GoodRx Guide
Behavioral Addictions: Your GoodRx Guide
The basics
Alcohol and other drugs can create addictions that impact the way you think, feel, and behave. These changes happen as substances become the most important things in your life. Drugs are not the only things that spark an addiction, though. Certain actions and activities can also be addictive when they are done a lot or with repetition.
These are called behavioral addictions, and these actions can become powerful forces in your life. Behavioral addictions are not new. But major groups like the American Psychiatric Association (APA) have only been officially recognizing behavioral addictions and “non-substance-related disorders” since 2013.
Even though they are all unique, you can look for traits of behavioral addiction like:
The behavior becoming the most important thing in your life and doing it excessively
Feeling a high when doing the behavior
Needing to do the behavior more and more to get the intended feeling
Stopping and restarting the behavior because you feel too uncomfortable without it
What are some examples of a behavioral addiction?
Many actions can result in behavioral addictions if they create pleasurable feelings, are repeated, and are hard to control. You could be doing risky behaviors every day without even thinking about them.
Some common types of behavioral addictions are:
Shopping and spending addiction, sometimes called compulsive buying disorder
Gambling addiction, called gambling disorder
Right now, the APA only recognizes gambling disorder as an official mental health condition. But this could lead to more behavioral addictions being added in the future. Internet gaming disorder is a condition receiving further study from the group.
What becomes an addiction for you may not be an addiction for someone else. Just as not everyone who drinks becomes an alcoholic, not everyone who engages in these actions will develop a behavioral addiction.
What are some signs and symptoms of a behavioral addiction?
Even though behavioral addictions are not caused by alcohol or drugs, they share many of the same symptoms. Some of the most common signs of behavioral addictions that you can see in yourself or loved ones include:
Spending more time, energy, and effort doing and recovering from the problematic behavior
Spending less time doing other behaviors that you used to enjoy
Doing the behavior even though it is interfering with your other commitments like work, home, and school responsibilities
Doing the behavior even when you know it will cause physical or mental strain
Needing to do the behavior more often or more intensely to feel satisfied
Feeling uncomfortable, anxious, or odd when unable to perform the behavior
The behavior is causing tension with loved ones
Trying but failing to cut back or end this behavior
Noticing these symptoms can be a challenge. This is because denial and secrecy tend to be part of the addiction experience. Not everyone will display all of these symptoms. But having only a few can show that a problem is present.
What causes someone to develop a behavioral addiction?
The cause of behavioral addictions involves your brain and the chemicals it releases to manage your mood, energy, and sleep. Your brain naturally releases chemicals like dopamine and serotonin during some behaviors like sex, eating, and socializing.
Behavioral addictions hijack the normal release of chemicals through excessive and abnormal actions. These behaviors and chemicals create a very rewarding experience in the brain, so you are more likely to repeat the actions in the future.
With this cycle, your brain gets so used to the higher chemical levels that you feel weird if you try to stop, so you’ll get urges to restart the behavior to feel well again. This pattern is common with many addictions.
Your family history and life experiences can impact how likely you are to become addicted. Whether you are addicted to cocaine or to exercise, the process in your brain is very similar.
How do behavioral addictions compare to addictions to drugs and alcohol?
Behavioral addictions share many similarities to substance use addictions. The impact in the brain and the influence over your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all very much alike.
During both types of addictions, you could feel a “high” during the act and a sense of tension before it. You will likely feel unhappy, stressed, and irritable when you cannot fulfill your urge or try to stop.
One of the main challenges with behavioral addictions is that you can become addicted to a typical, and even healthy behavior. Examples of these are shopping, exercising, and using the internet.
Because you need to shop, exercise, and go online, the treatment usually focuses on finding a healthy balance with the behavior. It doesn’t focus on stopping the behavior completely, which is often the goal with drug and alcohol addictions.
What are the consequences of a behavioral addiction?
As with any addiction, behavioral addictions will steadily consume your life over time. Having relationships, maintaining a job, and staying physically and mentally healthy will seem almost impossible with a behavioral addiction.
Some of the consequences of behavioral addictions are related to the specific behavior. For example:
Gamblers and shopping addicts will lose tremendous amounts of money.
Work addiction can result in heart problems and high blood pressure.
People addicted to risky behaviors and exercise could end up with major injuries.
Someone with a plastic surgery addiction could risk permanent changes to their appearance, bruising, and infections.
Porn addiction can create sexual dysfunction and decrease self-esteem.
How to get treatment or help for a behavioral addiction?
Treating the behavioral addiction and returning to a healthy level of activity is often a tall task, but you can find success. Like other addictions, working to acknowledge and admit your problem is an important first step.
From there, seek out mental health professionals with education and experience working with behavioral addictions. A form of talk therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be very helpful with many types of behavioral addictions, so this treatment can prove beneficial.
Since many behavioral addictions are not recognized by organizations like the APA, there are currently no medications approved to treat these conditions. However, medications may be useful in treating symptoms of depression and anxiety that are linked to the addictions.
Support groups and self-help options may be helpful as well. You could learn a lot from others who struggle with the same addiction as you, or you could make some lifestyle changes that add benefit to the professional services.
Common concerns
Many people are surprised to learn they can become addicted to a behavior. The behavior can be considered healthy and normal, like shopping and exercising. Or it can be risky, like gambling. Either way, the behavior can become the focus of your life.
Finding the line between addiction and expected behaviors is a challenge because the signs and symptoms are not always clear. If you pass up the chance to participate in a fun activity with loved ones, you could have an addiction.
Getting addicted to a behavior is not much different than getting addicted to a substance. Instead of a drug entering your brain and creating chemical changes, the behavior affects the way your brain sends messages.
Alcohol and other drugs create very strong surges of chemicals in the brain. Even though the effects in the brain may be lower with behavioral addictions, they are powerful enough to change your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Substance and non-substance use addictions are both psychological and biological. Because addictions affect so much of who you are, they cross over to impact all of your life.
The addiction is biological as it changes the normal functioning of your brain and the way chemicals are released. It is also psychological because it influences your thinking and emotions.
The most difficult behavioral addiction to treat for you is whichever one you have to confront, but some aspects make a behavioral addiction harder to treat. Often the biggest factor to determine is if you should stop the behavior altogether or learn ways to manage it
Totally stopping the behavior (abstinence) is a good treatment option. It can be the goal to quit getting plastic surgery, gambling, or viewing pornography. But you can’t just stop shopping, exercising, or going online. For these behavioral addictions, establishing a healthy relationship with the behavior is the goal.
If you or someone you know struggles with addiction or substance use, help is available. Call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) to learn about resources in your area.
References
Alavi, S. S., et al. (2012). Behavioral addiction versus substance addiction: Correspondence of psychiatric and psychological views. International Journal of Preventive Medicine.
American Academy of Family Physicians. (2019). Non-substance addiction.
American Psychiatric Association. (2018). Internet gaming.
American Psychiatric Association. (2021). What is gambling disorder?
de Alarcón, R., et al. (2019). Online porn addiction: What we know and what we don’t — A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Freimuth, M., et al. (2011). Clarifying exercise addiction: Differential diagnosis, co-occurring disorders, and phases of addiction. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Grant, J. E., et al. (2010). Introduction to behavioral addictions. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
Griffiths, M. D., et al. (2018). Ten myths about work addiction. Journal of Behavioral Addictions.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2021). Drugs and the brain.
Stanford Care Health. (2021). Complications of reconstructive plastic surgery.
Yau, Y. H., et al. (2015). Gambling disorder and other behavioral addictions: Recognition and treatment. Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
