Are your habits a sign of obsession, compulsion, or addiction? Let's take a look

Habitual behavior can be natural, like in looking out when crossing the street, but when our habitual behavior loses rationality and upsets our day to day existence and social adequacy, it is compulsive behavior. What is compulsive behavior? Compulsive behavior gives respite from underlying anxieties. Acting compulsively is the payoff. The urge to alleviate or escape anxiety, stress and fear is what lies behind the compulsion. The anxiety may be caused by an obsession: just as when a constant dread of dirt and bacteria leads to repetitive, compulsive washing. Compulsive actions can also arise unknowingly like when you’re biting your nails unawares. Compulsions that are commonplace are counting, cleaning, rearranging and examining things a second time to ensure peace of mind. If these actions get out of control as when needing to check that the door is secured repeatedly each time you leave home, the compulsion uses up time, disrupts normal daily routine, and may have become an anxiety disorder. What is an obsession? Obsessions take the form of apprehension and preoccupations that result in anxiety. The obsessions are the force behind compulsions. Compulsive acts ease the anxieties for a time and then they reappear and need to be alleviated yet again. Using the term loosely, people could say I have an obsession about going to the gym as often as I can, but if I'm training to take part in a tournament, my working out is driven by a sound way of thinking. If my incentive for attending the gym is for emotional reasons, as a distraction to emotional distress, and I'm always focusing on working out and get upset or nervous if I can't attend the gym, then it has become an obsession. This obsession has to be neutralized by going to the gym, which is now a compulsive act. Compulsion is the acting out of the obsessive fixation, bringing an interval of relief from the feelings of fear and anxiety. What is an addiction? Addiction characteristically relates to substance dependence demonstrated by difficulty in breaking the habit despite physiological damage. Tolerance to the drug and withdrawal effects are two of the criteria for addiction. Addiction is regarded as a biopsychosocial compulsion typically driven by pleasure-seeking. In fact, neuroscientists have said that anything that turns on the brain's pleasure centers can be called addictive. In this respect, addiction can also refer to compulsive excessive gambling and overeating, for example. Though not traditionally regarded as addictions, and sometimes classed as impulse-control disorders, withdrawal symptoms do appear if ever the compulsive behavior is restricted. Compulsive behaviors and addictions show common ground in that they each involve short-circuiting of the reward systems of the physical brain. The impulsive habits serve as a temporary means of relieving the feelings of anxiety. Each of us is hardwired for addictive habits that can be fired by social and psychological influences. Treatment providers treat those with problems accordingly, but to be effective any treatment has to broach the underlying reasons for the anxiety that is driving the addictive behavior.

Article Directory: http://www.article-tree.com

Tom Coghill has written several books on health, nutrition, and fasting. For more information see: Fasting , Fasting Stories and Testimonies , Freedom From Compulsive Eating Ref:COMPULSION&05

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated