Youth addiction
"Break the chains of addiction so that curiosity doesn't become a shackle."
Protect future generations from the rapidly spreading illegal gambling, drugs, and serious smartphone addiction.
By focusing on ‘prevention’ and ‘healing’ rather than punishment, children who have fallen into the swamp
of addiction can recover a healthy self.
We offer professional help to help you get back out into the world.
“From drugs to digital,
“Healing that rescues you from the swamp of addiction and restores your daily life.”
The field of future generation addictions focuses on protecting and healing adolescents and young adults from not only substance addictions like alcohol and smoking, but also behavioral addictions like smartphones, the internet, gaming, and gambling. Addictions experienced during brain development can have serious aftereffects that last into adulthood, making prevention and early intervention paramount.
Recently, the average age of drug offenders has been rapidly decreasing, and learning disabilities and interpersonal disruption caused by smartphone addiction are emerging as serious social issues. Beyond simple discipline or punishment, we address the root causes of addiction through professional counseling and treatment programs. Through preventative education and alternative activities, we support future generations in regaining healthy daily lives.
Definition of addiction
Addiction, which occurs when the pleasure center is excessively stimulated by a specific substance or behavior
What is addiction?
In 1954, an experiment was conducted on rat brains in a psychology department in Canada.
After connecting electrodes to various parts of the rat's brain to conduct electricity and pressing a switch, surprising results were captured.
A rat with electrodes connected to a specific part of its brain repeatedly pressed the switch. While most rats reacted with surprise or discomfort to the electricity, this rat pressed the switch 600 times an hour, depriving itself of food and continuing to press the switch for 26 hours before ultimately dying. This revealed the existence of a brain center involved in "pleasure."
That's right, it's the 'pleasure center'.
This "pleasure center" is a neural network comprised of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the midbrain, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the nucleus accumbens in the frontal lobe. Normally, when a specific stimulus is present, this "pleasure center" releases substances such as dopamine and serotonin, which make people happy and feel satisfied. However, if a problem arises during this process, or if the amount of dopamine or serotonin secreted is abnormally high and the balance is broken, "addiction" occurs, causing an inability to act as one wishes.
Symptoms and Risks of Addiction
Symptoms of this addiction can be broadly divided into two types: "obsession," which involves increasing the amount and frequency of the behavior, and "withdrawal," which involves experiencing physical and psychological discomfort if you don't do it.
For this reason, it must be used with caution from the beginning and within an appropriate range. Otherwise, the brain's 'reward circuit' may malfunction, leading to a loss of control, and this may develop into an 'addiction' that not only causes physical and mental pain to the individual, but also causes social or legal problems.
Source: Addiction Forum
Types of addiction
alcoholism
Alcoholism, which causes alcohol obsession and withdrawal without drinking, is caused by various reasons, including genetic, biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors, although the exact cause is not known.
Symptoms include increased alcohol tolerance to get drunk, withdrawal from anxiety or sensitivity when alcohol is stopped, obsession with reducing social and professional functions to continue drinking, and compulsive use of habitually drinking.
Also, you should be careful because you can't sleep, mental diseases such as depression, anxiety disorder, or alcoholic dementia, or physical diseases such as liver, stomach, and pancreas can be accompanied.
gambling addiction
It is easy to think of it as an addiction when substances such as drugs and nicotine enter the body, but the concept of addiction has recently expanded to behavior. Gambling, which means betting on uncertain outcomes, is also a class of addiction.
Gambling addiction is caused by the pleasure of gambling itself, social and environmental factors, personality factors such as escape from reality or adaptation disorders, and genetic factors. In addition, tolerance, in which stimuli gradually become stronger to obtain the same excitement, and withdrawal, which becomes nervous and anxious when you stop gambling, are typical symptoms.
drug addiction
Drugs referred to here are not drugs used for medical purposes, but antipsychotic substances that are usually classified as drugs.
Drug use has been around for a long time in human history, but it began to become a social problem after the 1800s, when synthetic substances using the chemical structure of substances were developed and mass distribution was possible. In Korea, it was also used for medical purposes, but in the 1900s, the problem of abuse began to socialize.
However, the term 'addiction' is not a medical term in a strict sense in society. Addiction as a medical term refers to an acute toxic condition caused by a drug, and commonly referred to as addiction uses the words abuse and dependence.
These drug abuse and dependence show symptoms of resistance, withdrawal, and compulsive use, and are caused by a variety of factors, including biological, psychological, and social causes.
Internet addiction
The Internet, which has become essential in our lives with the development of high-tech technologies such as high-speed Internet, smartphones, and netbooks. In addition, the side effects are getting bigger. A typical example is Internet addiction, which not only causes obstacles in daily life due to excessive Internet use, but also withdrawal and tolerance develop.
Internet addiction is divided into cyber sex addiction, cyber relationship addiction, network obsessive, information overload, and computer addiction, and symptoms such as long hanging on the web, difficulty turning off the computer, empty and restless withdrawal symptoms, and social isolation that make it difficult to connect with others in reality.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or depression, impulse control disorder, social phobia, and certain personality disorders can cause various mental diseases, so caution is needed.
Source: Addiction Forum
Diagnosis of alcohol use disorder
‣ Korean version of AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test)
Excessive drinking can be detrimental to your health and may negatively affect any treatment you receive or medications you take.
Therefore, it is important to check your drinking habits.
Your responses to this survey will be kept confidential, so please answer honestly.
Please mark 'O' in the answer that applies to you for each question.
The term "1 glass" in the question refers to the amount of one glass, regardless of the type of alcohol.
That is, for beer, it means one glass of beer, for soju, it means one glass of soju, for whiskey, it means one glass of whiskey, etc.
Gambling addiction diagnosis
‣ Among the CPGI (Canadian Problem Gambling Index)
Korean version of the Problem Gambling Serverity Index (PGSI)
For each item, please answer honestly about your experiences with gambling (gambling) over the past year.
Please mark one of the four tick marks on the right side of the question.
Drug addiction diagnosis
‣ Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test-Lite (ASSIST-Lite)
The following questions ask about your experience using psychotropic drugs over the past three months.
‣ Score Interpretation (1) Smoking and the four drugs are judged as positive in the screening test if you answer “yes” to two or more of the three questions.
(2) For alcohol, if you answer “yes” to 3 or more of the 4 questions, the screening test is considered positive.
Internet addiction diagnosis
Korean Internet Overreliance Scale (K-Scale) for Adolescents (Ages 10-19)
Game addiction diagnosis
‣ Internet Gaming Use-Elicited Symptom Screen (IGUESS)
Scale content: A self-reporting test developed based on the diagnostic criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder in the DSM-5.
Investigating the symptoms of Internet gaming disorder experienced by children and adolescents to identify those at risk for Internet gaming disorder.
How to administer: Mark the response category that best represents how much you have experienced each symptom in the past 12 months.
Scoring method: Each item is rated from 0 (not at all) to 3 (always).
The total score is calculated by adding up the response scores for each item, and the total score ranges from 0 to 27 points.
Interpretation Guidelines Positive Decision Criteria: Total score of 10 points or higher
– High-risk group for Internet gaming disorder
- It is necessary to confirm whether or not Internet gaming disorder is diagnosed through an interview with a specialist.
This test is a screening tool. Therefore, caution should be taken not to misinterpret a positive test result as a diagnosis of Internet gaming disorder.
Smartphone addiction diagnosis
Smartphone Overreliance Scale (S-Scale) for Adolescents (Ages 10-19)
Self-diagnosis Source: Addiction Forum