Alcohol Addiction

Essay by nmurray123456789University, Bachelor'sC, November 2014

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Alcohol Addiction

It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the problem of addiction, which affects many individuals, families and communities everyday. This essay is going to look at the prevalence of addiction in Scotland and what the Scottish Government are proposing to do to reduce the damage caused by addiction. There are many other stakeholders in the scheme to make Scotland a better place these are: individuals themselves, friends, family, communities, local governments and the National Health Service. Everyone is working together to try and make Scotland a better and safer place to live.

The definition of addiction has changed so many times over the years from when people believed that addiction was basically "a physiological adaptation to the presence of a drug in the body so that the absence of the drug leads to physiological dysfunction which is manifest to the sufferer as unpleasant or even life-threatening 'withdrawal symptoms'" (West and Hardy, 2006).

This definition howeve takes into consideration the idea that an addiction only has a physiological effect on the body rather than a psychological one. Now, addiction is to be defined as "a syndrome at the centre of which is impaired control over a behaviour, and this loss of control is leading to significant harm" (West and Hardy, 2006). One of the main reasons that the definition has changed so many times is the fact that addiction is socially defined rather than having a matter of fact definition of an object. It has been found that everyone is addicted to something; however, it may not be an illegal substance. It can range from anything that is immediately harmful like drugs to some other substances that become dangerous in larger quantities. Many people have become addicted to things such as exercise, food and gambling. Although these do...