How do you know if you are “addicted”?

SUCH a great question. First I would like to point out that we use the word addiction so freely now as a culture that I think that it confuses people when they are wondering in a serious way about whether a certain behavior has become an addiction. For example: “I am addicted to the show Law and Order “ or “I am addicted to the breakfast sandwiches in the CVU café”…are those really addictions? It is important to recognize that addiction is a term that applies to more than alcohol and other drug use. People become addicted to video games, the Internet and chat rooms, gambling, sex, porn, shopping, even exercise! Some people have asked me if there is such a thing as a “healthy addiction…not in my book. It’s kind of like “Jumbo Shrimp.”

Addiction in its most elemental form implies a loss of control. This can manifest itself in a few ways. Some people are unable to control “when” they use or partake – we’ll use exercise for this one. I have known people who were so compulsive in their need to work out that they would go for 10 mile runs with shin splints, bronchitis, and a fever, because they cannot NOT work out, because the thought of not being able to train causes intense anxiety.

The next area of loss of control involves how much a person uses or the extent to which their lives are consumed by the behavior. This could be the person who goes out on Friday night, plans on having 3 beers and stopping, but then wakes up the next day with a pocket of crumpled singles and no memory of getting home. Or, how many of us have said, “Just one more video game,” and 2 hours later were still sitting there playing.

The final area concerns what happens when the person engages in the behavior, or consequences. Whether it be the alcoholic who ends up having unsafe sex while intoxicated, something they would never do while sober, or the compulsive gambler who cannot step away from the slot machine even though they have lost their life savings…well, they have that one lucky dollar left to play. Once that switch is flipped in an addict’s brain, continuing the behavior becomes the top priority, regardless of what others see clearly as negative consequences.