800-671-4304How Does Pleasure Seeking Fit into Addiction?
Why do people use drugs? This question often comes up when you or someone you love is addicted to a substance. The answer to this question is not always obvious. Some of the usual answers are stress, anxiety, mental illness, and depression, but this is not the whole answer. There is a commonality in most addictive behaviors, and this commonality is pleasure-seeking behavior.
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SponsoredWhat is Pleasure-Seeking Behavior?
Drugs are a quick and easy way for pleasure seekers to achieve the good feelings they’re looking for.
Pleasure-seeking behavior is the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Pleasure and happiness are not the same thing. Pleasure is a sensation that you feel when you experience something that is enjoyable. Happiness is a lasting feeling that comforts you even when you are not directly feeling pleasure.
Pleasure is usually a relatively brief sensation, but true happiness lasts until something interrupts it. The pleasure is usually fleeting.
Pleasure-seeking behavior happens when people do certain things to receive pleasure. These things might be something as simple as exercising or watching a favorite TV show. Unfortunately, there is another side to pleasure-seeking behavior. The side is revealed when a chemical or another agent gives pleasure and the person begins to use that instead of the more natural forms.
This is where prescription and illegal drugs come in.
What Does Pleasure-Seeking Have to Do with Addiction?
Pleasure seeking and addiction often go hand in hand. Since the drugs give an immediate dose of pleasure, many people will turn to them to ward off an unhappiness or stressor in their life. It is natural considering the instinct to avoid pain.
When someone becomes addicted to a drug, often they start out addicted to the pleasure that the drug gives them rather than the physical changes the drug makes.
It sometimes takes years of counseling to recover from what is now known as a psychological addiction. Many scientists believe that the principle of a psychological addiction is in fact an addiction to pleasure. Unfortunately, addiction to pleasure is one of the easiest addiction traps to fall into and is what can lead to physical and psychological addiction to drugs.
How to Find Help
Regardless of the cause of an addiction, it is important to seek help when addiction is damaging your life. If you are addicted to pleasure or a drug that creates a false sense of pleasure call us at 800-996-6135 . There are treatment centers that help with both physical and psychological addictions. Let us help you find one.