What is Addiction?? (mental, not physical)

[mpw94]

I asked this question to a lot of people who have never been addicted to anything, and I can't really get a true and reasonable answer. Please share your thoughts on this one, and if you had an experience with a mental addiction please explain what it is in details please.

 

[maxalfie]

I have only ever been addicted to one drug and that was heroin.
Heroin is both physically and mentally addictive.Once your last hit of heroin wears off you obviously go into physical withdrawals which isn't any fun at all.
When I used to inject it I believe I was also addicted to the ritual of injecting itself as well as the heroin.
There was times when I had no money to score with but I still had a strong urge to inject myself. Myself and my friend at times would inject plain water with no drugs in it whatsoever just so we could go through the ritual of injecting ourselves.

 

[mpw94]

I have this question to you, is it possible that people are only physically addicted to heroin? Thus, they have this strong urge to inject themselves, so that they would not go into physical withdrawals?

 

[maxalfie]

I would say it is certainly mentally addictive also. It becomes the main thing that you think about.
Even once I stopped injecting because my veins were all shot & I returned to smoking it once again it was still my main thing on my mind.
I would dream about it and without fail it would be the first thing on my mind when I woke up each morning.
Not wanting to go through physical withdrawls obviously plays its part in the need to score.
The only time that I wasn't thinking about it was when I had either smoked some or injected some and was feeling content but as soon as whatever I had was gone then the only thing on my mind was how to score some more.

 

[psood0nym]

MXE usage gets straight to the phenomenon of purely psychological addiction in a profound way. There have been periods where I was using four times per week or more for extended periods, which is of course nothing compared to the usage of most addicts with their drug of choice, but I've never used a drug like that other than alcohol. At various points in my life I've had sustained access to dozens of recreational substances spanning all classes and never worried about my use of any of them. It wasn't even that I "craved" MXE -- I go weeks now barely thinking out it -- it was that it was so easy to rationalize its use. It doesn't have a hangover, and any detrimental cognitive or emotional effects it has during the following day are less than those associated with cannabis use. So, if I had a couple hours free before bed the question "why NOT" was always looming large because, in the near term MXE has no drawbacks for me and in the long term the potential drawbacks are abstract (though the threat of stalling my potential because I go on nightly mental vacations and waking up one day to realize I've wasted life I can never get back is of course very real). So psychological addiction isn't even necessarily a craving. Fundamentally, it's when you can't say "why not" in a way that you find convincing.

 

[Foreigner]

Whenever we take substances for the sake of trying to "transcending" mundane reality by seeking euphoria and novelty, we inevitably have to "come back". I put those terms in quotes because there is no real departure happening, nor can there be a return. It's all one continuous thing. To me, mental addiction is an attachment to one state over the other as though it is superior, to the extent that it becomes difficult to deal with sobriety.

But maybe that's just the brain's reward system. I mean... people do things all the time that make them reliably feel better, like exercise, listening to nice music, watching a good movie, eating pleasurable food, etc. I don't think it's so much the act of seeking euphoria that's the problem; it's not being able to see through the illusion of any particular state. As soon as you see one state as better than the other, then that's the illusion of separation that's got you.

 

[rickolasnice]

The want (or perceived as need) to have it..

It's complicated.. real complicated.

When i was running low on phenibut and didn't know just when my next lot was coming in I lowered my dose slightly to try and make it last.. I immediately felt withdrawal like symptoms.. When i found out that my next lot was waiting for me at home these "withdrawal symptoms" completely disappeared. That isn't to say I'm not physically addicted but that the psychological aspect to it is powerful juju.

In medical terms, the difference between physical dependency and psychological dependency would be the manifestation of physical withdrawal symptoms when drug intake ceases. Physical withdrawal symptoms would include shakes or shaking, vomiting, etc where as psychological symptoms would include hunger, insomnia, depression, anxiety.. But to be honest this definition is bollocks. They're all linked to a physical change in your brain and to say mega-lethargicness, apathy / depression and anxiety is less physically induced than shaking hands and vomiting is crap.

