Addiction Recovery

According to researcher David Greenfield, the odds are good that you know someone who is addicted to the Internet. A study released in 2009 found that nearly six percent of Internet users are addicted to the Web. Although there is some debate in the psychological community about whether such a thing as Internet addiction exists, many experts believe that it not only exists, but that it disrupts lives and destroys families and careers on a regular basis.

According to Greenfield, "Marriages are being disrupted. Kids are getting into trouble. People are committing illegal acts. People are spending too much money. As someone who treats patients, I see it."

Alcohol and drug addiction have been accepted as legitimate conditions by the medical establishment for decades, but the tendency to label nearly any compulsive behavior as an addiction has generated a great deal of skepticism. Still, therapists who report that they see patients who spend virtually every waking moment online say that compulsive internet use looks very similar to other, more established addictions. In fact, prior to the 2009 study, industry estimates had set the rate of addiction among Internet users as high as 10 percent.

Greenfield, a Connecticut psychologist, collected data from more than 17,000 people regarding their Internet usage. Aptly, he gathered the information through an Internet poll. Greenfield adapted a widely-accepted questionnaire used to screen for gambling addiction to determine whether his respondents exhibited signs of Internet addiction. Respondents were asked such questions as whether they had ever tried to reduce their Internet usage without success, whether they ever used the Internet as an escape and whether they find themselves thinking about the Internet when they were not online.

Respondents who answered five or more of the questions with an affirmative were deemed to be addicted. If the results of the study hold true for the general public, there are over 11 million Internet addicts across the world. Greenfield believes that the unique combination of lowered inhibition, the timeless nature of the internet and the illusion of intimacy that is common among Internet users makes the medium particularly addictive.

Greenfield expresses concern that the increased availability of cheap Internet and ever-increasing connection speeds will only increase the technology's addictive potential. He expects the Internet addiction treatment field to eventually sub-divide into various categories, including sex, gambling and obsessive surfing.

Greenfield admits that his entire pool of participants was selected from the users of a single Internet site. This narrow focus represents a potential flaw in the data and leaves unanswered concerns that the results may be peculiar to the users of that site.

Child Welfare League Committee recently published a report that shows nearly 40 percent of students from fifth grade to eighth grade show symptoms of cell phone addiction.

4,269 samples were collected from 19 countries and cities in May of this past year. Of those samples, approximately 37 percent revealed that students check their cell phones first thing in the morning. Approximately 10 percent of students admitted to using their cell phones during class lessons. 26 percent of students use their cell phones during their commute to school. After school, 21 percent of surveyed students admitted to using their cell phone past 11pm.

Surprisingly, out of the surveyed teens, 45 percent of them admitted that they thought they use their cell phone too much; close to 40 percent showed symptoms of actual cell phone addiction.

In a land dominated by technology, nearly half of all fifth and sixth graders frequently use cellphones. Additionally, 69 percent of all seventh graders have cellphones, and 71 percent of all eighth graders have cell phones. Cellphone use among 12-year-olds stands at 56 percent in the US.

The study also observed Taiwanese children in various urban areas. Cellphone use among Taiwanese children grew 22 percent, compared with six years ago. Cellphone use in Taiwan is higher than China and Japan. In China, only 46 percent of the population from ages 10-18 uses cellphones. In Japan, only 45 percent of all 14-year-olds have cellphones.

However, close to 60 percent of all Taiwanese children only use their cellphone for less than five minutes per day.

The report stated that most teenagers use their cellphones for other activities, such as texting, listening to music, watching videos and surfing the Web.

Alicia Wang, Child Welfare League Committee executive director, advises parents not to spend too much money on cellphones, especially smartphones, for their kids. Wang insists that parents only allow their children phones with basic feature functions, and even then, don't allow small children to own a cellphone.

Perhaps one reason why cell phone addiction is rising is because of how easy it is to obtain a phone. Most companies offer free cell phones with a new 2-year contract.

