The first critical life area we will look at is physical. When we are discussing substance use addiction, physical impacts are easy to identify: weight loss or gain, red face, loss of teeth, twitching, etc.
Take, for example, an addiction to work.
Those who work to their physical detriment may experience premature aging, gray hair, loss of sleep (which has several other problems connected to it), increase in the stress hormone cortisol, and poor nutrition.
Often people in the midst of work addiction may point to other reasons for the physical effects they experience. They say they “don’t have enough time” or other similar justifications.
People who work a lot are often given kudos for being hard working and never quitting, which can create an unintentional justification for continued excessive work. Are there any behaviors you can identify that cause significant negative impacts in the physical area of your life?
As we continue this series, we will link new posts for each section of this series below:
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[This is the second part in an ongoing series about the critical life areas affected by addiction.]
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