...Composition 1 December 10, 2015 My Addiction, My Recovery "It can never happen to me" I thought, as I watched my father drink himself into oblivion and smoke his drugs, from sunrise, to sunset, and sometimes, for days, even weeks with no break in between. When he left, I remember feeling relieved, even at the early age of two. He was in and out of my life, just as often as he was in and out of rehabiliation centers for the chemically addicted. I didn't mind, I didn't have to watch him slowly kill himself, and hurt my mother, brother and I in the process. I never wanted to be like either one of my parents, both addicts with two different choices of poisons, I told myself every single day that would never be me. Me risk losing it all, my family, my friends, my health, everything in the world that means anything to me at all? "Never" is what I told myself, every time I thought of my father, or looked at my mother. That wasn't what I wanted for my life, I wanted a good life, full of happiness and ambition, surrounded by those I love, and I would never settle for less. My parent's and their lifestyle were things I looked to for motivation to stay focused, and on the right track. Boy, did that ever backfire! My brother and I are three years apart in age, he is older, but not by much when it comes to mentality. One night, after a long night of work, I was 15 and already had dropped out of school, I walked into my brothers room and found him at...
Words: 1790 - Pages: 8
...I am an addict. I always tell people that I have the ability to stop any time I want, however, deep inside, I know my behavior will never change. I am addicted to shiny objects. Any time my eyes perceive something glowing, a switch turns in my head and forces me to do anything to acquire it. Transpose this feeling to my 4th grade class. My teacher, Mrs. Martinez, had a tendency of giving stickers to those students that performed well on tests. My addiction kicked in and forced me to study for every single test in order to acquire that praised sticker. Without my realization, I had quickly risen to the top of the class. I was in sticker paradise from that day on. Many argue that addictions are bad, I differ from them; I believe it depends...
Words: 251 - Pages: 2
...My struggle with addiction started with my constructive escapes of sports and music. I turned to them when I felt lonely, angry, inadequate, or faced any problems. At the same time, I also enjoyed getting in trouble. This led me to my first encounter with drugs when I was just 14-years-old. Alcohol provided me temporary relief. While people say it's the first hit that makes you an addict, I disagree. It's a disease and so it's a matter or progression. Time is needed for your brain to react to the continuous surge of dopamine and stop making this chemical itself. As this happens, you start enjoying the drug less and needing more of it to get high. By the time I was in college I'd reached this point. This is when some friends introduced me to dope. My Struggle With Addiction led me to Find Dope My struggle with addiction started because my drug...
Words: 401 - Pages: 2
...My Addiction Overcoming my addiction was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. When most people think of addictions, they think of drugs and alcohol; I wish my addiction was something of that nature. My mental disorder--diagnosed as bipolar disorder at age 14--took me to a place where I never want to be again. My addictions were the lows I experienced and the high that came from cutting into my own skin. Most people don’t understand this. They don’t understand how one can become addicted to hurting themselves. This is a hard concept for mentally healthy people to grasp; they’ve never felt an urge like that themselves. It’s nearly impossible to wrap my own head around it. It’s a difficult feeling to qualify and quantify. The closest I’ve ever gotten to describing it was this: it’s like there is this darkness inside of you, in your veins. The only way to heal that pain is by making it physical. When pain is mental, the only treatment is medication. When pain is physical, however, it can be nursed and gotten rid of. After that injury is bandaged, you can move on and be normal again--until the pain slinks into your organs and you start to decompose from the inside again. Therefore, treating the pain becomes the addiction. Seeing blood on your hands and legs becomes the addiction. The pain becomes the addiction....
Words: 609 - Pages: 3
...Sip by sip my father’s addiction progressed as my childhood quickly faded.Transitioning from childhood to adulthood happened in a blink of an eye when I was about twelve years old. It was a cold winter's night in Kensington, NH, where my grandparents live. At the time, my father was struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction and had no determination to better himself. My family was fully aware of the issue, but I had very little knowledge of the situation. I was told he was experiencing a “rough patch in life.” My younger sister, who was seven years old at the time, asked my grandmother to help her set up the dining-room computer so that she could play a game. To her surprise, she was told, “Ask your father.” As she wandered into the living-room...