It is a well-known fact that people like food. In fact, most people not only like food, they love food. They go living day by day just for that particular sweet taste of a certain food they like. Foods contain certain nutrients and hormones that assist the body with growth and development. Some foods assist in creating chemicals that help keep you healthy. Foods that are high in sugar and fat tend to turn that chemical around; making foods that are not good for you, the food you feel you need the most. It can get to the point where these people become addicted to food. Food contains chemicals that can transmit certain reactions to the brain. Such reactions can be the urge to eat more foods with a higher fat and sugar content. Because of this, it turns eating into an addiction. Some individuals carry a certain gene that makes them more susceptible to being an over eater. Some people carry a similar gene that makes them less susceptible to being an over eater. People who carry the gene that makes them want to overeat, crave the foods they want and in turn eat those foods creating a downward spiral. This in turn creates the addiction to eating certain foods.

Dr. Pawel Olszewski from Waikato University in New Zealand has discovered a pattern that describes the addictive behavior. He has found that foods that are higher in sugar and fat content contain a chemical that produces changes in the brain that resembles addictive behavior. Dr. Olszewski has conducted several tests and experiments to prove this theory on rodents. His findings were astronomical.

Dr. Olszewski claims that foods that are more delicious to individuals with a high sugar and fat content, have the same chemical compound for addiction as morphine or nicotine. Because of this, it makes those types of foods more addictive. It has been discovered that when eating foods that are higher in sugar and fat content, individuals tend to eat more until they are too full. This is because these types of foods have empty calories that cause the body not to feel as full. The chemicals that control the full feeling are stomped down with the sugar and fat content of the foods the individual is eating. Because of this, individuals eat more and more every day, creating an obesity crisis in the world. Foods that are high in sugar and fat content cause overeating and eventually can cause individuals to become overweight or obese.

Individuals are more susceptible to becoming overweight or obese because there are so many different sugary or fatty foods available on the market. When subjected to these foods, individuals tend to eat more of them than the healthier foods. It becomes very difficult to break the habit of eating the foods higher in sugar or fat content. This in turn causes many problems in humans today.
Problems that could arise:

• They could become overweight or obese
• They could have high cholesterol
• They could contract diabetes
• They could die

Individuals carry certain addictive tendencies. Individuals naturally have genes that can cause them to be addicted to many different things. When certain individuals eat a high sugar and fatty diet, the brain gets a signal from the chemicals that this is something the body needs.

Dr. Olszewski discovered that if you inject a patient with a drug that suppresses the addiction gene into rodents that have been on a sugar and fat diet, they begin to go through withdrawals from eating those types of foods. The drugs release a hormone to the brain that helps it to respond to the food addiction. This in turn helps the individual to stop wanting to eat the sugary or fatty foods available to them.

This in turn helps the individual to take better steps to eating healthier foods that keep their bodies in check. Baking foods in the oven or grilling foods on BBQ grills are just a few choices to help make better decisions about eating healthier. By making, the decision to eat foods that have a lower sugar and fatty amount in them, individuals will not be as overweight as those who are addicted to those fatty and sugary foods.

Because of his research, Dr. Olszewski is confident that someday it could help other physicians to diagnose these addictive behaviors in patients. This in turn can help patients, who are more susceptible to obesity, control it with a personalized therapy. By creating this type of therapy, it will assist the patients to become more in control over their body and addictions.

Dr. Olszewski has not achieved this goal yet. However, he is working on a way to fight the addiction to the higher sugar and fatty foods. By achieving this, he will be helping many individuals around the world to become healthier, thinner individuals.

Behavioral studies and consumer behavior articles claim that wine drinkers are generally have higher levels of education and live more sophisticated lifestyles, compared to people who drink other types of alcohol. Additionally, many wine drinkers are thought of to have higher incomes and better health, due to their consumption of healthy foods.

However, epidemiologic studies can not prove that wine consumers suffer less from cardiovascular diseases and mortality than people who consume other types of alcohol, after all adjustments for lifestyles have been accounted for.

Previous long-term studies on older Americans concluded that it was the associated lifestyle, habits and environmental factors that exponentially explained their better health. However, some people were concerned that the study's approach was flawed, claiming that the data presented on paper were inadequate to support the study's conclusion.

