Process Addiction is a relatively new way of describing an addiction to an activity, or a process

Process Addiction is a relatively new way of describing an addiction to an activity, or a process, that does not involve taking brain-affecting substances such as cannabis, alcohol, cigarettes or hard drugs. The term Process Addiction covers addictions such as over-eating, compulsive shopping, the compulsive need for sex (sex addiction), or porn (porn addiction), compulsive gambling (gambling addiction), or compulsive computer game playing (computer game addiction).   Although Substance Addiction and Process Addiction describe two types of addiction, they are similar in many ways.
The only real difference between Substance or Drug Addiction and Process Addiction, is that being addicted to a physical drug carries the additional harm of the direct affects of the drug itself, in addition to the changes in the brain that happen with both types of addiction.
And certainly, both types of addiction cause similar harm to a person’s social and emotional life, and the lives of those around them.
All addictions, whether Process Addictions or Substance Addictions, involve similar malfunctions in the original, normal, neuro-chemical Reward and Gratification Systems of the brain that we are all born with.  Therefore, all addiction is fundamentally a mental health issue, no matter what type of addiction is involved.
It is never a moral weakness, or a lack of willpower, or because someone is basically ‘no good’, ‘weak’, or ‘bad’.

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