Crack cocaine and heroin, it’s generally accepted, are addictive. But are chocolate, shopping or gambling really on the same level as these potentially deadly drugs?
When it comes to defining addiction, viewpoints differ. One professor said that people can be addicted to anything that “provides fast, strong rewards,” like sex and gambling, while another said that some people who say they’re addicted to non-chemical activities should “shut up and grow up.”
Psychology professor Ulrich Mayr said that addiction is a shortcut to feeling good. He said that over time, the brain learns the body can feel good easily with access to drugs. It’s a shortcut because the person doesn’t have to do the hard work he or she normally does to achieve the same feel-good high.
“Drugs replace the hard work of getting there,” he said. “It’s stronger than what you could achieve in normal life.”
He also said that a person learns quickly that he or she will feel a certain way after consumption.
“If you didn’t have the ability to anticipate feeling good or the ability to feel good, you wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning,” said Mayr.
Though he’s not a specialist in addictions, he believes that people can be addicted to anything.
“You can be addicted to anything that provides fast, strong rewards without too much effort,” he said. “We’re addicted to driving our car, to eating a good meal every night, drinking a glass of wine at night.”
“They’re critical only if they interfere with everyday life.”
Mayr believes that there’s a means by which people can train themselves to be addicted to more productive things.
“It’s called therapy,” he said.
In therapy, he explained, people gradually learn the importance of holding off and giving up the immediacy associated with substance addiction. He believes it is essential to work hard to achieve the pleasure once gained by drug use.
But one of Mayr’s colleagues uses the term addiction more carefully and for specific situations and scenarios.
“Addiction has a really specific meaning in psychology.Psychologists don’t refer to addiction for habits,” said adjunct associate psychology professor Crystal Dehle.
Dehle said addiction is actually when a person continues to do something
even when it has a negative consequence. And with drugs and alcohol, she said, there’s the physical component.
Though she is not a specialist in addictions, Dehle said chocolate lovers and loyal Internet users don’t really count as real addicts. She’d categorize them more as people experiencing an urge to consume something.
“In psychology, you start to crave something, you miss it over time. I don’t know that these other things would fit into that,” said Dehle.
She said that in addiction, it’s important to ask whether or not it is a problem.
“Is it impairing their functions? Have they gotten into legal trouble, dropped out of school, is their family concerned?”
Associate Professor of Philosophy John Lysaker remains skeptical of the people who say they are addicted to non-chemical substances. He says people may cry addiction in order to avoid the deeper problem at hand.
“I have a general worry about medicalizing all aspects of human behavior. My fear is that when people say that (I’m addicted to this or that), what they’re really saying is, ‘Don’t hold me responsible for my actions.’ To which I want to say, ‘Shut up and grow up.’”
“That doesn’t mean it’s not possible,” said Lysaker. “But I do worry about the free way in which we label character flaws as medical maladies.”
Lysaker acknowledges the severity of the problems. While he said he’s unsure as to whether people can really be addicted to hobbies like gambling or shopping, he considers these indulgences compulsive acts of humanity.
“There are all kinds of compulsive behaviors. And I think a behavior is compulsive if we do it even at those times when we don’t want to or think we shouldn’t,” Lysaker said. “Compulsive shopping is an example. People go around and buy things they don’t particular like, they certainly don’t need, and often in doing so, harm themselves economically by having a massive credit card bill.”
“It’s a substitute satisfaction. Something’s missing, and even though we know it’ll be a short-lived satisfaction, we find ourselves doing it because it’s better than nothing,” Lysaker said. “And when we’re in those situations, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, ‘What’s missing in my life? And what else could I be doing that might provide more enduring satisfactions?’”
Lysaker said that people may substitute a certain substance for lack of feeling happy.
“We could say the same thing about turning to drugs or alcohol,” Lysaker said. “Are these substitute satisfactions for something already missing?”
He said that behaviors that people call addictive – be it heroin use or credit card use – are substitutes for true happiness, attaining which can be a very difficult task.
“It’s a real trick to know what a happy life involves, to discover where our happiness really lies. It’s a life-long project anyways, because it will probably change.”
“I would look at addiction, when I think about it philosophically, as involving to a certain degree the pursuit of substitute satisfactions.
Not in every case – of course some people just get physiologically addicted. And then, the task for me would be to try to articulate other activities, which won’t leave us seeking substitute satisfactions. For me, those are primarily issues of human relationship and human activity.”
“I’ll leave the causal explanations of addiction to psychologists and medical doctors,” Lysaker said. “For me, looking at it more in a pattern of human meaning, we see here a symptom of a life that’s experiencing a crisis in meaning. And that forces us to look for what it would mean to remedy that crisis.”
“I think that it’s not uncommon to have crises in meaning among college students. It’s really a time of transition,” said Lysaker. “For many people, (higher education)’s just a means to an end.
And that end is uncertain. ‘So why am I doing this? What’s this really for? Am I just here because my parents ask me to be or because The Man says I have to be?’”
Lysaker said it’s important to focus our energy on activities that naturally leave us feeling good. Whether it’s dancing or hiking or woodworking, these are activities that when we’re done, we aren’t left wanting more.
“We don’t have, for instance, hiker’s remorse,” Lysaker said. “This isn’t a waste of an afternoon. And those things get better when they’re shared with people.”
Outdoorsy activities like hiking can give people a natural high without the feelings of guilt afterward.
Like Mayr, Lysaker agreed a simple shortcut is far easier than working hard to achieve the same (natural) high.
“I think one could seek substitute satisfactions quite readily under those conditions. Or, just to soften anxieties,” Lysaker said.
“And whether or not that would lead to addiction, I don’t know. It all depends on whether or not addiction is an actual medical condition or a metaphor for ‘I’m not in control of my life.’”