Behavioral addiction means that a person feels a strong internal compulsion to perform certain activities, such as playing on the computer or shopping. The inability to carry out these activities results in strong mental tension and anxiety. The causes of behavioral disorders are complex, and psychotherapy plays the most important role in treatment.
Types of behavioral addictions
There are many behavioral disorders. The most popular ones include:
- Addiction to new technologies – means a constant need to use the Internet, games or smartphones, often at the expense of sleep, work and spending time with loved ones.
- Workaholism – is characterized by the compulsion to work constantly. A workaholic feels irritable and anxious when he cannot work, constantly thinks about professional matters and is unable to rest.
- Addiction to aesthetic medicine treatments (aestheticorexia) – is one of the newer behavioral disorders. A person who struggles with this problem. He obsessively searches for imperfections in himself and strives to improve them through treatments, despite the lack of medical indications. This is often related to low self-esteem and social pressure.
- Compulsive gambling – manifests itself in the loss of control over the game, even when it leads to serious financial losses.
- Shopaholism – means compulsive acquisition of objects, despite the lack of a real need to own them. Shopaholics often hide their activities from their immediate family – they hide purchased things and receipts and lie about expenses. Impulsive purchases sometimes lead to financial problems.
- Compulsive overeating – is an eating disorder in which a person impulsively eats large amounts of food despite not having appetite.
Causes of behavioral disorders
Behavioral disorders have complex causes. Psychological factors play an important role in their development, i.e. low self-esteem, lack of ability to control stress or emotional immaturity. It is worth noting that a sick person often performs certain activities in order to suppress anxiety or other difficult emotions.
The risk increases in the case of people who grew up in a dysfunctional family or
or they struggle with peer pressure.
However, biological factors are not without significance – certain biochemical and neurological disorders promote behavioral addictions.
Treatment of behavioral disorders
Psychotherapy plays the most important role in the treatment of behavioural disorders. Various therapeutic currents, e.g. behavioral-cognitive, psychodynamic or holistic, bring good results.
In justified cases, psychotherapy may be combined with pharmacotherapy. Often it is not only psychotropic drugs that are useful, because some addictions bring physical harm. As an example, we can point to compulsive food, which promotes obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
It is worth noting that the effects of behavioral addiction are often felt acutely by those closest to them. For this reason, we sometimes offer the patient individual or family therapy, which serves to repair disturbed relationships.
