Addiction is defined as dependence and chronic craving. In 2006, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 23.6 million Americans ages 12 and over needed treatment for drug or alcohol abuse. Approximately two million U.S. adults meet the criteria for pathological gamblers, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. A 2006 "Psychiatric Times" article reported that compulsive buying may affect one in 20 people.
Impulsive
In a 2006 study published by the American Journal of Psychiatry by lead researcher Eric Hollander, MD, it was reported that people with impulse-control disorders are more likely to be pathological gamblers, have an internet addiction, sexual addiction or compulsive buying addiction. These behavioral addictions, unlike substance dependence, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, are believed to share clinical features and neurological characteristics.
Common traits of impulsive character types, according to Hollander, include increasing emotional arousal prior to the act, pleasure and gratification linked to the act and feelings of guilt or remorse after.
Conformers
In 1999, a study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, by lead researcher Ton Oostveen, reported that young people between the age of 15 and 24 who drank heavily in social situations value conformity. These conformers place importance on direct pressures to be part of a group, model others in the group, and live up to the social norms valued by the group. David J. Hanson, professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam writes, “(Students) tend to believe that 'everyone’s doing it' and feel pressure to conform to that undesirable behavior,” which, in this case, is alcohol abuse.
Rebels
In his 2007 book “The Case Against Adolescence,” Robert Epstein, PhD, reports that 60 percent of high school students in 2001 reported that drugs were used or sold at their schools. One study from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reported that while abuse of prescription drugs has doubled for adults between 1992 to 2003, the numbers have tripled during the same time for teens. Epstein theorizes that many current statistics can be linked to the phenomenon of teen infantilization, resulting in rebelliousness that leads to destructive and addictive behaviors. The concept of infantilization of young adults is directly related to teens' isolation from the adult world.
References
- NIH: National Survey on Drug Use and Health
- Minnesota Department of Human Services: Compulsive Gambling
- "Psychiatric Times": Compulsive Buying Disorder Affects 1 in 20
- American Journal of Psychiatry: Is Compulsive Buying a Real Disorder, and is it Really Compulsive?
- Addictive Behaviors: Social Influences on Young Adults’ Alcohol Consumption
