If you or a loved one lives with addiction, it’s important to get help

Addiction. It’s a word that conjures up thoughts of alcohol and drugs. But there are so many other channels of addiction — shopping, food, gambling. The list is seemingly endless.

There is a “reality” show I watch on a regular basis on A&E called “Intervention.” Each episode focuses on one or two individuals so absorbed in their addiction, their family is desperate to wage an intervention to help them. The addict is under the assumption that the TV crew is filming them for a documentary about addiction.

Within the intervention, family members, friends and loved ones explain to the addict the ways in which the addiction has affected them. That, coupled with the consequences of the addict not accepting the gift of treatment, results in 95 percent taking that opportunity. They perform a follow-up, usually spanning a few months, and it’s not always a happy ending.

The producers occasionally do a follow-up show, about a year or so after the intervention. Again, it’s not always a happy sight.

Addiction, as defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, is “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.”

The psychology surrounding many addicts is fascinating and often disturbing. Many times they’ve experienced a life-changing traumatic experience. Their addiction is a way of escaping the trauma, even if the escape is short-lived. They start their morning feeding their addiction, whether with a swig of alcohol or a syringe of heroin in their vein. They continue their day feeding that addiction, sometimes stealing from their family to buy more of their supply.

As I stated in the beginning, addiction can take the form of many habits — for some, it’s gambling. Addicts have lost everything — their homes, children and spouses — by placing bets. They can’t get enough, always believing they’ll hit the jackpot to bail them out. Compulsive shoppers have experienced similar losses, as they never seem to spend enough to satisfy their addiction.

Typically, when people give in to their addiction, they’re looking to fill a void. For many overweight people, emotional eating can fill that void. Only when you’ve addressed the reason for the compulsive eating can you overcome it.

On the other end of the spectrum are people who suffer from anorexia nervosa. It has become a type of addiction, depriving one’s self of food, binging and purging, and excessive exercise.

Although at opposite ends, overeating and anorexia have many commonalities. Each is driven by emotional issues.

Many times an addict’s behavior affects everyone around them. People giving them money to feed their addiction, usually family members, are considered enablers. They justify this behavior as them not wanting the addict to resort to dire measures to get money, such as stealing or prostitution.

Parents who let their addict children live at home because they don’t want them on the street are enablers as well. I cannot imagine the choice that parents have to make, and I can’t pass judgment on them either. You never know until you’re in that situation.

There are two people I know well who are recovering addicts. Both of them have, in the past month, celebrated three years of sobriety. These are milestones, because as any counselor will tell you, the key to reaching and maintaining sobriety is by taking it “one day at a time.”

As well, there are things in their lives they must change permanently if they strive for long-term sobriety, such as the friends they hang out with. In other situations, they need to change their environment entirely.

If you or your loved one is suffering from addiction, I would encourage you to talk with a professional. It is a sickness, and one that can be treated.

Smith’s column runs every Friday on the editorial page.