Words: 589 - Pages: 3
...I like my money where I can see it, hanging in my closet. – Carrie Bradshaw The phrase was said by Carrie Bradshaw, the main character in the series Sex & The City and one of the most famous TV fashionista. She was strongly committed to cultivating a spectacular wardrobe and could spend thousands of dollars on a pair of shoes or a designer dress without a gram of guilt. Going shopping was part of the routine for the protagonists of the program and Carrie became a fashion icon that illustrated the relationship between women and shopping. Is it true that we shop more than men, that shopping pleases us on a bad day or we have this uncontrollable urge? Researchers agree that its much more than opening the wallet and removing the card. In fact, women complete many of the visits to a store or mall without purchasing anything. That’s because for women these visits also symbolize entertainment, creativity, pleasure and independence. Which matters much more than just buying, says Patricia Huddleston, consumer specialist at the University of Michigan, in her book behavior Consumer Behavior: Women and Shopping. But is there such thing as too much shopping? Shopping addiction is characterized by an uncontrollable urge to buy unnecessary and superfluous products and when the wild and compulsive consumption exceeds the financial capacity of the person it is when the problems begins. In this post we will see what is Compulsive Shopping Disorder, its main problems and how we can...
Words: 597 - Pages: 3
...self-esteem which is a factor that makes a person more vulnerable to addiction. Research has shown that some smokers have low self-esteem, however this is correlational and doesn’t tell us whether the low self-esteem came before the addiction or after the addiction, or whether they are both affected by a third factor. Sally’s low self-esteem also makes her more vulnerable to peer pressure from her already smoking friends. Bricker’s study found that childhood friends and parents play a great role in the initiation and maintenance of addiction. Sally’s parents also smoke which means Sally was 2 x more likely to become a regular smoker. The Social Learning Theory also tells us that Sally will look at her parents as role models and imitate their smoking. Once the smoking has been initiated, structural changes in the brain happen which plays a part in dependence, cravings and tolerance as the brain adapts to the increased dopamine and nicotine. This means addiction is maintained as withdrawal effects make relapse likely and this combined with her attitude towards smoking, her friends smoking too and her lack of self-esteem makes the addiction hard to quit because she wants to fit in with her friends and doesn’t feel she has the strength to stop smoking on her own, so the addiction is maintained. Sally may also explain her addiction using external attributions such as ‘society demands that I should be thin and smoking decreases my appetite’ which alleviates the problem because it isn’t her fault...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...When 8th grade kids get home from school they have been turning on their gaming consoles and their eyes get glued to the tv screen all night.This is improvement because kids have been staying up and been coming to Forest Park middle school really tired. It was a sunny day at forest park middle school when I was in 4th hour I heard an 8th-grade kid goat kid say “he is tired” with his head down. This 8th-grade kid did this because he was staying up all night playing video games. According to phychecentral.com a gaming addiction is an example of impulse control disorder. An impulse control disorder us a urge an impulse. One of my research problems were that kids with this addiction have bad grades. “According to to techaddiction.com kids who have this addiction will spend 30% less time on reading...
Words: 446 - Pages: 2
...My Experience with Celebrate Recovery By Leonardo Martinez After considering all of the recovery support program options to choose from I attended a Celebrate Recovery (or CR as they call it) meeting in Concord. The first thing that I noticed was that, while they are scattered throughout Northern California, the meetings were usually on a single day of the week in one city location – that is Concord only had Thursday nights, and Castro Valley only Wednesday nights, etc. The meetings are also unbelievably long, three hours in some cases. Being that I had already attended Life Ring and a slew of other 12 step options I was expecting the same format in CR and was trying to figure out what could possibly take two to three hours to complete and keep all while keeping an addict’s attention. Needless to say my curiosity was sparked. Due to my busy schedule I was about 20 minutes late to the meeting but I was greeted with an unforced greeting in a whispered tone, as there was a man on a microphone speaking. “Joe is up, take a seat,” a gray-haired gentleman gurgled in a whisper. I told him that I was a newcomer and he assured me that I would be briefed on the routine as soon as “Joe” was done doing whatever he was doing. Upon taking my seat – decorated with a colorful pamphlet displaying the crucifixes on Calvary – a man on the verge of tears discussed “The Top 7 Reasons Why We Get Stuck in Recovery.” The two widescreen projection screens illuminated the reasons one by one and...
Words: 955 - Pages: 4
...Are You a Shopaholic? 3 Steps To Fixing Your Addiction 1 Posted June 26, 2012 by Danica Saarah Nelson in Advice “The first step to recovering is admitting you have a problem,” is a cliché we hear all the time. But do you see overspending on constant shopping trips as a crucial life issue that’s nearly as harmful as drugs or alcohol? It can be! Spending your disposable income on unnecessary items (especially when they’re charged to your credit card) is a surefire way to an unsuccessful and unhappy future. Below are the first three steps you can take to curing your illness. Step 1 – Remove Yourself From ALL Mailing Lists It’s hard, but it’s the easiest way to avoid succumbing to the temptations of spending money on something you wouldn’t have otherwise if you weren’t victim to that specific e-mail. If you REALLY want to get exclusive information on a sale or get your hands on a coupon code, a simple Google Search will do the trick. Removing yourself from every mailing list you’ve subscribed to is your first step towards curing your spending habits! Step 2 – Ditch the Plastic. Adopt the Paper! This one is pretty simple. All you have to do is take your Credit and Debit Cards out of your wallet. People essentially spend less when they’re using cash because they can see for themselves how quickly it can decrease as opposed to when you’re using plastic, you just swipe and go. Ever change your mind about purchasing something because you don’t want to break your $20? Then...
Words: 5464 - Pages: 22
...have written this thesis independently and all cited resources have been listed in the references. Praha 20 November, 2012 Petra Vondráčková Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor David Šmahel for his invaluable help and guidance, and also for the opportunity to get the valuable experience in doing the research in psychology. Many thanks also to my colleague Jaroslav Vacek for inspiring discussions that we have had on this topic. I would also like to thank the co-authors of presented texts. In addition, special thanks are due to the people who were willing to participate and shared their own experience with Internet use and addictive behaviour on the Internet. Content 1. Introduction 8 2. Theoretical background 10 2.1. Behavioural addiction 10 2.1.1. Defining the concept 11 2.1.2. Classification of behaviour addictions 12 2.1.3. Behavioural addiction in the context of diagnostic manuals of mental disorders 13 2.1.4. Similar traits of behavioural and substance addictions 15 2.2. Internet addiction 24 2.2.1. Historical background and main research areas 26 2.2.3. Identification of Internet addiction 28 2.2.4. Prevalence rates of Internet addiction 32 2.2.5. Correlates of Internet Addiction 35 2.2.6. Treatment of Internet addiction 37 2.2.7. Future research directions 39 3. Comparing Addictive Behaviour on the Internet in the Czech Republic, Chile and Sweden 51 3.1. Introduction 51 3.2. Country profiles 53 3.3. Methods...
Words: 31833 - Pages: 128
...BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY A STUDY OF INTERNET ADDICTION AMONG STUDENTS OF SEKOLAH MENENGAH JENIS KEBANGSAAN PEI YUAN, KAMPAR YONG SHU QIN A RESEARCH PAPER SUBNITTED IN PARTIAL FUOFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE (HONS) PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY OF ART AND SOCIAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN MARCH 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express gratitude for the coaching, guidance and input from several special individual. Firstly, I would like to thank Ms. Low Sew Kim, my supervisor for all the directions, guidance and advice given that ensure the completion of this project. Next, I would like to my family, especially my parents, Yong Chong Kim and Liew Moi Pong and also my sister, Yong Seok Ting for all the moral support given during the stressful periods. I would like to thank Ms. Angeline Goh Lee Ying for the guidance of SPSS program. I would like to give special thank to my senior Sebastian Ong for guidance me in this study and sharing his experience, which has helped me to open my eyes and explore various possible. I would like to thank my friends, Low Yew Kong, Joshua Teo, and Wang Hui Ni for their continuous support and wise counsel that I value and appreciate immeasurably. I also would like to thank the principal of SMJK Pei Yuan for giving me chance to distribute survey forms to students. I would like to express gratitude for all the participants of this study for their willingness to participate in this study and also for their patience during...
