Home Stories Chemical Addiction Versus Behavioral Addiction: What You Need To Know

Chemical Addiction Versus Behavioral Addiction: What You Need To Know

Chemical addiction is indeed a chronic disease in which an individual has the persistent desire to use drugs or other substances, knowing that they have some potentially dangerous consequences.

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Addiction!

This singular word mostly leaves a negative impression on our minds. Most of us consider addiction as a bad habit; however, in reality, the scenario is not that it is more than just a bad habit; it is actually a health condition. You can consider substance abuse as a disease.

Whenever your whole focus shifts to a single thing, and due to that, you eventually start to neglect other regular things and people, you get addicted to some things.
Whether it is getting addicted to drugs or alcohol or getting addicted to fitness, everything is considered as one of the most dangerous health conditions. In this case, you can take help from a reputed rehabilitation or detox center, with the number one solution for you.

What Is Chemical Addiction?

Chemical addiction is indeed a chronic disease in which an individual has the persistent desire to use drugs or other substances, knowing that they have some potentially dangerous consequences.

Those individuals find it really challenging to manage their urges and mostly are not able to function daily activities without using a particular substance. In most cases, the initial use of the drug might be voluntary, or the person uses the substance under peer pressure.

Eventually, with time and repetitive use of the substance reacts with the brain and nervous system. As a result, the brain adapts and develops a dependency on a particular substance. In case the brain or body does not get the substance, they start to react as per that.

This is a really tough situation, and cravings create. As a result, the individual continues taking those substances. In some cases, the person wants to come out of the chemical addiction knowing its harmful effects, but the individual simply can not.

When the brain develops a dependency, and the person gets addicted to a particular substance, it becomes really challenging to quit that. As the body and brain crave for the substances, and the absence of substance causes severe physical discomfort.

It is known as withdrawal symptoms. It can be anything from muscle aches, body pain, vomiting, feeling nauseous, a burning sensation in the head. So, the person does not have any options to go back to that addiction, as these severe issues can even cause death if not treated properly.

So, without wasting a single minute, it is my mandate to seek the proper treatment and enroll myself in a rehabilitation or detox center. Here, the person will get the essential treatment and also get to know tools to keep their addiction at bay.

What Is Behavioural Addiction?

Behavioral pr process addiction affects the reward system’s network in the brain. This particular disorder includes a particular pattern of compulsive and repetitive actions, which are non-drug related.

Certain behavior brings the individual ecstasy or relief from stress. That is why the individual becomes singularly focused on pursuing or doing the same activity despite any adversities or roadblocks they might try to intervene.

With every single addiction, the individual gets some issues functioning in their normal lives, during which refraining from those particular behaviors becomes extremely tough and complicated.

For example, in drug addiction, the patient finds it extremely difficult to quit and experiences strong cravings. They literally struggle to resist having the particular behavior consume their entire lives.

Most of the time, the individual is totally unaware of the toll their addiction is capable of taking as a result of the inability they have to be present outside of the behavioral thing they are doing.

A person with a shopping or gambling addiction might totally look out for or ignore the piling amount of money they are spending and the debt they already have just because of spending so much frivolously.

Still, they will go to a game and buy a new dress. The same way a sex addict might solicit relationships, which could damage their professional and personal lives or both of them. The individual might have an encounter with a coworker, which violates the company policies and can ruin their career in a second.

Apart from that, the same person might go looking for sex out of a monogamous relationship, which later could destroy it, or eventually, they can find themselves in critical situations that invite several health issues as well.

Chemical Versus Behavioural Addiction: The Differences

First, we should acknowledge that the person who is in need of help is unlikely to suffer from just one of the problems or the other. When an individual is in the throes of active addiction, there might be a substance addiction in place.

So, at first, the substance abuse or addiction needs to be treated. Along with that, their behavioral addictions also have to be addressed.

For example, a person with a behavioral addiction to gambling is undergoing treatment. Here often, a major thing can be neglected that this particular behavioral addiction is related to alcohol consumption, which is a chemical addiction.

So, along with addressing and treating behavioral addiction, it is also important to pay attention to the part of chemical addiction. At the same time, when a person is getting treatment for chemical addiction, the treatment plan also should include a therapy session.

It is a must for addressing and treating behavioral addictions. Most of the time, chemical addiction can be identified easily. However, it is a behavioral addiction, which is actually accelerating the path of chemical abuse.

So, we can see there is a fine line of connection between behavioral and chemical addiction. Both are interrelated, so we should give proper attention to both of them.

Everything You Need To Know About Addiction Treatment

For both behavioral and chemical addiction, you can find a number of recoveries. When the treatment of chemical addiction is specifically focused on detoxification, and it also includes therapy as a major part, the scenario is different for behavioral treatment.

Behavioral treatment is particularly focused on therapy sessions, and in some cases, if medications are needed or any type of substance abuse is found, the program is then designed to address that as well.