Overcoming Addiction
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It is also possible to be addicted to a normally harmless substance or activity. In this case we can speak of an addiction because the person is unreasonably dependent on the substance or activity and exhibits withdrawal symptoms similar to those of an addict when he does not have it.

Some examples of these are:

Food addictions

Food is obviously a very emotionally charged subject. We have associations in our minds relating to food that go back to childhood and infancy. We need food to live, so the way we deal with food can be an indication of our desire to live, or lack of it. So it’s not surprising that food should often be the subject of addictive behavior. In fact, an article in the BBC News (January 30, 2003) claimed that fast foods are as addictive as heroine, and it might not be just journalistic hyperbole.

• Addiction to specific foods

  • Sugar is one substance that has a drug-like effect on the brain and body. It increases the production of serotonin in the brain, which makes the person feel good – at least for a while, until the effect wears off. This in turn creates a desire for more sugary and high-carbohydrate foods. People who have a tendency to depression are especially vulnerable to sugar cravings.

  • Fats also have an addictive effect, since they stimulate opoids, or pleasure chemicals in the brain. A study of rats that were fed a high-fat diet showed that they had hormonal changes and no longer responded to the body’s usual signals of satiety. In other words, they became addicted to fat and ate more and more of it.

  • Caffeine can also be addictive. We all know people who drink large amounts of coffee every day. Even a small daily amount can produce withdrawal symptoms – many people experience headaches when they miss their morning coffee. But we don’t always remember that caffeine is added to soft drinks, especially colas, in amounts that have little to do with the difference in taste. It’s no surprise, then, that Diet Coke is consumed in huge quantities daily by many people, who admit themselves that they are addicted to it.

  • Chocolate is another food that many people find difficult to resist. Not only does it contain sugar and fat, but also tryptophan, a precursor of serotonin, phenylethylamine and anandamide, both neurotransmitters that increase the sensation of pleasure, and theobromine, a weaker relative of caffeine.

  • Cheese – even cheese contains opiates. Cows produce morphine naturally, and some goes into their milk. Cheese, being a more concentrated form of milk, contains a small but detectable amount of morphine. In addition milk, and therefore cheese too, contains casein, which, when digested, transforms into opiates called casomorphins.

• Food Allergies – Paradoxically, allergies to certain foods cause a craving for them in some people instead of unpleasant symptoms that make them want to avoid them. William Philpott, M.D., believes that in these people, contact with such food allergens triggers a rise in the brain of the opoid enkephalin, a narcotic and very addictive substance.

The most common food allergens are dairy products, wheat, coffee, eggs and corn. The deeper problem here is that these foods, although craved by the allergic person, are still harmful to him, and can cause a variety of symptoms that are often difficult to trace back to an allergy to a certain food or foods. Some of these are arthritis, diabetes, migraines, asthma, obesity and even schizophrenia.

Addictions to behaviors or activities

When a person is drawn to a behavior that they can’t control, this is also called a compulsion, and the line between compulsions and addictions is mostly a matter of vocabulary. The only difference is that an exterior physical substance is not involved in a compulsion. But since our own bodies produce pleasure-inducing substances, there is always something going on in the brain to explain why the activity is addictive.

Of course, the psychological aspect is just as important. An activity will become addictive to one person and not to another because of psychological factors: the tendency of the individual to addictive behaviors in general, the significance of that particular activity to that person, and other things going on in their lives, such as stress, the state of their relationships and feelings of success or failure.

In fact any activity can be considered addictive if it fulfills the same criteria as substance addictions: inability to control oneself, continued practice of the activity in the presence of harmful consequences, either physical or in one’s personal or social life, extreme pleasure during the activity and withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety when the person is unable to practice their activity.

If you have a hobby that you love, even if you spend hours on it every week, as long as you manage to integrate it into your life in a harmonious way, it would be inaccurate to call it an addiction. Many activities require sacrifice; if you want to get ahead in your job, you have to work hard, if you want to win a sports competition, you have to train your body, and if you want to make beautiful music, you have to practice your instrument.

And they bring you great satisfaction when you succeed. But when these activities are not addictions, there is a sense of freedom about them that is not present in the case of an addiction. You do the activity by choice, and even though you might be devastated if you could no longer do it at all, stopping for a while because of other things in your life that need attention does not throw you into a state of deep anxiety. It’s the difference between acting out of love and acting out of need. In fact you can also be addicted to a person when your need for them outweighs your love for them.

The list of activities and behaviors that people can become addicted to is therefore endless. Some of the activities that are often cited as lending themselves to addictive behavior are:

• Work - there is even a special word for these people: workaholics

• Extreme sports – they give an adrenaline rush

• Physical exercise – we’ve all heard of the runner’s high

• Fiction – there is a large component here of escapism from the real world, as well as a vicarious adrenalin rush from watching or reading exciting stories.

• Television – in combination with the escapism of watching fiction, there is also a hypnotic effect that comes from the flickering of the images on the screen in addition to a constant stream of images and sounds that can overwhelm the human brain, which was not really designed for such a steady barrage of sights and sounds.

• Constant listening to music – as with television, the constant stream of sounds may become addictive. This might also reduce anxiety by distracting the person who does not wish to think about his problems.

• Video games – Here we have excitement and an adrenaline rush, an escape from reality into an imaginary world, and a flickering hypnotic screen. What a combination!

• Computers – it could be games, different computer programs, surfing the Internet, participating in forums and chats, or compulsively checking your email every five minutes.