Talk:Addiction
|
|
| Contents |
Psychological addiction
The term "psychological addiction" does not have a medical precedent, and should be classified under the Casual Addiction subheading (as that seems to refer to misuse of the term addiction). Psychological addiction IS NOT a form of addiction. The dictionary definition of addiction is "Addiction is a strong dependence on a drug typified by three factors: 1) severe withdrawal symptoms; 2) tolerance to a given dose, or the need for more and more of the substance; and 3) the loss of control.". Addiction is a medical term designating the continued and increased use of a drug to avoid withdrawl symptoms, NOT simply a habitual behavior. This needs to be emphasized in the article. DryGrain 23:11, 19 May 2004 (UTC)
The phrase, "in the last few decades," used in this document, tends to drift with the reader through time, each year pointing further away from its origninally intended target. I hope an informed someone will replace this phrase with something more specific before the reference becomes misleading. --joshuarr
- Point taken. Correction made. Denni 20:29, 2004 Feb 16 (UTC)
Cannabis addiction ? You must be on crack.
Are you sure about addictiveness of Nitrous_Oxide ? --Taw
Physical symptoms of withdrawal and physiological addictiveness are two different things. Short-term problems with caffeine withdrawal are caused mostly by blood presure deregulation.Any substance that affects blood presure can be substituded for caffeine to fix it. --Taw
- Yes and no. This caution from a New Zealand government agency demonstrates that cutting coffee out of your routine is about more than just a few days of being cranky. "An individual withdrawing from caffeine because of a chronic toxic overdose may experience symptoms of withdrawal including headache, nausea, nervousness, reduced alertness and depressed mood. These symptoms are most acute during the first 20-48 hours, but they may persist for as long as 7 days. Discontinuation of caffeine at even a moderate intake can lead to these symptoms. There is also a danger of developing dependence by having that cup of coffee for the headache caused by caffeine withdrawal." Medsafe (http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/Profs/PUarticles/caffeine.htm) Denni 20:29, 2004 Feb 16 (UTC)
Sorry about the Nitrous Oxide thing, looked up some more info, turns out it's really only psychologically addictive :/ I was wondering about the Cannabis Addiction on that page myself, but didn't remove it. --Hyrax
- Note that cannabis is listed as behaviorally addictive. It certainly can be that, and when a regular user can't get it, s/he goes through all the classic withdrawal symptoms. (Have you never scraped your pipe to bare metal, or torched that screen just one more time?) Denni
- That is called seeking behavior, a concept not yet discussed in this article. It is related to the reinforcing properties of a drug. Which are all related to the concepts described herein variously as addiction and dependence. Cannibas is listed in some places as behaviorally addictive. It also has been shown to be associated with withdrawal symptoms. And the tolerence properties of cannibas are related to the canabinoid profile of a particular stash. THC-d9 typical of finer kind-bud has a different tolerance profile than schwag genotypes with higher concentrations of cannabidol and/or cannabidiol.
- And have you ever measured the increase in cortisol in your blood, an increase in blood pressure, or an increase in body temperature in the hours and days without cannibas after a few days or weeks of regular use? NIH has, maybe not in your body, but in the body of plenty of monkeys and other primates like us. Withdrawal in some people, after certain dosage levels, results in measurable increases of mid-brain anxiety reactions.
- Seeking behavior, reinforcing properties, tolerance, withdrawal, and continued use regardless apparent harm and beyond any potential therapeutic benefit -- all of these things have been repeatedly documented in some regular marijuana users. The campaign to legalize it is no reason to blind ourselves to the medicine we are practicing on ourselves.
- I tried to sort out the growth of taxonomy from addiction to dependence but addiction is still used in medical settings and in popular settings. There is a lot more that needs to be done to get this up to par, but maybe these latest edits will make it somewhat more interesting to someone with deep professional knowledge of the topic. This article can never say what is addiction and what is dependence, it can only site multiple and conflicting standards of various professional associations. And those discussions have been plagued for years by conflicting political interests that at times have interfered with users' genuine need to know about the substances we choose to self-titrate. Chocolate bar 08:05, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Psychological addiction is still addiction... if you NEED something to keep functioning even though it's harmful to you in the long run, that's addiction. Psychological addiction is just as real as physical addiction.
Why is there a dispute over the existance of Cocaine addiction?
- For the same reason there's still a dispute over the Earth's roundness - there are always people who cannot let go of pet ideas. Denni
Symbiotic Addictions
What I have come to believe is a gross oversight of the mental health profession is the recognition that not all addictions are dysfunctional. Thus I have added the definition chart at the beginning. Another gross oversight that I feel that the mental health profession has failed to recognize is the condition I have labeled Mass Behavior Addiction. Under the dysfunctional section of this category, I feel that many cults and totalitarian systems could be classified. Comments?
Scott (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Emailuser&target=Scottperry) April 18, 2004
Scott, your construct of addictions is well on the way to being what could be a useful rhetoric for explaining addiction theory. But, in as much is it is what you believe it is not encyclopedic. Wikipedia, or encyclopedias in general, summarize what has been widely discussed in society. The ideas of symbiotic addictions versus disfunctional addictions are interesting, but they do not reflect the vast study of addiction by practitioners and by academies. Right or wrong, an encyclopedia article needs to first explore what has been done then review that information in the light of critical theories if those theories have some wide basis in popular discourse.
