Gennady Vladimirovich Starshenbaum

Addictology: psychology and
addiction psychotherapy
Text provided by the publishing house http://www.litres.ru

Addictology. Psychology and psychotherapy of addictions: Cogito-Center; Moscow; 2006
ISBN 5-89353-157-4
annotation

The book of the famous domestic psychotherapist G.V. Starshenbaum is dedicated one of the most urgent problems of modern Russia – the problem of dependencies.

Imagine what lies ahead for the surviving soldiers and the baggage they will bring home.

Many years of experience in working with patients suffering from both chemical and
and emotional dependencies, allows the author to analyze the deep mechanisms of various addictions and, on this basis, highlight a new clinical discipline

• Addictology, lying at the intersection of psychiatry, narcology and sexology. In the book a detailed description of the clinical picture, diagnosis and therapy of various forms is given. addictive behavior, excerpts from the case histories of patients who successfully
  who have undergone a course of psychotherapy according to the methodology developed by the author.
• Recommended as a practical guide and teaching aid for
  practicing and studying psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, narcologists and
  sexologists.

Table of Contents

Content
Prologue 5
Sociology and biology of drug addiction 7
Psychology of addictive behavior 12
Personal characteristics 17
Clinical aspects of narcology 29
Alcoholism (F10) 35
Clinical forms and course 37
Relapses 44
Psychology of alcoholism 47
Early recognition 51
Stages of psychotherapy 53
Family therapy 62
Group therapy 66
Addiction 76
Prevalence and course 76
Clinical forms 79
Opiism (F11) 79
Hashishism (F12) 82
Dependence on hypnotics and sedatives (F13) 85
Cocaine (F14) 89
Dependence on stimulants (F15) 91
Addiction to hallucinogens (F16) 94
Nicotinism (F17) 95
Inhalant addiction (F18) 100
Psychology of addiction 102
Early detection of drug addiction 107
Psychotherapy 111
Rehabilitation 119
Prevention of chemical dependence 123
Food addiction (F50) 127
Anorexia nervosa (F50.0) 128
Origin 131
Therapy 134
Bulimia nervosa and overeating (F50.2) 136
Detection of bulimia 138
Origin 140
Therapy 142
Gambling behavior 146
Pathological drives (F63) 147
Gambling addiction (F63.0) 148
Computer Addiction 153
Origin of gambling 157
Psychotherapy of pathological players 159
Pathological theft (F63.2) 163
Overvalued hobbies 165
Addiction to money

Addiction to power 167
Addictive fanaticism 170
Workaholism 176
Professional Burnout Syndrome 180
Addiction to destruction and self-destruction 184
Addicted to destruction 184
Addiction to self-destruction 189
The origin of aggressiveness 192
Measurement of aggressiveness 196
Principles of psychotherapy 198
Sex addiction 201
Clinical forms 201
Sexual aggression 206
Sexual auto-aggression 211
The origin of sexual addiction 213
Psychotherapy 219
Relationship addiction 222
Crazy Love 222
The origin of love addiction 227
Psychotherapy 231
Dependent Relationship Conflict 233
Avoidance addiction and getting rid of loneliness 240
Codependency 244
Clinic and course 244
The origin of codependency 248
Diagnostics 250
Codependency Psychotherapy 255
Codependent family therapy 258
Domestic approach 262
Educational problems 264
Codependency psychotherapist 268
Epilogue 272
Literature 273
Glossary of terms 285

This book is about those who, in an attempt to escape from reality, fell into the trap of addiction –
about addicts (lat. addictus – sentenced to slavery for debts).  Addiction – broader concept than addiction. Dependent behavior manifests itself in the following way.  You don’t control it, rather
it controls you.  You feel like you have no choice but to do it,
take it, do as it requires.  This or that habit is so ingrained in
your life that becomes invisible to you.  You do it more and more often get more and more powerful effect.  You start doing it regularly when you feelunpleasant sensations – boredom, loneliness, physical pain, etc. You feel
that you can no longer cope with your life problems without the help of this.

You can spend a significant portion of your life fighting this.  you can spend precious soul energy, suffering from it and trying unsuccessfully to get rid of it.
It takes some of your money, your time, your energy to the detriment of something more useful, and as a result, you hate yourself even more for these pointless expenses.  You lose self-respect, mental strength, there is a threat of destruction of your entire life
way of life (family, career, friends), physical and mental health.  For some it’s in eventually kills.
Addictions include chemical and emotional dependency, including codependency.

Chemical addiction, as defined by the World Health Organization
(WHO) is a mental and sometimes somatic condition resulting from
repeated use of a natural or synthetic psychoactive substance.
A psychoactive substance (PSA) is a substance that has a narcotic effect on organism.  Substances include drugs and substances not officially classified as drugs: alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, a number of medicinal and household chemicals. 

Drug (Greek narkoticos – intoxicating) – a substance that, due to social danger officially recognized as such because of its ability, with a single use cause a comfortable mental state, and in case of systematic – mental or physical addiction.  Dependence on PAS, not officially classified as drugs, called substance abuse.  The unscientific term habituation is also used, which implies the mental dependence of the patient on the drug taken for the purpose of alleviate severe manifestations of the disease.

Emotional dependence is expressed in gambling behavior, in which, in contrast to from ordinary obsessions, the urge to action is or becomes vital,
like a strong hunger or thirst, and takes possession of a person completely. Erotomaniacs need
euphoric substances released in the brain during sexual excited. They also stand out during the “creative binge” of a workaholic. Codependent so-called toxic emotions are necessary: anxiety for the addict, pity for him, the periodic appearance of shame, guilt, resentment, hatred. Upon satisfaction of these pathological emotional needs, the addict has a feeling of pleasure and relief. Gambling behavior is divided into impulsive – without a struggle of motives, and compulsive, where this struggle is present. Impulsive behavior is characteristic of pathological drives. This can be stealing with kleptomania, gambling with pathological gambling, arson in pyromania, overeating in bulimia.

Compulsive behavior is observed with overvalued hobbies: with addiction to money, workaholism,
fanaticism, etc.

Addict characterizes the desire to escape from reality through artificial changes in one’s mental state, development and maintenance of intense emotions
through the use of psychoactive substances or excessive fixation on certain activities. There are 5 stages in the development of addiction:

1. a person discovers a way, with which he can relatively easily change his mental state.

2. he habitually uses this method in difficult moments.

3. addictive behavior becomes part of his personality and is not subject to criticism.

4. the addictive part of the personality begins to fully
determine the life of an addict. 5. the psyche and biological processes in the body are destroyed