Behavioral Addictions

For gambling disorder to be clinically diagnosed, at least four of the following symptoms need to be met within the last twelve months:

• Spending an increasing amount of time gambling to achieve the desired ‘high’.
  
• Becomes irritable and restless if not gambling or trying to cut down.
  
• An inability to control, cut back, or stop gambling.
  
• Obsessive thoughts around gambling, such as reliving past successes, failures, or planning future gambling.
  
• Turns to gambling to repress difficult emotions, thoughts, and feelings.
  
• Habitually ‘chases one’s losses’ and returns to gambling after a failure believing they can control the situation.
  
• Lying and deceiving others about their gambling habits.
  
• Risking relationships, employment, or opportunities due to gambling.
  
• Needing help from others with financial difficulties caused by gambling.
• It is common to see those with gambling disorders go through periods where symptoms subside. There are also times where the symptoms are less severe. However, without treatment, individuals invariably return to their gambling habits.
  

Sex addiction can be defined as a compulsion to engage in sexual acts to achieve a ‘high’, ‘fix’, or as a coping mechanism for difficult situations, thoughts, and feelings.
Sex addiction is commonly understood to be in conjunction with another/multiple partners. However, excessive pornography, masturbation, or a desire to be in sexual environments are also indicative of this disorder.

Sex addiction is not as yet a clinically diagnosable condition. Instead, it is included in the DSM-5 as “other specified sexual dysfunction” and within the ICD-10 as “other sexual dysfunction not due to a substance or known physiological condition.”

It’s believed that a person with sex addiction will seek out multiple sex partners, though this in itself is not necessarily a sign of a disorder. Some report that it may manifest itself as a compulsive need to masturbate, view pornography, or be in sexually stimulating situations. Individuals are unable to control their behaviors despite the detrimental effects they may have.

An individual may be suffering from sex addiction if they show some of the following signs:

• Relations with multiple partners, even strangers.
• Secrecy and deception around sexual behaviors.
  
• An inability to control or stop the urges.
  
• Experiencing guilt or shame after engaging in sexual activity.
  
• Obsessive, chronic, sexual fantasies and thoughts.
  
• Finding that the sexual desire or action interferes with everyday life, work, and relationships.
  
• Finding themselves in risky situations.
  
• Like substance abuse, sex addiction can negatively impact all areas of a person’s life, including personal relationships, employment, quality of life, and physical and mental health.
  

• The substance you are reliant on
• The length of time you have been using substances for
• The quantities of substances you consume
• Genetic factors

Symptoms of food addiction include:

• Craving specific foods even when not hungry or full.
• Experiencing a lack of control around certain foods.
• Eating more than intended.
• Eating to the point of being overfull or feeling sick.
• Experiencing guilt and shame around eating habits.
• Repeated, unsuccessful attempts to change eating habits, lose weight, or stop eating certain foods.
• Eating in secret or hiding eating habits from others.
• Obsessively planning to eat certain foods and ritualizing the consumption from purchasing, unwrapping, to consuming.

Food addiction can cause severe physiological and psychological issues, including depression, anxiety, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.