While the study may have been flawed due to its research on only a single estimate of alcohol intake and large adjustments for what the authors deemed as low-wine and high-wine consumers. Regardless, the study did confirm lower mortality rates for wine consumers than non-alcohol consumers.

To support this find, experimental studies show that some polyphenols and other constituents present within wine and other alcoholic beverages have independent properties that can protect against most cardiovascular risk factors.

Regardless, whether such advantages are found among moderate wine or beer drinkers is hard to determine. Epidemiologic studies have a hard time proving one or the other because comparisons among wine, beer and spirit drinks are not being made. Instead, what is being compared are humans who consume these beverages, and of course, it is hard to make conclusions based off human research, due to complex differences between each individual.

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding addiction recovery is whether or not natural remedies can be helpful or not.  There are a wide range of opinions on this.  The truth is that whatever information you get on the Internet is not a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment.  While it is always good to get tips and advice from wherever you can, it is important to consult your physician, pharmacist, or health care provider before you take any natural remedies or supplements.

So what kind of natural remedies are people on the Internet suggesting?  Well, some examples are L-Glutamine for alcohol addiction and licorice root as a replacement for the habit of smoking.

But by themselves these natural remedies are NOT going to magically "cure" you of addiction?

Why?

Because addiction is more of a mental and spiritual thing than it is a physical thing.

Of course it is always a good thing to take your vitamins and stay in peak physical condition - treating your body right will give you the best chance to beat any addiction.

But you are not truly going to beat any addiction until you address what is going on mentally and spiritually.

So if you really desire to beat an addiction, what should you do?

Number one, you need to admit that you have an addiction.  That can be very hard for many people to do.

Number two, you need to make a decision to change.  For many people, until the perceived pain of staying the same becomes greater than the perceived pain of making a change nothing is going to happen.  Perhaps today is the day to really evaluate where you are at.

Number three, once you have decided to make a change, you need to reach out for help.  This step involves swallowing your pride. Often a good first step is to reach out to a trusted family member. After that, reaching out to a professional who works in the field of your addiction or reaching out to a spiritual advisor can be extremely helpful. You are likely to need a lot of assistance in overcoming your addiction, and family, friends and licensed professionals are there to be that help.

Number four, which is the most important step, is to reach out to God.  Many have found that they did not have the strength within themselves to defeat an addiction, but that when they turned to the God of the universe they found all the power that they ever needed. The truth is that we all need God whether we are addicted to something or not.  We are all messed up in some way and we have all broken God's laws.  But the good news is that Jesus Christ (Yahshua) came to this earth to die for our sins on the cross. We urge you to invite Jesus Christ into your life today, because He will not only help you overcome your addiction - He will forgive your sins and will give you eternal life, and nothing is more important than that.

To find our more about how you can become a Christian, we encourage you to read another article that we published on this site: "Yahshua: The Ultimate Key To Addiction Recovery".

As more details of the Tiger Woods scandal come out, tabloids have been running such splashy headlines as "TIGER GIRL RACHEL CANCELS PRESS CONFERENCE - - $1 MILLION PAYOFF ALLEGED!!!"  It seems like the American media and even large portions of the American people are all too eager to absolutely trash someone who was once one of the nation's greatest heroes.  Without clearly admitting guilt, Tiger Woods has at least taken partial responsibility for whatever it is that he did.  In a statement posted on Tiger's website on Wednesday, Tiger acknowledged his "transgressions" that "let my family down" while at the same time pleading with the press for some privacy.   But this scandal just seems to get bigger by the hour. 

Yes, if Tiger Woods did commit adultery that is a very bad and very ugly thing and he was very, very wrong.  But why should this be sensationalized and celebrated endlessly in the media?  Perhaps the men of America should examine their own lives before being so quick to pass judgment on someone else.  You see, the truth is that America is a nation full of men who are sex addicts, adulterers and perverts.  It is really easy to jump on Tiger Woods, but how would most men in America stack up if the full weight of the tabloid media was weighing on them? 

The following are 10 reasons why American men should think twice before they judge Tiger Woods.....

#1) According to one major study, one out of every four married men in the United States admit to having at least one extramarital affair.  That is stunning, but imagine how much higher the numbers would be if it included all the ones who are lying about it?

