Causes of Addiction: Biopsychosocial Model, Personality Theories and Neuropsychology

It is very important to be respectful around all spiritual dimensions as it is very important to people. Think of it as the therapeutic imagination of what spirituality means to the individual and show respect to each person, so that they can have the freedom to find, explore,  revisit or discover their own beliefs. This is because, as the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows, addiction is a complicated puzzle.

Psycho-Social Systems

This claim coincides with a recent emergence of a global advocacy movement that seeks to construct the use of drugs as a human right (Elliott, Csete, Wood, and Kerr 2005; Lines and Elliott 2007). Giordano, A. L., Prosek, E. A., Stamman, J., Callahan, M. M., Loseu, S., Bevly, C. M., Cross, K., Woehler, E. S., Calzada, R.-M. R., & Chadwell, K. Addiction tends to run in families, and certain types of genes have been linked to different forms of addiction. “As with heart disease or diabetes, there’s no one gene that makes you vulnerable,” Koob says. The biological basis of addiction helps to explain why people need much more than good intentions or willpower to break their addictions. Reflecting on these concerns, the authors stated “we had to be clear in our ethics applications and in our informed consent process with participants that HAT will not be available outside the context of the study” (p. 267).

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the biopsychosocial model of addiction

Culture is very personal and we need to allow it to be whatever the person identifies it as. It may have been lost, not yet experienced, which leaves a person feeling like there are missing pieces. Sometimes it is by choice, or experience, a negative representation of what they believed culture meant. It is important to be aware of the importance of understanding the client’s cultural belief system as they feel it is, through their eyes. Our experienced staff and evidence-based treatments can provide the support and resources needed to overcome addiction.

Psychological Dimension

  • Factors such as availability and peer modeling account for the inter- and intra-group disparities (Thomas 2007).
  • A significant factor in the development and maintenance of addictive behavior is the context in which the behavior occurs.
  • The Social Model also highlights the role of cultural factors, such as societal attitudes towards substance use and addiction, in shaping an individual’s behavior and vulnerability to addiction.
  • Concurrently, behavioral therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy, contingency management, and motivational interviewing have been employed to address the psychological and social factors contributing to addiction.
  • In contrast, when you’re in danger, a healthy brain pushes your body to react quickly with fear or alarm, so you’ll get out of harm’s way.

Gillett criticizes theories of decision-making that conceptualize choice as autonomous phenomenon only if inner mental states or networks cause it. A healthy brain rewards healthy behaviors—like exercising, eating, or bonding with loved ones. It does this by switching on brain circuits that make you feel wonderful, which then motivates you to repeat those behaviors. In contrast, when you’re in danger, a healthy brain pushes your body to react quickly with fear or alarm, so you’ll get out of harm’s way.

the biopsychosocial model of addiction

Personality Theories in Addiction

Drug cultures serve as an initiating force as well as a sustaining force for substance use and abuse (White 1996). As an initiating force, the culture provides a way for people new to drug use to learn what to expect and how to appreciate the experience of getting high. As White (1996) notes, the drug culture teaches the new user “how to recognize and enjoy drug effects” (p. 46). There are also practical matters involved in using substances (e.g., how much to take, how to ingest the substance for strongest effect) that people new to drug use may not know when they first begin to experiment with drugs.

Based on this definition, we believe that HAT falls into both camps HAT seeks to promote the right to access good health care, and the basic right as an individual asserting sovereignty over his or her body to inject heroin. Psycho-social systems are concrete entities or groups whose members act in relation to each other, such as families, religious organizations, and political parties (Bunge 2004). Social processes in addiction are investigated by examining social categories such as networks, groups, organizations and subcultures that alone cannot be explained by neurobiology.

The biopsychosocial model emphasizes the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors. Biology includes genetics and brain chemistry, while psychology examines an individual’s thoughts, emotions, and coping mechanisms. Social norms, availability, accessibility, legality, modeling, expectancies, societal approval, visibility, targeting practices, and cultural beliefs all influence the experience of addiction. An individual exposed to drug use at an early age can be influenced by social modeling (or learning via observation).

