Addiction Recovery Articles

Usually when we hear the words addiction or addict we think of a person who is hooked on alcohol, drugs or even sex. However, with the way technology is changing and improving every day, video games becoming more realistic and more demanding time-wise. Gone are the days of 5 minute Mario sessions. Now we deal with an ever growing problem – video game addiction.

Is something, by itself, addicting? Can a single item, substance, or activity be so provocative and gratifying that a mere passing participation in it is enough to hook you? Or is there something more at play? Too often the blame is placed solely on what a person is addicted to. It’s easy to say that the drugs give you energy, or calm you down- or that Warcraft puts you in another world, drinking numbs you to the pain, and that pornography takes the place of a relationship. In the end however, something has to be missing for that person- in order for addiction to fill it up.

Addiction is a dark place, one where it becomes easy to insulate oneself from the outside world. Everything you need, or think you need, is provided in the confines of the relationship you have with your addiction. Be it drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, the internet, or gambling- the drug of choice consumes your life. In the addicts world there is no room for anything that stands between them, and their addiction. This is what often makes recovery so difficult, the focus of the addicts life is suddenly gone. Often, recovering addicts report feelings of emptiness or loss of purpose.