Several years ago I waited at a stoplight while a young man slowly crossed the street in front of me, glued to his phone. He was texting while walking, unaware the light had changed. Four lanes of traffic waited for him to cross against a green light. The young man was engrossed in whatever was on his phone, oblivious to his surroundings.
Whenever I have nothing better to do I fiddle with my iPhone. Checking email on your phone when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office is not an addiction, but it can be taken to an extreme. Research has found people tend to become anxious when separated from their smartphone. Other research takes for granted that smartphones can become an addiction. Indeed, my wife often claims young people are addicted to their phones.
Addiction is a real problem in the United States, and the world over. Addiction in its more severe forms renders its victims unable to work, unable to maintain relationships and sometimes a danger to society and to themselves. Drug addiction is often associated with criminal activity. It is also believed that addiction is a significant contributor to the homeless crisis, not to mention the 100,000 overdose deaths from fentanyl every year.
Under Obamacare and other federal health regulations, addiction is treated like a mental health disorder. Health plans must cover mental health care on par with physical health ailments. Addiction treatment is mandated as an essential benefit, but are supposed new addictions turning into another addiction?
It seems that new addictions are constantly cropping up – you might even say we are addicted to them. Some are calling for urgent action over an epidemic of young people becoming addicted to gaming or using social media, for example, while a few celebrities accused of sexual misdeeds say that they have sex addiction.But while it is uncontroversial that people can become dependent on heroin or cocaine, the science behind many other supposed addictions isn’t so clear cut.
By now it’s conventional wisdom that smoking is addictive, but what about food?
A recent study published in The BMJ is reporting that ultra-processed foods can be as addictive as smoking.
What makes something addictive? The pleasure center of the brain produces and responds to dopamine, a ‘feel good’ chemical in the brain. Things that are pleasurable result in the release of dopamine. For example, fentanyl binds very effectively to the brain’s opioid receptors, resulting in a release of dopamine. While other pleasurable activities release dopamine can they become an addiction rather than merely pleasurable?
At the heart of many of these claims is dopamine, a molecule that surges in the brain when people take some addictive drugs. But while dopamine has become a buzzword relating to anything rewarding – from sugar to social media likes – its role in addiction is incompletely understood. It was once thought that dopamine itself causes pleasure, but we now think it is really a signal that the brain should pay more attention to an unexpected event.And, perhaps surprisingly, there is no universally agreed definition of addiction. Rather than focusing on the brain, various medical bodies look at how proposed addictions affect behaviour. For instance, someone may be considered to have an addiction if they want to stop the activity but can’t, if they experience cravings and if they tend to carry out the activity more and more. A person with gaming addiction may meet all those criteria, but someone who compulsively overeats seems unlikely to meet the last.
New Scientist concluded the essay by saying before the medical establishment proclaims numerous new addictions medical researchers should pause to gain a better understanding of what addiction actually is and how it works.
Source: New Scientist: Food, sex, drugs and more – are we addicted to addiction?