Inventions and Addictions

I had a professor many years ago who claimed that the invention of distilled spirits kicked off an epidemic of alcoholism the world had never seen before. He said that almost all cultures centuries before that time had fermented drinks, especially low alcohol-content beer and wine. Drinking to excess was cautioned against by many cultures prior to distillation (ancient Greece; the Bible), but it wasn’t until the 14th century when distilled alcoholic drinks like brandy and scotch became readily available that alcoholism evolved into a major social and medical problem. I haven’t found scientific studies to support his statement, but the dangers of very high concentrations of addictive substances makes intuitive sense. Our ability to exert some degree of moderation might work better with low concentrations of alcohol, but it becomes much harder to be moderate in the face of overwhelmingly potent alcoholic drinks.

Recent inventions have given us several new compulsions or behavioral addictions at levels that are epidemic, if not pandemic, and might be causing similar personal, social and medical problems for us because of their “high concentration” effects. Here’s a short list:

1. The internet and porn (Sexual Addictions)
2. Refined sugar, the industry strategy of determining “bliss points,” and associated “emotional eating” (Obesity)
3. Abundance of gambling casinos + online betting (Gambling addiction)
4. Compulsive online shopping (Shopping Addiction)
5. Game console and internet gaming (Gaming Addictions)

None of those problems sound as serious as alcoholism, but ask some folks dealing with them and you might change your mind. Except for #2, it’s probably true that these other addictions don’t put us in as much physical risk, but personally, socially, and professionally, their effects can be devastating. There may be as many as 12 million sex addicts in the United States according to the American Association for Family and Marriage Therapy. Think Tiger Woods, Elliot Spitzer, and Anthony Wiener for prominent examples of lost careers and destroyed personal lives. If by any chance you are unaware of the ease of access and the degree of intensity of porn available online or via televised streaming today, just ask a middle schooler. It is estimated that more than 95% of middle school boys and girls have seen hard-core porn online before the age 14. This is not your 1960s Playboy Centerfold.

So do we throw away our smartphones and our computers? Do we cancel all forms of cable or satellite tv? How do we protect ourselves and our kids from porn, gambling, excessive shopping, mind-numbing gaming?

I guess that’s like suggesting that we should stop driving our cars because before the invention of the combustion engine, there were only a few accidents that involved getting from one place to another. Inventions bring benefits. Inventions bring risks. Most of us love the benefits and convenience of things like electronic connectivity.

What we can have today is a full awareness of risks. What we can do today is to take positive, productive steps to guard against developing addictive behaviors in the first place. Secondly, if we’re too late, we can reverse those addictions through self help groups, apps such as Willpwr, and/or group or individual therapy. Finally, we can demand from industry, safeguards to protect us from product risks. After all, we now have seatbelts, collision-anticipated car designs, lane-changing radar detection, collision-avoidance camera braking systems, etc. etc.

We’ve listed a few websites below that all provide commonsense ideas about how to deal with these newer behavioral addictions. They all have good ideas, and they all emphasize the need to avoid high risk situations, either by using filters to lock out sites or to make choices about not going near risky situations. None of them directly emphasize the critically important role of awareness, however, so before you check these sites out, keep in mind that you have to own how detrimental the negative habit is for you. That’s awareness step # 1. Secondly, you have to know WHY you are so drawn to the activity. Does the habit reduce stress, elevate your mood, make you forget about problems, seem like a great idea at the time, etc? Be aware and find better alternatives than your negative habit is providing.

Sexual Addictions####

We have a WIllpwr app designed specifically for sexual addictions. We hope that by using the app and at the same time either seeking professional help and/or joining a self help group such as Sex Addicts Anonymous or Smart Recovery, that you’ll find the help you need. This app will be released in the next 3-4 weeks. See our link below and get on the waitlist.
http://www.willpwr.io
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945841/

Emotional Eating####

Our Willpwr app to help with emotional eating is only a few months away. In the meantime, there are great resources already available to help:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2859040/
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-disorders/index.shtml (see section on binge eating)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22836029/
You can also look at other articles in this blog dealing with emotional eating.

Gaming####

This first link is an article written by NIMH scientists and should be highly accurate and informative. The second link is mostly offering solid advice to parents about how to help their kids with video gaming addictions:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3832462/
https://www.empoweringparents.com/blog/4-practical-tips-to-help-your-video-game-addicted-child/

Shopping####

It really does feel good to buy things, and many of us go shopping to distract ourselves or in other ways to combat low feelings. Guess what? You can do that without going into debt. Read on:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805733/
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2014/12/02/5-ways-to-combat-an-online-shopping-addiction

Gambling####

Serious, difficult, dangerous.
We are currently working on a Willpwr app specifically to help with gambling, but we are several months away from its release. Nothing, not even alcohol, can ruin a family faster than a serious gambling habit. This one almost always calls for professional help, and lots of it. Here are two links that should help:

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/compulsivegambling.html
http://www.moneytalksnews.com/8-signs-youre-addicted-to-gambling-and-5-tips-to-stop/

Note: Our basic philosophy is to offer information that is of the highest scientific rigor whenever possible. You’ll notice that we referenced NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) articles beneath every subtopic in this article. Sometimes they are a bit stuffy, but we know the science is topnotch. We also included other links. For those additional links, we cannot attest to scientific accuracy of content, but we did screen them and believe they will be helpful to our readership.