For instance, many people find the taste of alcoholic beverages disagreeable during their first experience with them, and they only learn to experience these effects as pleasurable over time. Expectations can also be important among people who use drugs; those who have greater expectancies of pleasure typically have a more intense and pleasurable experience. These expectancies may play a part in the development of substance use disorders (Fekjaer 1994; Leventhal and Schmitz 2006). When people who abuse substances are marginalized, they tend not to seek access to mainstream institutions that typically provide sociocultural support (Myers et al. 2009). A marginalized person’s behavior is seen as abnormal even if he or she attempts to act differently, thus further reducing the chances of any attempt to change behavior (Cohen 1992). The drug culture enables its members to view substance use disorders as normal or Sober House Rules: A Comprehensive Overview even as status symbols.

Spiritual Dimension

  • For example, research has shown that genetic factors can account for 40-60% of the risk for developing addiction, and neurobiological changes in the brain’s reward system have been implicated in the development of compulsive drug-seeking behaviors.
  • As Hall and colleagues (2003a) remark, “A ‘disease’ that can be ‘seen’ in the many-hued splendor of a PET scan carries more conviction than one justified by the possibly exculpatory self-reports of individuals who claim to be unable to control their drug use” (p.1485).
  • A neurobiological perspective has the potential to provide many benefits to people with addiction in terms of psychopharmacological and other treatment options.
  • This article aims to provide an overview of the six main models of addiction, including the Moral, Disease, Psychological, Social, Biopsychosocial, and Spiritual models.
  • This can extend to legal substances such as alcohol or tobacco (including, in recent years, the increased prohibition against cigarette smoking in public spaces and its growing social unacceptability in private spaces).
  • Still, others focus on how social and economic factors like solid family bonds, good friends, and opportunities for education and work can influence your choices.

The biopsychosocial systems model is grounded in systems theory in which knowledge occurs at the intersection of the subjective and the objective, and not as an independent reality. This is a radical departure from the traditional positivist epistemology, which relies on empirical study and material proof (Bunge 1979; Heylighen, Cilliers, and Gerschenson 2007). Such new iterations of systems theory concentrate on the cognitive and social processes wherein the construction of subjective knowledge occurs.

What are the Models of Addiction?

However purely reductive, neurobiological explanations of addiction occlude a comprehensive understanding of the added influence of psychological, social, political, and other factors. The brain disease model further implies simplistic categorical ideas of responsibility, namely that addicted individuals are unable to exercise any degree of control over their substance use (Caplan 2006, 2008). This kind of “neuro-essentialism” (Racine, Bar-Ilan, and Illes 2005) may bring about unintentional consequences on a person’s sense of identity, responsibility, notions of agency and autonomy, illness, and treatment preference. We argue therefore for a biopsychosocial systems model of, and approach to, addiction in which psychological and sociological factors complement and are in a dynamic interplay with neurobiological and genetic https://appsychology.com/living-in-a-sober-house/ factors. As Hyman (2007) has written, “neuroscience does not obviate the need for social and psychological level explanations intervening between the levels of cells, synapses, and circuits and that of ethical judgments” (p.8). Yet many other elements are idiosyncratic, such as the intensity of the experience of reward and the functioning of the individual’s mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway in the brain.

While the Spiritual Model may not resonate with everyone, it can offer a powerful source of support, meaning, and hope for those who find comfort and healing in spiritual practices and beliefs. It is important to consider the Spiritual Model in conjunction with other models of addiction, as a comprehensive understanding of addiction requires the integration of biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors. Addiction is a complex and multifaceted condition that impacts individuals and their families on multiple levels. While the stereotypical image of addiction might involve a person misusing substances like alcohol or drugs, addictive behaviours extend beyond substances and include activities such as gambling, internet use, and even food consumption.

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