Question

Answer the following question in detail (in 150-200 words).

There are various types of addiction. Elaborate their causes and consequences.

Answer 1

Types of Addiction:

1. Substance Addiction: It refers to a physical and biological dependence on chemical substances which leads to unpleasant symptoms (called withdrawal) when the person stops using the substance. Abuse of substances such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, tobacco, gutka, etc. can cause health issues and serious problems with family, friends, the workplace and the law.
2. Internet addiction: This is a knowledge-explosion era. It is the age of the internet. It is not difficult to connect to the internet. It would not even be considered an addiction. When internet addiction becomes a problem, stress or anxiety affects physical health and leads to personal neglect, among other things.
3. Mobile Addiction: When there is a need to be on call almost constantly, mobile addiction becomes a problem. The constant need to take selfies or photos of everything, forward messages all the time, and so on.

Causes of Addiction:

1. Personal factor: An individual will have several reasons why one becomes an addict. Generally individuals do not opt consciously to become an ‘addict’. It is what they become over a period of time.
2. Peer Pressure: Friends in a group may knowingly or unknowingly pressurise others to adopt certain habits in order to ‘fit in’. This is especially common among students but it can also cut across other age categories.
3. Social status: Certain addictions seem to make people feel that they have attained a certain degree of social respectability or position, which they might then flaunt.
4. Validation of the ‘Self’: This is especially true in the case of social media networks like Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and so on. It makes people feel important. Today, “selfitis” (that is, the obsessive taking of selfies, called ‘selfie syndrome’) is regarded as a mental disorder.

Consequences of Addiction:

1. Psychological effect: Any kind of addiction has a psychological impact on the addict. They develop a dependency on alcohol, narcotic drugs, medicinal drugs, the internet, social media and even mobile phone. There could emerge a need for validation for every single post or image that is uploaded, and the obsession with increasing numbers of ‘like hits’.
2. Impact on family: Addiction is not merely the problem of youth; it cuts across all age categories. Parents who have an alcohol addiction problem pose a threat to stable family life. Sometimes this results in domestic violence.
3. Impact On health: The physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals take a back seat when there is a problem of addiction. The levels of stress, anxiety, aggression or irritability can take its toll on addicts as well as others in the family or the group.
4. Impact On work: Depending on the type of addiction, it can adversely affect levels of commitment, efficiency, an increase in instances of sexual harassment or sexual abuse, exploitation of vulnerable people, inability to focus on any activity, increased absenteeism and declining work performance.