Sexual and Drug Addiction Biology and the Mind Research Paper

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Addiction: A brain disease with a biological foundation

Addiction is a brain disease with a biological foundation, which means that it couples together the mental and physical states of the individual in an action which can lead to negative or bad behavior. There are many types of addictions but two of the biggest addictions in modern times are sexual addiction and drug addiction. Many young people develop both addictions or one or the other, either becoming addicted to Internet sexual sites or becoming addicted to illicit street drugs like heroin or marijuana. Either addiction can be damaging to the person's health, and in some cases they can even be deadly. In fact sexuality and drug addiction can sometimes even be linked (Newcomb, 2014). For young people these two issues are especially dangerous as "experimentation with addictive drugs and onset of addictive disorders is primarily concentrated in adolescence and young adulthood" (Chambers, Taylor, Potenza, 2014, p. 1041). Additionally, drugs and sex are now more easily and readily available than at any time ever before and the temptation to use them both or abuse them can lead to habit-forming practices. In short, the young are very susceptible to these kinds of addictions. This paper will look at sexual and drug addiction to show how both behaviors and substances can be abused and lead to worse behavior (such as stealing, solicitation, self-abuse). It will give an examination of clinical issues associated with these addictions and also provide Christian worldview implications that can result in the overcoming of obstacles related to these addictions.

Description of Substance/Behavior

Pill usage by anyone can be habit forming but with adolescents the problem of taking pills is especially concerning because of the young age at which the habit can be learned and therefore the longer the habit has to shape the rest of the life. The fact that too many adolescents are being misdiagnosed by physicians who interpret symptoms as signs of ADHD only shows how parents and doctors are failing their children (Mullet, Rinn, 2015). It is the responsibility of parents and doctors to be more aware of how the pharmaceutical industry wants to broaden the diagnosis formula for everyone so that it can sell more drugs. Big Pharma wants everyone on drugs and parents and doctors view drugs as an easy way out of dealing with teenagers' issues. But the fact is that teenagers have issues because no one wants to deal with them. People need to take time to meet young people halfway, more than halfway, to help them through their stage of life without complicating it by helping them get addicted to pills. Drugs for ADHD diagnoses can lead to drug addiction because the drug has addictive properties. Chambers et al. (2014) show how "developmental changes in neurocircuitry involved in impulse control" for instance serve as the biological basis for the addiction (p. 1041). Indeed, the researchers note that "psychiatric disorders commonly identified with disturbances in reward motivation and substance use disorder comorbidity are associated with impulsivity" (Chambers et al., 2014, p. 1042). This means that the addiction basis has roots in both a biological immaturity (impulsivity) that is also psychological in nature as well (the need for stimuli/reward/pleasure). It is a neurobiological basis, in other words, according to Chambers et al.

The biological foundation of drug addiction is like that of sexual addiction. Kalivas and Volkow (2014) have shown how "neuroimaging of addicts are integrated with cellular studies" to reveal that "dopamine" produced in the body is the main biological basis response that triggers addiction as the individual seeks a release of the dopamine sensation. In more explicit terms, "cellular adaptations in prefrontal glutamatergic innervations of the accumbens promote the compulsive character" of the high that sex and drug addicts seek (Kalivas and Volkow, 2014, p. 1403). The drug and/or sex addict seeks to control the prefrontal innervations which produce a stimulant in the body and because of their impulsivity they are more inclined to chase this high without giving concern to damage that it can produce. Drug use can harm the lungs (by smoking) and the organs of the body through infection, if using needles. Loss of limbs can result if gangrene sets in. With sexual addiction, back problems can result and rawness of genitalia can lead to infection as well depending on the exacerbated nature of the addiction. The potential for disease such as syphilis is also attached to both drug and sex abuse as the two are often linked in the impulsivity biological motivator in young persons.

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There are also gender-related issues with addiction that relate to sex instincts and biological bases. The reason Cotto (2010) gives for the different motivations in genders for using drugs is that females are more appearance or outcome motivated whereas males simply want to experience a high, in general (Cotto, 2010, p. 408). The types of drugs they use explains this: females tend to abuse pills/prescription drugs whereas males tend to abuse marijuana. The fact the females also had higher usage rates of cocaine indicates that, according to this thesis, they are using the drug to control performance or weight. The reason that the researcher gives appears to be based on general gender perceptions. The idea that women are "more sensitive" to cocaine than men and thus more easily addicted is how Cotto explains the higher rate of usage (Cotto, 2010, p. 406). This may be seen as a gender stereotype or a biological perspective. At any rate, any discussion of how genders differ or why they differ is bound to bring up the topic of gender studies and what makes men and women different. In equality states, the topic is taboo because one is discouraged from discussing gender differences. Do the reasons Cotto suggests make sense? Yes: the researchers identify the differences between genders and highlight the biological foundations of actions associated with each gender; bending the gender associations creates a tension within a dichotomy that seeks a physical alleviation through the application of drugs. The mental state is affected by the physical and vice versa, as a result.

The stress that sexual minorities encounter in their daily lives is likely a reason for higher drug usage. Sexual experience in youths is another reason for "impulsive" drug use, as the urges of young bodies make such actions more enticing and habitual (Newcomb, 2014, p. 309). However, the limitations of the study itself could be one reason why the results Newcomb et al. encountered are what they are: the survey size was limited, the number of sexual minorities was limited, and the samples were single items rather than community-based items. When make generalizations about groups based on single items rather than community studies it is tempting to base the reasons for outcomes on the individuals' experiences/background. The fact that sexual minorities were found by Newcomb et al. to use more drugs because they are sexually experienced and therefore more impulsive sounds reasonable, but the idea should be tested among a larger community study, as the researchers themselves suggest. The biological basis of exposure to one set of behaviorisms at a young age could very well be the factor that leads to more exposure to other sets of behaviors leading to more addictions (Karila et al., 2014).

Clinical Issues

Clinical considerations of drug and sexual addiction include the biological aspects that each has for counseling/treatment. Weaning individuals off drug and sex addiction requires an awareness of the impulse motivation as well as the endorphins that are released in the body, which are similar to morphine and create a momentary feeling of euphoria. There is a connection between depression and the drive to seek this euphoria through drug use or excessive sexual stimulus, such as masturbation. Thus the biological foundation actually consists of a neurobiological foundation; therefore, clinical treatment should consider that the cause of the impulse is related not simply to a physical aspect but to a combination of physical and mental (Sasso, Strunk, Braun, 2015).

Cognitive therapy (CT) or cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) as it is also called would be useful in dealing with the patient's presenting issues of suicide because there has been considerable research performed that locates successful treatment of addiction in the nexus of the depression-stimuli dichotomy (McNeil, 2013). The patient in the case of addiction can suffer from a form of hopelessness, which is related to depression, and thus CT could be a beneficial treatment mode. CT allows the patient to focus on actions in one's life that can be changed in order to affect a different, more positive outlook and reinforce a more stable disposition. Thus it highlights the way that mental states affect biological states which affect actions. Indeed, it is all related in terms of ebb and flow, give and take, with biological factors in term exacerbating mental states. Exercise, for example, can release endorphins as well but because it is viewed more as work and less and pleasure, there is some degree of will power that….....

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