Moving through addiction
Certain behaviors, such as smoking a cigarette, drinking a glass of wine or eating sugary foods, can cause you to feel a pleasurable high that has you going back for more.
It’s perfectly normal to want and seek out what gives you pleasure—it’s part of the human condition. But when that desire for a particular substance or activity becomes compulsive and out of control—to the point where it could do or is doing you harm—it crosses over into addiction territory.
It’s possible to be addicted to virtually anything—shopping, gambling, exercise, sex, watching TV and playing computer games, to name just a few. Not having what you crave can cause withdrawal symptoms, or a “come down,” so it’s easier to repeat the addictive behavior, and the cycle continues.
Unravelling addiction
Dr Gabor Maté writes in his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts about the role of trauma as a key contributing fact for addiction, and in When the Body Says No about how stress drives compulsions and cravings.