Psychological addiction is the harder to overcome.. (imo)

 

[Lost Ego]

it is your mind adapting to a new state (ex: the sensation of excess dopamine) and then becoming reliant upon that state. I don't believe there is a mind/body dichotomy and that psychological addiction can be explained biologically.

 

[ebola?]

This is a bit of a slippery concept, and I think that care has to be taken to differentiate addiction from simple 'abuse'. I'll just talk in terms of drugs, to simply things. To be psychologically addicted is to be caught in a conflicted state where one has an overarching desire to discontinue use or reduce its frequency or magnitude (in the medium to long term, particularly when assessed from a sober vantage point) but fails to do so when attempting such. However, what about continued, frequent overuse of substances prior to the mental examination that leads to desire to cut back? So in this sense, psychological addiction can exist latently for some time for people lacking a modicum of self-examination. The thing is, for the majority of non-addicts, desire to curtail use doesn't even come up due to the unproblematic nature of non-addictive use; eg, non-alcoholics rarely if every decide they need to cut back on drinking beyond the "wow, I partied a bunch this semester and should cut that out" type self-assessment because their drinking has simply not impacted their lives significantly. In fact, they'll just routinely cut back for no reason / on accident, as a manifestation of a lack of a problem to be managed.


From here, I would place common correlates of psychological dependence as follows:

1. reliance upon use to work, cope with stress, regulate emotion, render tolerable common situations, etc.
2. distress in the absence of use
3. compulsive use of a particular substance, be it redosing in amounts higher than desired or binging longer than is wanted
4. intrusive preoccupation with use while sober

etc., etc.

ebola

(I'll move this to mental health, depending on the responses)

 

[ebola?]

I asked this question to a lot of people who have never been addicted to anything

Mmmm...I would estimate that one half of adults become physically habituated to caffeine at some point, so it's not like 'these' people lack a reference point entirely.

ebola

 

[jpgrdnr]

1. reliance upon use to work, cope with stress, regulate emotion, render tolerable common situations, etc.
2. distress in the absence of use
3. compulsive use of a particular substance, be it redosing in amounts higher than desired or binging longer than is wanted
4. intrusive preoccupation with use while sober

I think thats probably the best answer aka "the crutch."

I'd argue a state of addiction isn't actually a disorder. Its when an addiction crosses over into leaving a person non-functioning. From my perspective its probably unwilling to pay for primary needs.

Its interesting that the clinical perspective for "addiction" is rather high, skewed - that simply choosing drug using friends over non-using friends or social avoidance would probably be considered a major problem.

As an added bonus on something to think about, I've always wondered at some sort of unconscious (or conscious) desire to stop using X in the addiction process, resulting in the continued use of X. That there is a sort of internal conflict that is ultimately bypassed. I guess its sort of basic psychology that
humans would rather choose the short term reward rather than something else in that addiction process. Which is sort of how we are fundamentally wired or something. That we choose fulfilled need (food, drugs, water) over something else. Unless of course something is broken in that noggin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system

 

[Foreigner]

Addiction is attachment.

 

[DOB]

addiction is when ur neurons get extra excited due to serotonin and dopamin becose u just parachute jumped outa airplane,injected some meth or had great fap

its like insulin,get high spike,the insulin receptors get downregulated... u do meth,everyday life witch is hell if u are lowest working class gets even shittier when u compare it to dat sweet intense satisfaction ...why care for good health,when drugs make up happy.

if people got rush on broccoli,lentil soup or kale,world would be better place

 

[theWhiteLarryBird]

ive heard "a perceived absence of choice"

 

[Ziiirp]

The absence of detachment.

There are many options to define the state of being addicted, from the quarks level up to the high level common understanding of the term.

To OP :

Btw. I think there is noone out there, who has never been addicted to anything. Even if you love someone, you are addicted to the person. If you aren't loved back you will experience a situation very similar to a substance withdrawal. Addicts are everywhere (I don't know anybody atm, who isn't an addict).

 

[ebola?]

addiction is when ur neurons get extra excited due to serotonin and dopamin becose u just parachute jumped outa airplane,injected some meth or had great fap

Well, except that serotonergic transmission appears to reduce the incidence of compulsive administration of substances.

ebola