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How to Identify an Addiction

How To Identify An Addiction

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Addiction can be defined as a chronic disease that affects the way the brain processes the reward, memory and motivation functions. Someone with an addiction will find themselves craving either a substance or a particular behavioural habit and despite any negative impacts on their life, will continually seek the substance or habit out.

Learning to Identify Addiction

Generally speaking, signs of addiction can include:

While these signs are commonly linked to addiction, they can vary greatly depending on the addiction itself as well as the severity or stage of the addiction. While a healthy person may identify a negative behaviour and stop taking part in that behaviour, someone suffering from addiction won’t be able to do this so easily. For most, rather than admitting the problem exists, they simply continue the behaviour, falling further into the addiction itself.

Initial Signs & Symptoms

When it comes to the early stages of addiction, sufferers can find it much easier to hide however there are some early stages signs to look out for:

If the addiction surrounds common social behaviours such as drinking, early warning signs may be easily missed. Equally, what you may feel is an addiction, could simply be an unhealthy form of stress management or simply a stage of experimentation. Having said that, these early stages, if left untreated or unaccepted as behaviour to be avoided, could very well develop into an addiction.

Personality Changes

As an addiction develops past what could be deemed the ‘experimental stage’, you may start to notice personality changes. These may be infrequent however over time could develop permanently. Signs may include:

Health Changes

Another way to identify someone suffering from addiction is to look at health changes within them, from physical to mental health, there may be a decline that varies in severity. Signs may include but aren’t limited to:

Seeking Professional Help

It’s important to note that not all negative behaviours are an addiction and it’s equally as important to rule out potential medical reasons for health declines. That being said, having quick access to treatment for an addiction when needed is incredibly important. Having professional advice and guidance on hand is paramount to helping someone suffering with addiction and ultimately getting them onto the right path that leads to a clean and healthy future.

Infinity Addiction Solutions are one of the UK’s leading addiction treatment centres, with multiple centres throughout the UK. For more information, contact them today on 0800 334 5541.

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