What is addiction? Is it different from misuse? What does it do to you? This post will tell you all about addiction from what it does and all types of addiction there is.

Addiction is a psychological and physical inability to stop consuming a chemical, drug, activity, or substance even though its causing psychological and physical harm.

The term addiction does not only refer to dependence to substances like heroin, or cocaine, but also activities like gambling, eating, or working. Addiction is one of the main causes of deaths worldwide, mainly addiction to substances.

What difference does addiction have with misuse?

Misuse refers to the incorrect, excessive, or non-therapeutic use of body-and mind-altering substances. However, not everybody that misuses a substance has an addiction. Addiction is the long-term inability to moderate or cease of intake. A person who has not yet developed an addiction may be put off further use by the harmful side effects of substance abuse. For example, vomiting or waking up with a hangover after drinking too much alcohol may deter some people from drinking that amount anytime soon. Someone with an addiction however will continue to do so even with the harmful effects.

There are many areas in your life that have been (or could be) affected by alcohol, tobacco, drug use, or gambling. It can be helpful to look closely at these areas to see what the consequences have been. This can hel​p you focus on the areas you really want to change and build the motivation to do it. Read the questions below and think about how your addiction has affected your life.

Financial

• How much money do I spend each month or year on my drinking, drug, gambling or tobacco use?
• Have you spent money on alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or gambling that you wish you had used for other things?
• Have you had to take care of court fees and fines?
• Have you ever lost a job and pay because of drinking, using drugs, tobacco, or gambling?

Family

• Does your family trust you? Has this changed because of drinking, using drugs, using tobacco, or gambling?
• Are there fights in your family because of your substance use or gambling?
• Have you failed to keep promises and meet expectations because of your substance use or gambling?
• Does your family avoid you when you drink or use other drugs? Do you avoid them? Has there been any violence in your family because of your substance use or gambling?

School or Work

• Have you been suspended or kicked out of school because of substance use or gambling?
• Have you lost a job because of substance use or gambling?
• Have your grades changed because of substance use or gambling?
• Do you miss school or work often?
• Have you gone to school or work drunk or high?
• Have your teachers or bosses talked to you about drinking, using drugs, tobacco, or gambling?

These are only some areas that I would like to highlight as a student, but there are more areas that may be affected with addiction and many of which may never be achievable again once you start getting addicted.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.