Transcript Assistence in case of addiction

Assistence
in case of addiction
Form: XIth A
What is an addiction?
• Addiction has long been understood to mean an
uncontrollable habit of using alcohol or other
drugs
• More recently, we have come to realize that
people can also develop addictions to behaviors,
such as gambling, and even quite ordinary and
necessary activities such as exercise and eating
• What these activities have in common is that
the person doing them finds them
pleasurable in some way
What makes it an addiction?
• Firstly, the addictive behavior is maladaptive or
counter-productive to the individual → So
instead of helping the person adapt to situations
or overcome problems, it tends to undermine
these abilities
• Secondly, the behavior is persistent → when
someone is addicted, they will continue to
engage in the addictive behavior, despite it
causing them trouble
But If You Still Enjoy It, It Can’t
Be an Addiction, Right?
Wrong!!!!
• Because the media, in particular, have
portrayed addicts as hopeless, unhappy
people whose lives are falling apart, many
people with addictions do not believe they
are addicted as long as they are enjoying
themselves, and they are holding their
lives together.
What can you be addicted to?
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food
drugs
alcohol
video games
shopping
gambling
certain behaviours
work
TV/ Internet
exercise
smoking
Types of addiction
• Physical Addiction: a person's body
actually becomes dependent on a
particular substance + building tolerance
to that substance → the person needs a
stronger dose with time
• Psychological Addiction: feel overcome
by the desire to have a drug
Signs of Addiction
• Extreme mood changes – happy, sad,
excited, anxious, etc
• Sleeping a lot more or less than usual, or
at different times of day or night
• Changes in energy – unexpectedly and
extremely tired or energetic
• Weight loss or weight gain
• Unexpected and persistent coughs or
sniffles
• Seeming unwell at certain times, and
better at other times
Signs of Addiction
• Pupils of the eyes seeming smaller or
larger than usual
• Secretiveness
• Lying
• Stealing
• Financially unpredictable, perhaps having
large amounts of cash at times but no
money at all at other times
Signs of Addiction
• Changes in social groups, new and
unusual friends, odd cell-phone
conversations
• Repeated unexplained outings, often with
a sense of urgency
• Drug paraphernalia such as unusual
pipes, cigarette papers, small weighing
scales, etc
• “Stashes” of drugs, often in small plastic,
paper or foil packages
Addiction treatment
Approaches to addiction treatment depend on the needs
of the individual, and may include:
• Detoxification to medically manage withdrawal from alcohol or
drugs
• Individual therapy to help the person reach a greater
understanding of their addiction and how to overcome it
• Group therapy to allow people with the same addiction problem
to share understanding, support and encourage each other
• Residential treatment to give people the chance to get away
from their usual lifestyle into a safe supportive atmosphere with
intensive therapy
• Many people successfully overcome addictions without
professional help through “natural recovery”.
Bibliography
• http://addictions.about.com/od/howaddictio
nhappens/a/symptomslist.htm
• http://addictions.about.com/od/howaddictio
nhappens/a/defaddiction.htm
• http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/proble
ms/addictions.html