What are the symptoms of addictions?

These are the symptoms that characterize addiction disorders.

Addiction is defined as any chronic and recurrent disease of the brain characterized by a pathological search for reward/relief through the use of a substance (or an activity, in the case of gambling). Potentially addictive substances are well known, although some are more socially accepted than others.

According to the Our World in Data portal, drugs are directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of 11.8 million people a year. Alcohol and tobacco take first place in terms of danger, as these two substances alone kill 3 million and 8 million people each year, respectively. Tobacco alone kills almost half of the people who use it.

With all these data in hand, it is more than clear that addictions are a social and health problem to be combated. However, any global action begins on a small scale, and the addict's environment is essential for him to decide to seek help. For all these reasons, we we explore the symptoms of addiction.

The definition of addiction and its symptoms

The term "addiction" is not usually used in the psychological field, as it refers to the biopsychosocial disorder generated by drugs at the brain level, but the whole is better understood if we use the concept "substance use disorder" or "substance abuse disorder" (SUD) in English.

SUD is characterized by a series of mental, emotional, physical and behavioral problems. that arise from the use of an addictive substance, whether legal, illegal or prescribed by a physician in a particular setting. Addicted patients are not physically able to stop using the problematic substance no matter how hard they try, even if this endangers their lives and the lives of those around them.

Although all these concepts may sound ethereal and difficult to assess, there are standardized criteria for quantifying an addiction. The American Psychological Association (APA) edits and publishes from time to time its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a document that sets the standard for clinical psychiatry. According to the fifth edition these are the criteria to look for in an addicted person:

• The patient uses the substance more than originally planned.
• He/she cannot quit the substance no matter how much he/she wants to or tries to.
• The patient spends a lot of time getting, using or recovering from the use of the problem substance.
• Need and urgency to use the substance.
• Recurrent use of the substance prevents the patient from developing in other areas of his or her life, such as work, home or school.
• The patient continues to use the substance despite the fact that the use causes problems in the intimate (interpersonal or social) environment.
• The patient gives up social, occupational or recreational activities in order to continue using the substance.
• Substance use is sustained over time, even when the activities in which it is used are dangerous.
• The patient continues to use the substance, even when he/she knows that he/she has a psychological problem derived from the drug or the drug increases the symptomatology of other disorders.
• The addict needs more substance each time to reach the desired effect (tolerance).
• You also develop symptoms when you stop using the substance, and these can be remedied by using it again (dependence).

This long list represents each and every symptom of a person with an addiction. However, an addicted patient may not an addicted patient may not present all of them at the same time, or express less clearly his or her feelings and psychological effects derived from the situation..

The severity of the substance use disorder

If the patient presents 2 or 3 of the above symptoms, he/she is diagnosed with a "mild substance use disorder". 4 or 5 signs indicate a moderate picture, and 6 or more fall into the more severe part of the pathological spectrum. In any case, depending on the sources consulted, it is stipulated that to be considered addicted (in any of its variants), a person must show at least 2 symptoms for a period of 12 months or more..

What is not an addiction?

As you have seen, the time interval in which symptoms occur is important in differentiating between addiction and other conditions. For this very reason, drugs that generate tolerance and/or withdrawal symptoms quickly (such as morphine and fentanyl, particularly (such as morphine and fentanyl, especially opioids) in medical patients are a slippery slope.

For example, a person with chronic Pain who uses an opioid analgesic may develop withdrawal symptoms when he or she stops using it, despite following all of the physician's instructions. This is not considered addiction, because most of the discomfort comes from the pain that the opioid was masking, not from the brain circuits being modulated by the use of the substance.

On the other hand, it is worth noting that we tend to use the term "addiction" for many areas, such as shopping, hobbies, video games, exercise and even intimate relationships ("I am addicted to being with my partner)". The reality is that technically, as of today, there is only one activity recognized by the APA as potentially addictive: gambling.. It has been found that, in a gambling addict, winning a measurable amount of cash is very similar to giving a drug addict a dose of cocaine, at least from a neurological point of view.

If we follow the criteria, we cannot say that work, shopping, video games, sports or relationships are addictive substrates in and of themselves. A person can become compulsively obsessed with any of these fronts, but this would be a symptom of a different clinical entity (and not a substance use disorder).

This is not to say that they are not potentially addictive acts, but that there is not yet enough evidence to affirm or disprove that they are such a problem, but that they would constitute another form of psychopathology.

Are you looking for psychological therapy services?

As you may have seen, it is easy to recognize externally when someone has a problem with a substance or activity, but not so easy to demonstrate clinically that they are a patient with a substance use disorder. Here The number of symptoms, the length of time they are present, and the potentially harmful substance or activity, among other things, come into play here..

In any case, psychiatric terminology takes a back seat when we consider that we are talking about people who put their lives at stake. If you have seen yourself reflected in any of these lines or have thought of a family member, we recommend that you go to medical and psychotherapy professionals. Addictions can be treated, but the more time passes, the worse the patient's prognosis.