If you can find support in literature for how symbiosis is accepted as a view of addiction, that should be included, but I am somewhat familiar with literature on addiction and can't readily find that. The Social Norms Model is widely used for several areas of study and education that overlap with addiction - it is used somewhat in college alcohol abuse prevention education, for example, but it is more common to sociology than to addiciction medicine or addiction theory. Maybe you could summarize the origins and assumptions of social norms modeling in a new article on social norms model, which could provide a theoretical and practical basis for including the concept in this article. ----
One Definition of Addiction
I moved this table from the article to the talk page for several reasons. One is that it was set up as a 334 pixel chart, which forces the Wikipedia namespace out of bounds for any user using 600X800 resolution. Tables resolve best when set up as a percentage of the window, as was the chart contributed April 14.
Color selection is a subjective choice, but the new chart colors seemed bold and intrusive, rather than simple and leading into the table, as they were on the April 14 chart. Most internet page layout guides recommend use of one or two colors, but three colors might tend to be distracting rather than tend to contribute to readibility.
Beyond these layout problems, this chart has logical problems. "Not all medical practitioners agree on what comprises addiction or dependency." is redundant in that a more precise review of evolving differences in addiction medicine, and the organizations involved in addiction medicine, was already a part of the article.
"One definition of addiction" is not attributed to any organization of behavioral medicine practitioners, any addiction medicine society, or even an academic source. Obviously, being "one definition" does not assure it is not one person's definition, or that it is a widely accepted definition. Since definitions of addiciton can only be opinion, an encyclopedic article on addiction should first summarize the opinions of practitioners working professionally in the field. "Mass Behavioral Addictions" appears to be an idiosyncratic concept - the phrase gets exactly zero hits as a unique phrase on Google, so it might not belong in an encyclopedic article on the current science and popular literature related to addiction. That said, the information is interesting, and might be attributed to a source, but ScottPerry would do well to name a source. If some source can be cited to support the concept of general/disfunctional and symbiotic addictions, as described in a table, the article would be more reflective of current knowledge if it does not override the summary of addiction definitions drawn on standard medical approaches. I say that because the layout would better serve readers effort to see the world through the encyclopedia if space attributed to various ideas in the article were proportional to the amount of discussion and literature the supports the various concepts. Talbiano
The following is the table and introduction as was posted by StevePerry:
Not all medical practitioners agree on what comprises addiction or dependency. One definition of addiction, which breaks down the term into nine sybtypes of addiction is as follows:
| Substance Addiction | General | A condition whereby an individual
requires the periodic ingestion of a foreign non-nutrative substance, usually on at least a daily basis, in order to maintain a sense of well-being. |
| Dysfunctional | A type of substance addiction
in which the need for the regular ingestion of the substance becomes so overpowering, as to significantly impair the normal social functioning of the individual. | |
| Symbiotic | A type of substance addiction
in which the need for the regular ingestion of the substance does not appear to significantly impair the normal social functioning of the individual. | |
| | ||
| Behavior Addiction (compulsive) | General | A condition whereby an individual
requires the periodic repitition of a social or other type of seemingly illogical ritualistic behavior in order to maintain a sense of well-being. |
| Dysfunctional | A condition whereby an individual
requires the periodic repitition of a social or other type of seemingly illogical ritualistic behavior to the point where such behavior significantly impairs the normal social functioning of the individual. | |
| Symbiotic | A type of behavior addiction
in which the ritual behavior pattern is manageable to the point where it does not significantly impair the social functioning of the individual. | |
| | ||
| Mass Behavior Addiction (mass hysteria, mass hypnosis) | General | A condition whereby a group
of people requires the periodic repitition of a social or other type of seemingly illogical ritualistic behavior in order to maintain a sense of group-well-being. |
| Dysfunctional | A condition whereby a group
of people requires the periodic repitition of a social or other type of seemingly illogical ritualistic behavior to the point where such behavior significantly impairs the ability of this group to function in a constructive way when in relation to the greater whole of humanity. | |
| Symbiotic | A condition whereby a group
of people requires the periodic repitition of a social or other type of seemingly illogical ritualistic behavior that does not have any significantly impairing effect upon that group's ability to function in a constructive way when in relation to the greater whole of humanity. | |
I've moved the paragraph on the "social norms model", added by Scottperry, here. The information contained in it may have a place in the article, if properly integrated, but it doesn't belong in a section of explanations for addiction. Perhaps someone can add a section on addiction education.
"The social norms model is often employed in educational efforts intended to demonstrate, especially to student populations, that self-administration of psychoactive substances is not a normative behavior. Educators often employ the social norms model in attempts to demonstrate that those who frequently use alcohol or other psycho-active substances in ways that pose the threat of physical harm are a minority, and that the majority of a social group approaches the use of potentially harmful substances with caution and moderation."
Defenestration 05:57, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Link suggestions
An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Addiction article, and they have been placed on this page for your convenience.
Tip: Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add {{User:LinkBot/suggestions/Addiction}} to this page. — LinkBot 10:39, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)