Addictions — a Talking Points lesson for English reading and speaking

What is addiction?

The dictionary says: It is the condition of being enslaved to a substance or activity.

Many addictions can cause physical or mental harm.

In the past, when people thought of addiction, they thought of drug addicts — people addicted to heroin or cocaine — unable to work or live within normal society and living in desperate conditions.

But later we came to recognise that people could be addicted to other substances. Alcohol or cigarettes became known as highly addictive substances.

Later still, we found that people could be addicted to gambling. Many a man or woman has lost everything they had in their life — a job, a home, even a marriage — because of a gambling addiction.

But now addiction experts have discovered a whole new array of addictions. One of these newer types is internet addiction.

This affects many people, but the most vulnerable group are teenagers.

For example, many boys and young men become addicted to online gaming. Online games may encourage teenage boys to give up all other pursuits in life just for another hit.

Many of these young men have lost the ability to communicate on a normal level and lead anti-social lives.

In some rare cases, victims become violent if they do not have access to a computer or internet connection.

Some countries have taken necessary action against this and set up Internet Addiction camps. Places where boys can ‘dry out’ and rejoin the real world.

People are also becoming addicted to food. This is a very difficult addiction to treat because people must consume food.

It’s not like we can just stop eating.

Some scientists argue that this is because much of our modern food has a lot of added sugar in it. It is not so much an addiction to food as an addiction to sugar.

But it is slowly killing thousands of people every year as they cannot stop eating.

Fast-food companies are in every country and soft drinks exist all over the world. They accept no fault in this and still spend millions on advertising.

Another strange new addiction — in complete contrast to food addiction — is exercise.

Believe it or not, many people are now becoming addicted to doing exercise. Whereas most people would regard three or four visits to the gym as perfectly adequate, exercise addicts are going many more times than that.

Some would even say they live in the gym.

Early morning workouts, followed by a run to the office, then a short routine at lunchtime and then a marathon session in the gym after work.

It doesn’t sound possible, but this is extremely bad for your health!

Heart conditions, lung problems and even mental issues such as anxiety and depression have been reported.

Many psychiatrists argue that addictions are caused because of some trauma that happened to the person during childhood. Many of these people get addicted to something in their adult life or in their late teenage years and use the addiction as a way of dealing with the trauma from the early part of their life.