that will help you and want to see you sober. The bottom line here is that you will not be able to change your brain chemistry right off the bat and you don’t want to end up addicted to other things so that you can stop doing one.
One of the best ways to go about it is to find mental health counseling at a credentialed, professional treatment center. If you are mentally and physically addicted to something like drugs or alcohol, you may want to consider going to a detox center to rid your body of the substances safely.
Finding a Place to Go
The Rose Hill Center in Holly, Michigan helps people with many types of addiction to become sober and learn to live free of their past habits. Give us a call at 866.367.0220 to find out more about our services today.
