Addiction is associated with different factors in life, for example, behavior, environment, and spirituality. Individuals are addicted to different things, for example, sex, food, social media, and substances. The substances are coined to different stressors, which makes the individuals look for more satisfaction from the substance (Liu et al.). The current generation has poor social cognition skills, which exposes them to psychological problems like depression. The individuals will look for substances to help relieve the problems. Social media is the most accessible platform where individuals can easily interact with funny content, hence helping them relieve stress and other psychological factors (Huang et al.). Therefore, addiction occurs when a person has developed psychological challenges which require satisfaction. A stressed individual will seek any substance that may provide joy in their life. Thus, the nature of addiction occurs due to psychological issues like stress, depression, isolation, and anxiety.
Psychological factors like depression cause social media addiction among the youth. Individuals may have poor social and interaction skills, which expose them to pressure, causing stress in their lives. Stress affects the functions of different body parts. The youths will outline the best method to socialize with friends and find entertainment content on the media (Karim et al.). Online content creates pleasure and joy among individuals, which shapes the body to align with the factors. Individuals will always seek pleasure from different sites when they are sad and lonely. Addiction to the media will enhance the ability of individuals to relieve themselves from the community since they cannot play freely with others physically (Karim et al.). They will tend to use social media to air their views and share their problems through the media. Therefore, addiction results from psychological problems like stress, which expose individuals to the internet to seek entertainment.
In addition, psychological factors alter the normal functioning of the brain, which creates addiction to different substances. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) results from different mental illnesses and psychological factors, for example, anxiety. Many individuals developed anxiety during the COVID-19 period, which increased the surge of online users (Nawi et al.). Many students are stuck on social media pages and are still addicted to them. The pandemic caused an increase in mental illness like anxiety, which lowered the normal brain structure of individuals, thus causing addiction to different substances to relieve their stress and other feelings. The psychological factors manifest in several ways; for example, individuals will seek factors that can make them forget their problems through social media or drugs (Nawi et al.). Studies have also outlined that anxiety leads to overindulgence in different behaviors, which creates a positive reward for the individuals. Therefore, mental illness like anxiety determines the direction of many individuals, which pushes them to seek soothing substances, hence resulting in addiction problems.
Furthermore, addiction results from depression. The current generation uses social media to air most of their feelings. For example, most teens and adults use the platforms to share their family issues like divorce and heartbreaks. A large percentage of media users are depressed and try to seek refuge and help from social pages (Kim et al.). Also, increased exposure to the media pages increases depression, which later causes addiction. Depressed individuals will try to seek refuge from the media since it has different sections that can help provide relief to their problems. However, the more an individual uses media platforms, the more the depression levels increase (Kim et al.). The two work on the same criteria in that depression exposes an individual to social media addiction, which further increases the addiction levels. Prolonged use of the platforms separates individuals from the real world, which increases loneliness, thus increasing addiction levels. Therefore, addiction results from psychological factors like depression.
Furthermore, psychological factors also lead to other forms of addiction, like food addiction. A study outlined that many individuals exposed to stress and depression had high food consumption rates. The individuals use food to relieve stress and feel like champions in society. The feeling of conquerors creates addictive behavior; thus, they will repeat the activity on a daily basis to remain relevant to their course (Liu et al.). Mental illness makes individuals practice other traits like self-control and empathy on different occasions. The feelings block the general body functions, thus leaving the individual with a single purpose to eat, browse, or indulge in other negative traits. The mental illness and psychological factors or triggers impulses that control the individual’s direction and operation mechanism (Huang et al.). The individuals fail to act on basic instructions, which may hinder excessive time spent online or eating. The stressors mature with time, thus causing addiction. Many individuals addicted to different substances have underlying mental illnesses like depression, which act as the driving force in their lives, inhibiting normal behaviors. Thus, addiction results from psychological factors like stress and depression.
In conclusion, addiction occurs due to psychological factors like depression, stress, and anxiety, which alter the operation mechanism of individuals. The altered brain functions generate events like impulsivity, which affects self-control and self-esteem; thus, the victim will only see the substance as the ultimate goal in life. The mental impairments may generate additional factors. For example, poor social skills may generate stress, which exposes the victim to social media. Excessive media use also generates depression, which causes addiction. A larger number of individuals who have a substance use disorder have impaired mental health. For example, teens addicted to drugs and sex suffer from depression and anxiety, which affects their cooperation in school and with their parents. The individuals may not shun negative traits, which may expose them to excessive use of different products. Therefore, addiction occurs when psychological factors like depression alter the brain.
Huang, Po-Ching, et al. “Associations between Social Media Addiction, Psychological Distress, and Food Addiction among Taiwanese University Students.” Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 11, no. 1, Mar. 2023, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-023-00769-0. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.
Karim, Fazida, et al. “Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review.” Cureus, vol. 12, no. 6, June 2020, www.cureus.com/articles/31508-social-media-use-and-its-connection-to-mental-health-a-systematic-review.
Kim, Yun Jin, et al. “The Impact of Substance Use Disorder on the Mental Health among COVID-19 Patients.” Medicine, vol. 99, no. 46, Nov. 2020, p. e23203, https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000023203.
Liu, Mingli, et al. “Time Spent on Social Media and Risk of Depression in Adolescents: A Dose–Response Meta-Analysis.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 9, Apr. 2022, p. 5164, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095164.
Nawi, Azmawati Mohammed, et al. “Risk and Protective Factors of Drug Abuse among Adolescents: A Systematic Review.” BMC Public Health, vol. 21, no. 1, Nov. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11906-2.