The Hidden Addictions
YEDEM & Believers Network Club
GHANA
The Two Basic Drives behind
Addictions
• Excitement seeking
• Tension reducing
What do all addictions have in
common?
An escape of feelings
Avoiding real anxieties in life
By
disengaging from reality
Lack of control
A sense of lack of control that can not be
overcome by reason alone
The attachment becomes too strong in a
way that surpasses reason and logic
Pleasure Seeking
Constant search for excitement and
challenge
Destructive and unhealthy
behavior
Eventually harms the body, mind and spirit.
Erodes balanced living
Priority over all
Takes priority over all life issues
Centre of lives
Denial
• Denial of the control of addiction or
destructive consequences
• Initial denial has to be broken for a person
to recover
Substance related
Exogenous
Endogenous
• Withdrawal symptoms happen in both!
Psychological Dependency
Rituals of taking the drug are as addictive as
the drug itself
The Three Factors of Addiction
Personality Needs
Addiction
Environmental Factors
Drug or Behavior
Personality Types in Hidden
Addictions
• Self seeking: have personal problems and anxieties,
they tend to search for some activity to relieve the
anxiety, the activity acts as a tranquilizer e.g. addictions
to worry and helping the needy
• Thrill seeking: are driven by excessive need for
excitement and stimulation to escape monotony e.g. thrill
seeking sex and excessive game playing
• Self deficient: suffer from low self esteem, look for self
mastery to prove self worth: e.g. sex addiction and
workaholism
Personality Types in Hidden
Addictions
• High conforming: need to follow the crowd, copy others and must be
with people. They feel miserable if left alone and need the
assurance of others, lack self direction and the ability to affirm their
own actions: they search for company to stabilize their insecurities
e.g. codependency
•
Socially isolated: loners, avoid getting close to other people, are not
sure of themselves, avoid responsibility of relationships and
intimacy. They for being known for what they are. They seek comfort
in isolation e.g. TV and computer addiction
• Self punishing: these people derive pleasure from pain. They search
for pain to resolve neurotic guilt. They are aware of their
inadequacies and failures: e.g. addiction to rage and resentment,
devotion to duty
Workaholism
• Workaholism is a severe progressive
disease.
Characteristics of Workaholics
• The Workaholic is not free: he is
compelled by inner forces to be working
excessively. Usually these forces are not
understood.
• The workaholic depends entirely on his
work as a source of self esteem: Without
working, workaholics see themselves
worthless. They have no social life.
The Workaholic
• The workaholic is totally immersed in work: no
room for:
– Recreation
– Hobbies
– Community interest
He constantly thinks about work even before going to
bed or while driving or during a family visit.
He experiences weekend depression!
The Workaholic
• The Workaholic has a neurotic need to work:
nothing done seems good enough!
• The Workaholic can have multiple addictions: e.g. food,
money and sex
• The Workaholic is isolated, self centered, lacks intimacy,
self destructive and dishonest.
• The Workaholic usually suffers from psychological and
physiological problems as well as spiritual poverty.
The Workaholic’s Family
Workaholism affects the whole family, and makes it
dysfunctional while there is no bottle to blame!
The Workaholic’s Family
The legacy of Adult Children of Workaholics
(a mere continuation)
• Perfectionist Workaholics
• Self - Critical
• High levels of Anxiety
• Outwardly focused
• People – pleasers
• Parents before their time
Treatment
• Break the Denial
“deriving our identity and self-esteem from what we do;
keeping overly busy; neglecting our health, relationships,
and spirituality; seeing everything as work-related;
having no desire to do anything (work avoidance or
burnout); procrastinating; postponing vacations and rest;
doing unnecessary work; worrying; perfectionism;
avoiding intimacy; being controlling. All these are ways
we cope with the pain of having lost our sense of being
and of not feeling good enough”. From Workaholics Anonymous
There is no escape from Life!!
We are not made for constant
excitement and tension cannot
always be reduced. Continued
excitement becomes no
excitement and a tension-free life
is not the happiest. Real
• We have to live it!
satisfaction comes only from