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Addiction FAQs
You mean, drink and drugs, right?
You can become addicted to almost anything – drink, gambling, sex, drugs, football, slots, porn, masturbation, work, computer games, exercise, sugar, shopping. The list goes on. Something fun that gets you buzzing in small doses can become dangerous in big ones, leading to physical and mental health problems.
I go for weeks without touching a drop.
That doesn't necessarilly mean you don't have a problem. Broadly there are two types of addicts:
- The “topper-upper” who needs a fix regularly;
- The “regular binge user” who gets blasted every so often.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of addiction include depression, anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations. It will begin to affect your work and your relationships. Addictions mask health problems such as depression. Choosing to be high or drunk all the time may suggest you’re hiding something from yourself. Coming off your chosen high may allow you to see what needs to be done. If you’re concerned, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you think about X when you are doing something else and look forward to it?
- Do you feel you need more X each time to get the same enjoyment?
- Have you made efforts to cut back on X?
- Do you do X for longer than intended?
- Have you put X before more important things in life like relationships or work?
- Have you lied to others about your involvement with X?
- Do you use X as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving, for example, feelings of guilt, anxiety or depression?
If you answer yes to some of these, stop X for a month. If that is too difficult then you have a problem and need to do something about it.
We don't currently post comments online but are always keen to hear your feedback.
MAIN IMAGE: Addiction by Alan Cleaver licensed under CC BY 2.0
Date published
08/04/14
Date of last review
18/05/20
Date of next review
18/04/23
References
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The Men’s Health Forum need your support It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking. In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to. It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for. We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing. Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.
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