The Causes and Impacts of Addiction - Essay Example

"The Causes and Impacts of Addiction" is a decent example of a paper on addiction.

In this article, a precise outline of addiction causes in guidance and counseling will be provided. The informative essay aims to educate the general public more about the causes and impacts of addiction. In other words, the importance of the chosen career path is that it will enable me to understand the reasons for addiction more, especially among young people. The meaning of addiction is the condition of being addicted to a particular substance or activity. However, the issue of addiction has become rampant among youth people all around the world. In this article (thesis), the main focus is to highlight several types of addictions, stages of addiction, provide some reasons people become addicted to something, and share ideas on how to handle obsession (Yang, pg. 110).

The two main types of addiction are substance and behavioral addiction. Moreover, these addiction types range from regular use of drugs such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and tobacco. On the other hand, examples of behavioral addiction may include gambling, stealing, playing video games, using the internet, and watching pornography. It is essential to understand that dependence is both psychological and behavioral. Addictions are commonly characterized by compulsion, craving, an inability to stop using drugs, and lifestyle affliction due to drug use (Shin, pg. 104).

The findings of research done, reveal that there are different stages of addictions. The initial step is the functioning person with an addiction. The most exciting thing is that the addicted people still have a job and their relationships complete nevertheless, their life is suffering because of their addiction. The last stage is referred to as the non-functioning addict, where the addicted people have lost their jobs hence lacking money to buy the drugs they use.

One of the leading causes of addiction is a family history, where about 50-60% of addicted persons result from genetic factors. Further studies reveal that genetic factor determines whether an individual will develop an addiction. Moreover, it is proven that if one identical twin is addicted to marijuana, then there will be a high probability of the other twin being addicted (ZABER, pg 116).

Nevertheless, when one of the fraternal twins is addicted to marijuana, the other twin does not necessarily have an addiction. Another cause of addiction is poor coping skills for stress. The reason here is that pressure is a crucial threat factor in addiction. In most cases, when people want to escape stress, they usually turn to drug abuse, leading to addiction. Some people also tend to do what is familiar and wrong when they are stressed, hence leading to behavioral addiction.

Furthermore, negative thinking is yet another cause of addiction. For instance, all kinds of negative thinking make individuals feel irritated, uncomfortable, stressed, and discontent. Such feelings tend to drive people to view their lives as horrible or perfect, thus engaging in drug use to escape or relax. Through this, an individual may become addicted to drug use (Yang, pg. 110).

Consequently, an individual needs to overcome the issue of addiction to avoid the risks and consequences associated with addiction. Firstly, addicted persons need to make personal decisions to change and quite entirely the addictive behaviors or substances. Through this, people would reduce the amount of time and money spent on addictive drugs or behavior, hence decreasing the addiction's harm. In conclusion, through guidance and counseling, addicted people are initiated to take personal responsibility to avoid substances and actions that can cause addictions. The reason is that addicted people suffer negative consequences concerning social, emotional, and psychological problems (Shin, pg. 104).