Addictions Essay, Research Paper

Physical and psychological addictions are very alike and very different at the

same time. Addiction means that the person addicted thrives on the substance or

action. Physical addictions like alcoholism and heroin are sometimes very

noticeable yet, psychological addictions like gambling are very hard to

diagnose. A similarity between the two types of addictions are the stages that

lead up to a full blown addiction. Addictions go through many stages before

reaching the pinnacle of an addiction. For example, a gambler will first start

off betting a dollar, then two, then ten, then a hundred until finally the

gambler is broke. An example for a physical addiction would be the stages that

lead to becoming a true alcoholic. It will all start with one beer, , then

Jell-O shooters, then a margarita, then just drinking liquor straight up out of

the bottle, then who knows what the drinker will turn to next. After going

through all of these stages the term used for the addiction is usually disease

because the addiction is going to slowly kill the person addicted. Though the

term addiction is usually thought of as someone on drugs or drinking, many

normal everyday people are addicted to the one thing everyone has a little of

everyday, caffeine. Caffeine is one of North America?s leading addictions

prevalent amongst teenagers. Caffeine is found in chocolate, soda, coffee, and

tea. In conclusion, this shows that many things can become addictive. No matter

what the addiction it is not good. If more people would realize this there would

be less of an addiction crisis than there is today.