Non-chemical Addictions

Shopping Addiction

From hitting the mall with your friends on weekends to holiday spending on gifts that go under the tree, shopping could be called someone’s full-time job even. Giving in to the occasional impulse buy is normal. After all, the majority of people enjoy shopping. The problem occurs when you or someone you know has succumbed to obsessive shopping. Most people take shopping as buying new clothes for work or a small trinket for a friend. For others, however, shopping is much more than an enjoyable pastime, and in some cases, it is a real and destructive addiction that can turn into a financial disaster.

Shopping

“Shopping, done to excess, can spin out of control and lead to bigger problems, spoiling rather than enhancing your quality of life. The more you use shopping as an attempt to fill an inner void, manage your feelings, repair your mood, or pursue a ‘perfect’ image, the more likely it is that you need to take a closer look at what this behavior is costing you. At times you start using shopping as a defense mechanism against your negative emotion or feeling. You can get temporarily escape from your problems but at the end of the day, they still exist. And what makes you more miserable is their existence.
You will feel like buying new things every day, no matter you need them or not, this is something in your head, which constantly keeps you focusing on buying stuff. Ruling out normal buying behavior is very important. Some people’s leisure time is often spent on shopping if they spend a lot of time shopping does not necessarily mean a shopping addiction. Shopping sprees are also common among people who have recently acquired a large inheritance or won a significant sum of money.

Workaholism

Workaholism can be defined as a condition where individuals experience an emotionally crippling compulsion to work, which is usually driven by the need to either gain approval or the public recognition of success. People who can be classified as workaholics tend to have a myopic fixation with an ambitious objective or accomplishment. They jump from one assignment to another and trying to meet their self-imposed demands. In this effort, they lose sight of their ability to regulate their work habits and tend to overindulge in their work. They dwell excessively on work-related issues and bring them home with themselves as well. This comes at the expense of other social activities and has detrimental consequences on their physical and emotional wellbeing. It is unfortunate that this form of addiction has not received its due share of attention owing to the fact that its seriousness is often underestimated.

Improving the workaholic’s awareness regarding his problem in order to facilitate the therapeutic process.

Focusing on establishing realistic and attainable goals rather than chasing lofty objectives.

Emphasizing directly the behavior of engaging in excessive work apart from addressing the consequences brought on by it.

Introducing alternative activities in the client’s routine that allow time for relaxation.

Chemical Addiction

Gadget addiction can be defined as taking pleasure in a particular activity very much such as laptops, PlayStation, and I pod and spending a lot of time doing it. Today, it is tricky to visualize a contemporary teenager without a mobile phone or any other gadgets. The perturbing research found that 97 percent of teenagers from 11 to 16-year-olds possess a mobile phone. Gadget addiction is the reason for the wish to get more freedom and the desirability of gadget applications.
Consequently, this addiction may cause a detrimental lifestyle among teenagers and influence their academic performance. Cell phones particularly smartphones have played a ground-breaking role in the life of people particularly teenagers. The phone has become a necessity these days, on the other hand, it has the whole thing at just a few keys away. Networking, email, movies, games, music, the internet, and even calling, everything is just a matter of a few clicks. Every other child is a gadget addict.

Gadget Addiction

Science has provided mankind with the ground-breaking and technological mechanisms the gadgets which are a part of everyone’s life these days. From cell phones to hi-tech televisions, from multimedia gaming sets to music players everything is a gadget and had carried the world just inside one’s pocket. Innovation in technology and communication has produced numerous gadgets. Every other second a new gadget is being launched in the consumer bazaar. People have now reached a point where they cannot live without these fancy gadgets. This eventually results in gadget addiction. This addiction has become a grave issue in the world, especially among the adolescence.