Alcoholism and Addiction

The terms "alcoholism" and "addiction" commonly trigger images of a person sitting on a park bench with a bottle in a brown paper bag or someone stealing a purse from an elderly lady. The alcoholic and addict being viewed as weak and morally flawed.

However, several decades of genetic and neurobiological research have provided evidence that addiction is brain disease resulting from mesolimbic brain dysregulation that, if diagnosed in a timely fashion, can be properly treated.

Addiction meets all characteristics of a disease. It :

is biologically based;
has unique, identifiable signs and symptoms;
has a predictable course and outcome;
the inability to control the cause of the disease.

Scientific Understanding of Alcoholism/Addiction

Throughout much of the last century, scientists studying drug abuse laboured in the shadows of powerful myths and misconceptions about the nature of addiction. When science began to study addictive behaviour in the 1930s, people addicted to drugs were thought to be morally flawed and lacking in willpower.

Codependency

“When saying yes makes you feel angry and saying no makes you feel guilty” - Author Unknown -

Codependency is a term used to describe unhealthy and destructive patterns of relating to others and oneself. It was first used in the 1970s by Alcoholics Anonymous to describe people in relationships with alcoholics, who became obsessed with trying to ‘fix’ or control the alcoholic’s behaviour.

Now it applies to anyone who sacrifices his or her own needs in a relationship to care for, or attempt to control, someone else.

Disordered Eating

The term 'disordered eating' covers of a variety of situations including compulsive overeating, binge eating, anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Pathological Gambling

Five or more of the following indicate pathological gambling: