ADDICTION

Addiction: Genes Verses Environment

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Addiction: Genes Verses Environment

Introduction

Addiction can be interpreted in diverse ways and is often characterized by fundamental ambiguity. It refers to absurd urge for certain activity or event to seek short term pleasure or relief even if it's detrimental to an individual's health, mental state or social setting. It is usually generalized with harmful intakes such as drugs, alcohols, marijuana and so on. Whereas, addiction is also used with regards to gambling, excessive eating or any such conducts leading to craving, diminished recognition, compulsion to use, problems in interpersonal relationships, continued use despite knowing injurious circumstances (Roy, 2008). Prolonged addiction may also lead to paralysis, disability or premature death.

Addiction is a seductive process that hampers cognitive intelligence of addict by affecting their dependency on drugs as a relief to the frustration, pain, aggravations or memories that person might have. As a result, it develops into a lifestyle of the addict to overlook and avoid life issues and look for temporary resolutions. It further affects the person's behavior and the way of life because of persistent and impulse consumption of drugs leading to health problems or psychological disorders (Winstead , 2000).

It is essential to identify addiction as a disease characterized by a set of detrimental behaviors ensuing in loss of productivity, memory loss, withdrawal since the person shows heavy psychological as well as physiological dependence on the addictive element making it difficult for the person to resume to the normal course of life. Addiction is majorly marked by substance abuse, it is impulsive and habitual use of psychoactive substance to relieve form internal discomfort, anxiety, rage or avoid a situation that might lead to pain or failure while losing sense of reality.

Addiction further leads to undesirable behavior mainly when the addict in unable to acquire addictive substance. This crippled behavior gives rise to violence, theft, prostitution, murder and other severe anti-social actions. Addicts are generally depressed individuals who aid their anxieties with drugs and other addictive substances.

Genetic and Environmental Factors

Gene versus environmental impact on addiction is a central debate that medical science is trying to respond. The prime concern here arises why some people get addicted to drugs while others do not. This apprehension further brings about the formulation of manipulative reasons made by addicts to justify their acute obsession to addictive substances. Nature verses nurture remains an important subject since nature concerns with the person's genes and relies on natural influences upon addicts that are beyond their voluntary control. Nurture refers to the environmental factors; upbringing, social gatherings, chain of events throughout life, peer groups, work environment and other triggers or experiences of the outside world influencing addictions. We comprehensively analyze the genital and environmental aspects influencing addictive behaviors (Dlende, 2008).

Genetic Influences

Today, when medical sciences talk about addiction genes, they refer to the biological differences lead someone towards certain addiction, the vulnerability of addiction also depend on biological differences between varying genes. Everyone has access to addictive substances in ...