#2) Scientists conducting a major scientific study at the University of Montreal recently launched a search for men who had never looked at pornography - but could not find a single one.

#3) Young men in America are so addicted to sex and are so incredibly irresponsible that they are getting record numbers of young teen girls pregnant.  In fact, 115 girls at one high school in Chicago alone either already have a baby or are pregnant right now.

#4) Thanks to the horniness of American men, 1 out of every four teen girls in the United States now has an STD and more than 25 percent of the residents of New York City now have herpes.

#5) Authorities estimate that there are over 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the United States today.  The vast majority of that abuse is committed by American men.

#6) Authorities also estimate that approximately 95% of all teenage prostitutes were sexually abused as children.  Once again, the men of America are overwhelmingly to blame for that.

#7) More than 70% of men in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34 visit at least one pornographic website in a typical month.

#8) In fact, a recent survey revealed that American men are so addicted to pornography that a large number of them can't even wait to get home to view it.  The survey found that 25 percent of American employees who have Internet access visit porn websites while they are at work.

#9) 89 dollars is spent on porn every single second of every single day in the United States.  The vast majority of that money is spent by American men.

#10) Porn industry revenue in the United States is larger than all of the revenues for all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises combined.

Are you starting to get the picture?

The truth is that before the men of America judge Tiger Woods, perhaps they should judge themselves.  There are tens of millions of American men out there who have done things just as bad as Tiger Woods has done - or worse.

The United States is a nation overflowing with junkies and drug dealers.  If you doubt this is true, how else can you explain new statistics that show that there is one drug bust in the U.S. every 18 seconds.  That means that there are an average of three drug busts every single minute of every single day in America.

Has the war on drugs failed?     

The F.B.I. has released the Uniform Crime Report for 2008, and it does not paint a pretty picture.  According to the report, there were 1,702,537 drug arrests in 2008, and 82.3 percent of those arrests were for possession of a contraband substance.

What does it say about a nation when there are 1.7 MILLION drug arrests in that country per year?

44 percent of the arrests were for possession of marijuana.  This is prompting many pot advocates to once again call for marijuana legalization.  For example, NORML director Allen St. Pierre released a media advisory in which he made this statement: "Present enforcement policies are costing American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and having no impact on marijuana availability or marijuana use in this country. It is time to end this failed policy and replace prohibition with a policy of marijuana regulation, taxation, and education."

But the reality, as we have previously covered, is that marijuana is a highly addictive, very dangerous substance.  If it was legalized it is very likely that crime and traffic accidents would increase significantly.

But illegal drugs are only part of the story when it comes to America's love affair with drugs.  The truth is that millions of Americans are completely addicted on legal prescription drugs, and thousands of doctors push them on their patients knowing full well that they are highly addictive and dangerous.

However, as we have previously written, there is hope for prescription drug addicts just as there is for illegal drug addicts.  There are some prescription drugs addictions that are incredibly difficult to beat, but the truth is that any addiction can be beat if you are willing to fight.

But what causes addiction in the first place?  The reality is that for most people they are trying to feel better or trying to escape or trying to fill a gaping hole in their lives.  Life is hard, and if you don't have a relationship with God, then there will always be that temptation to turn to something when things don't go well.

We invite you to learn the true secret to lasting joy and peace.  There is nothing quite like knowing that your life has real meaning.  Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins so that you can have a relationship with the God of the universe that will last forever.  To learn more, we invite you to check this out.....

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1049/1049_01.asp

Many people do not regard video game addiction to be as serious as other forms of addiction.

But is this true?

Just consider the following video.

The following YouTube video is reportedly footage of one teen's reaction to the news that his mother has cancelled his World of Warcraft account.

For those of you who are not familiar with World of Warcraft, it is a HIGHLY addicting online role playing game. In fact, many online games can be so addicting that they can literally take over a person's life.

So is this teen addicted to World of Warcraft?

Is he displaying the behavior of a video game addict?

You make the call.....

The truth is that video game addiction can ruin your life if you are not careful. If you have stories or videos about video game addiction, please feel free to share them with us in the comments below.