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hello everybody and welcome back to the addiction and co-occurring disorders treatment manual
unit one part one introduction to addiction i'm your host dr donnelly snipes in this part we're
going to define addiction and explore how it may interact with your mood and physical health
so let's start at the beginning addiction is the continued use of a substance person or activity to
eliminate or escape from discomfort despite experiencing negative consequences from use
this can be seen in people when they have tried unsuccessfully to cut down or quit
they've spent more time or money than intended obsessing about getting using and recovering
from the substance or behavior reduced involvement in important social activities or other activities
and or they've experienced repeated health mental health relationship financial employment or legal
issues as the result of use it's important to remember that addictions are a creative
solution to a problem when all else has failed yes it is a problem however
it shows that you wanted to survive and it's important to explore with curiosity
what functions this behavior is now serving for you so you can address them in alternate ways
it is important to address all addictive behaviors in order to prevent substitute addictions they've
actually done some research that has found that things as seemingly benign as smoking
for example can be a relapse trap for a lot of people because when they get stressed instead of
coping with that stress they go out and smoke or dip or however they get their nicotine so it is
important to make sure that you're addressing all different forms of addictive behavior
spend about 20 minutes right now thinking about how the following applies to you and
the following behaviors alcohol use have you tried unsuccessfully to quit have you spent more time
or money than intended obsessing about getting using and recovering from alcohol has alcohol
caused reduced involvement in important personal activities or has it caused you repeated health
mental health relationship financial employment or legal issues go through and ask yourself the
same questions about relationships gambling gaming including online gaming as well as casino gaming
or going to the racetracks sex or pornography and food now this is not an extensive or exhaustive
list of all addicted addictions or addictive behaviors but it may give you some idea about
your primary addiction if you have one and substitute addictions research has indicated that
somewhere along the lines of about 70 percent of people will struggle with addiction even if it's
to tobacco will struggle with addiction at some point in their life so it is important to be aware
of these things even if you don't think you have an addiction right now it's important to explore
whether you ever have and be on the lookout so you don't develop one if you've never had one
addictions even behavioral ones change the balance of neurotransmitters in the body which can impact
your mood your pain tolerance your energy your motivation your libido your hunger your sleep and
a whole bunch of other things neurotransmitters are really important but addiction
causes surges of dopamine and surges of endorphins which throw all of the other neurotransmitters
out of balance and then when you're not using you don't feel like you've got enough
dopamine and endorphins and those sorts of things so it contributes to
all of these other problems and you're going to learn more about that in later units addictions
also contribute to increased inflammation and changes in your immune system when people
engage in addictive behaviors it is stressful on the body it activates what we call the hpa
axis or the stress response system and when that system is regularly activated it contributes to
systemic inflammation or inflammation throughout your whole body and we know that when inflammation
goes up sleep quality goes down mood goes down and sometimes anxiety anger and irritability go up
so spend about 20 more minutes thinking about how addictive behaviors may have impacted your life
how have addictive behaviors impacted your immune system
when you're engaging in them do you get sick more often do you have more pain or inflammation
how has it impacted your pain tolerance yeah pain tolerance when you have when you're engaging in
addictive behaviors that rush of dopamine and endorphins is great but remember endorphins
are your natural painkiller so if you throw that system out of whack then when you're not
using you may actually feel more pain your pain tolerance might actually be a lot lower
how have addictive behaviors impacted your energy not only your feeling like you can get
think get through the day and get things done but your ability to sleep well and get rested
how of addictive behaviors impacted your mood your motivation
and your ability to just think clearly versus having a foggy head
and or obsessing about the addictive behavior thinking about oh i can't wait until i can get
out of work and do this or get home and do this or wherever you're at obsessing about the addiction
and not being able to think clearly about the things that you need to focus on
finally it's important to remember that you are a person with an addiction or maybe a mental health
issue or physical health issue or all three when you no longer have symptoms of these problems you
are still going to be a person therefore what kind of person do you want to be what does recovery
look like for you how are you different now how are you not the person now that you want to be