Words: 12750 - Pages: 51
...Gambling Addiction The Good and Bad Of The Addiction DeVry University HOSP 440 15897 - Casino Management Dr. Warren Jahn - Professor Submitted by: Michael Phillip Bunker Date: 12/30/2012 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Foundation, Facts and Statistics, and the Psychological Rationale of Gambling Addiction 4 Foundations of Gambling Addiction 4 Facts and Statistics 4 Psychological Rationale of a Gambling Addiction 6 Causes and Effects as well as Consequences Concerning Gambling Addiction 7 Causes of Gambling Addiction 7 Effects of Gambling Addiction 8 Consequences of Gambling Addiction 9 Differences and Degrees of Gambling in Demographics, Types, and Stages Concerning Gambling 10 Gambling Addiction and Gender 10 Age of the Gambling Addict 11 The Different Types of Gamblers 11 Various Stages of Gambling Addiction 12 Risk Factors and Warning Signs of Gambling Addictions 13 Risk Factors of Gambling Addiction 13 Warning Signs of Gambling Addiction 14 Diagnosis, Treatment, and Help for Gamblers, Families, and Other Loved Ones 15 Diagnosis Pertaining to Gambling Addiction 15 Treatment for the Gambling Addiction 16 Help for Families, Friends, and Other Loved Ones 16 Conclusion 17 References 19 Introduction When we come to the idea of a gambling addiction, the behavior is known to be abnormal and the uncontrollable urge to gamble is strong. Exploration of these concepts will be in the following. First, will be the...
Words: 5570 - Pages: 23
...What is Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD)? What "Internet addiction disorder" (IAD) is still difficult to define at this time. Much of the original research was based upon the weakest type of research methodology, namely exploratory surveys with no clear hypothesis or rationale backing them. Coming from an atheoretical approach has some benefits, but also is not typically recognized as being a strong way to approach a new disorder. More recent research has expanded upon the original surveys and anecdotal case study reports. However, as I will illustrate below later, even these studies don't support the conclusions the authors claim. The original research into this disorder began with exploratory surveys, which cannot establish causal relationships between specific behaviors and their cause. While surveys can help establish descriptions of how people feel about themselves and their behaviors, they cannot draw conclusions about whether a specific technology, such as the Internet, has actually caused those behaviors. Those conclusions that are drawn are purely speculative and subjective made by the researchers themselves. Researchers have a name for this logical fallacy, ignoring a common cause. It's one of the oldest fallacies in science, and one still regularly perpetrated in psychological research today. Do some people have problems with spending too much time online? Sure they do. Some people also spend too much time reading, watching television, and working, and ignore...
Words: 2239 - Pages: 9
...Prescribed Into Addiction Our family will always wonder if a holistic approach to his back pain could have saved my brother from being a statistic of the opiate overdose epidemic. My brother, Jeremy, was one of over 125,000 people who have lost their life since 2000, to the epidemic of opiate overdoses. There are dozens of safe alternative treatments for chronic back pain that do not involve taking medication or having an operation. We will struggle the rest of our lives wondering if tried holistic treatment if he would still be with us. Jeremy broke his back skateboarding, when he was in 11th grade, which was the first time doctors prescribed painkillers. At that time, we were unaware of how dangerous prescription painkillers can be and how easy it is to become addicted. An alternative could be physical therapy, chiropractic treatment or medical massage. These treatments can be just as effective. Jeremy was a dare-devil, who never was afraid of any physical challenges whether it was skateboarding, snowboarding or many other sports. These sports lead to a lot of injuries and more painkillers. He was a Union Carpenter, which is hard physical labor, and it added to his pain. His biggest motto was no matter what you do to work. No matter the pain that he was in, he would go to work. Physical therapist should teach exercises to make his back stronger, than he would suffer less and not become addicted to painkillers. By the time he was 25, he was in a lot of physical pain, especially...
Words: 1345 - Pages: 6
