Behavioural Disorders affect many people as well as their friends, families, and colleagues. There is a wide range of behaviours which have many negative effects and many of the people who are afflicted by them can feel hopeless. Many of them can result in mental and physical health issue. Understanding these disorders is the first step of treatment and the good news is, many of them have similar effective methods of treatment.
Substance Abuse Disorder
There many legal and illegal substances that are prone to addiction. These include, but aren’t limited to heroin, cocaine, alcohol, prescription drugs, methamphetamine, and nicotine. While some are easier to kick than others, the withdrawal symptoms that come with quitting can make it very tough can some people to stay clean. Cocaine withdrawal symptoms can occur within only 90 minutes of the last time they used it, giving it one of the fastest onsets. That wouldn’t be so bad if these symptoms didn’t include nightmares, suicidal thoughts, and restlessness.
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, nausea, vomiting, headaches, sweating, insomnia and shaky hands. How often and how much you drink determines the chance of going thru withdrawal and the severity. Many of these addictions can result in resorting to illegal activities to support the addiction, such as stealing, prostitution, robbery, and even homicide.
Compulsive Buying Disorder
Even if you are wealthy and can afford anything you could ever want, that doesn’t mean you should buy whatever you want. History is filled without many rich people who squandered their wealth on luxuries, and even royalty is not exempt from going broke. A study by the University of Iowa indicates Shopping most purchases are relatively inexpensive. This disorder can lead to hoarding due to accumulating many products over a lifetime of impulse buys. Going shopping with a close friend might help reduce impulse buys. There is also evidence of this condition is hereditary.
Compulsive Gambling Disorder
Similar to compulsive spending, this can also lead to a plethora of financial problems as well as a disconnection to one’s friends and family. While many adults gamble, a small percentage suffer from addiction. Sometimes, people will sell their possessions or steal to pay for support their habit.
Missing work, family functions and neglecting other responsibilities can also result from this and other disorders. Gambling in moderation can be fun, but set limits, and should stick to them, no matter how wealthy you are. And avoid long stretches of gambling because they can affect your judgement.
Compulsive Sexual Behaviour
An addiction to sex isn’t as fun as it seems. It has many negative consequences. One of the most common is infidelity and consequently a divorce. This can tear apart families and require therapy for everyone affected. One major characteristic of compulsive sexual behaviour is the activities usually escalate over time and this is bad for many obvious reasons. There is also a higher chance of contracting a with a sexually transmitted disease. Some even engage in illegal activities such as voyeurism, exhibition, and even rape. Statistics show that nearly 55% of sex offenders are sex addicts.
An addiction to pornography may be a symptom of this disorder or can be a serious addiction in itself. As with other negative behaviours, most porn addicts use pornographic materials to escape emotional discomfort not just sexual gratification. Many hours could be potentially spent in isolation. This can lead to shame and depression. In severe cases, financial issues can be a result, if the person spends a lot of money on pornography or phone sex. Compulsive sexual behaviours also can jeopardise social and romantic relationships as well a loss of interest in other activities.
Compulsive Eating Disorder
This includes binge-eating as well as binging and purging, so it affects people of many different shapes and sizes. Binge-eating can lead to obesity, which, in turn, can lead to a host of health issues including diabetes and heart conditions(link). Poor self-esteem and a negative self-image is a common result of this behaviour and for people with bulimia, it’s sometimes the cause. While compulsive eating might be easy to notice, bulimia isn’t since vomiting is done in secrecy, but there are other signs and symptoms.
ConclusionThere are many methods of treatment for these disorders. Medication and therapy are the most common ones but they are normally used in conjunction with other forms. Rehab can be effective not only with drug and alcohol addictions but also with many of the other disorders. There are many online communities specifically for people who suffer from these disorders or are affected by them.
Community Outreach Programmes and interventions also effective forms of treatment. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is another effective means of treating these and many other mental health conditions. 12-step programmes can help treat substance abuse and gambling addictions. The main thing to realise is many of these addictions take time, effort, and support and quitting cold turkey isn’t always possible and in some cases, it’s not advisable.