Learn More About Process Addictions
Unlike substance abuse, which is fairly straightforward and easy for others to understand, process addictions are more complicated. Rather than getting hooked on drugs or alcohol, an individual with a process addiction is addicted to the feeling they experience when performing a certain behavior or action. This includes addictions to gambling, sex, shopping or video games, as well as disordered eating and self-harm. With process addictions, the “substance” or “high” involved is actually a surge of feel-good chemicals released in the brain when engaging in a certain action or behavior. When we look at process addictions, we look for many of the same markers or signs that are present in substance use disorders, including:
- Focusing more time and attention on certain things than you should
- Wanting to cut back or stop but not managing to, despite repeated efforts
- Experiencing cravings and the urge to engage in a behavior
- Inability to manage duties and responsibilities at home, work or school
- Unwilling to change a harmful habit or behavior regardless of the problems it causes
- Giving up important social, occupational and recreational activities due to a process addiction
- Sacrificing personal relationships to engage in certain behaviors
- Increasing the intensity or frequency of a behavior to get the same effect (tolerance)
- Being unable to abstain without discomfort, distress and other symptoms (withdrawal)
In a process addiction, these symptoms apply to a compulsive behavior that an individual cannot control. While gambling addiction is one of the more well-known examples of a process addiction, some other examples include the following behaviors, listed below.
- Disordered Eating — Unhealthy behaviors related to food. This can include overeating, anorexia or restrictive eating, bulimia or purging, binge eating, using exercise excessively to burn calories and even compulsive dieting.
- Sex Addiction — Compulsions related to sex, which can include seeking out affairs, excessive masturbation or pornography use, sexual or romantic anorexia, frequent anonymous sex and the urge to engage in risky sexual behaviors. When sex becomes a compulsive behavior or is used in an addictive way, it can be considered a sex addiction.
- Self-Harm — This behavior includes cutting, burning, hair pulling or any other harmful acts used as a coping mechanism. Some feel that when they self-harm, they are escaping an internal numbness and prefer the pain over what they’re feeling otherwise, while others self-harm as a form of punishment or to express the pain they feel inside.
- Video Game Addiction — When gaming becomes compulsive and excessive to the detriment of the individual, it can be considered an addiction. Gamers often lose time gaming for long periods, not realizing that hours have gone by.
- Internet Addiction — An addiction to social media and the internet is similar to compulsive gaming when use becomes harmful and begins to interfere with daily life.
There are a number of other examples of process addictions, and anything that fits the criteria mentioned above can be an addiction.