If the music's too loud, you're too old!

This morning as I was driving to work, a car pulled up next to me with music blaring. I looked over at the car and noticed all the windows were closed. If it was uncomfortable for me to hear this on the outside of that car, how uncomfortable was it for the person on the inside? You may argue this and say it’s personal preference, but let’s really examine this for a moment.

I remember when I was younger living by the motto, “If the music’s to loud, you’re too old.” I even recall getting upset many times because “MAX VOLUME” was just not loud enough for me. Being young seems to have it’s own set of rules; rebelling, exploring things in life, etc.

I’m not arguing that we all listen to our music at  volume level 2, nor am I saying that there aren’t certain songs, moments, or days that deserve some loud, even obnoxious volumes to come out of your car (as long as you are not so impaired to drive safely of course). So, maybe the better question is once you’ve passed your young rebellious phase in life, why is the music still so loud all the time?

Everyone I can think of listens to some sort of music.

Besides enjoying it, music itself has therapeutic qualities. You can be in a bad mood and a couple songs from your favorite genre(s) can lift your spirits or just plain make you smile again. There are even songs that are appropriate for certain moments. Do you remember listening to songs like “Love stinks” when you had a crush or went through a bad break up? It kind of helped for the moment, didn’t it? Those situations are fine and healthy for you. It’s when music has become your “out” to dealing with life’s problems.

I had gone through a phase in my life where music was basically my drug of choice. Sounds silly, but when you no longer deal with the crisis and resort to anything, be it drugs, food, or something as silly as music, you have just attempted a type of “escapism”. You’ll notice people looking for distractions to relieve themselves from life usually through some sort of entertainment or even a fantasy (Facebook anyone?).

Escaping for a little isn’t bad as one of my points in the article 3 Great Ways to Relieve Stress is to take a mini vacation, or in other words, escape. Again, the point here is not the music, not the volume, not even escaping. The issue is when and how much.

So here’s the real question: If you’re constantly listening to music at an very loud volume, what problem(s) or who’s voice are you really trying to escape?

If you feel like you or someone you know might be suffering, contact us now.

If the music's too loud, you're too old!

What could be the causes of addiction?

The Causes of addiction

Continued from our last article Are there risks to addiction?

Medical studies have shown how our brains react to different things. Different feelings result in different ways of dealing with matters. What we will concentrate on is how the brain reacts to pleasure. This will give us clues to the causes of addiction.

If you were to ask anyone which they’d prefer, pleasure or sorrow, you know the answer would be pleasure. Our brains always seek pleasure first, good over bad, and happy over sadness. Why wouldn’t it? After all, this is what aids a long, happy, and fulfilling life. Nobody can argue that, but can that be one of the causes of addiction? In a nutshell, yes. Since we will constantly seek pleasure, we can all be susceptible to addiction. The difference is how we manage pleasure and especially sorrow. This will make all the difference between the one who gets drunk once or twice verses the one who becomes an alcoholic.

Getting on your nerves

Believe it or not, “pleasure” is not just an emotion, but is the result of your nerve cells reacting to a substance in your body. Eventually these nerve cells can be altered depending on the frequency and dosage. The nerve cells can then become dependent on the substance and begins to crave more.

This begins the downward spiral for those who cannot manage sorrow well. They will struggle to fix this the least and will usually increase the dosage. This is why we highly recommend Anxiety/ Stress Counseling or Depression Counseling before you put yourself in this kind of risk.

As most addicts will tend to chase the feeling of pleasure that they would initially feel, they will tend to increase the dosage which leads to two conclusions. First, the increased dosage will no longer have the same effect and will actually begin to crave the substance just to feel normal. This is addiction. The second is death. Some may take such a high dosage that it will kill or paralyze them. It is a lose- lose situation. The causes of addiction are very dangerous and the longer one stays addicted, the worse an individual tends to become.

If you feel like you or someone you know might be suffering from an addiction, contact us now so we can talk about our addiction counseling in Brea. Your first visit will be complimentary.

The next section we’ll answer the question, “How do you diagnose addiction?”

What could be the causes of addiction?

Are there risks to addiction?

What Are The Risk Factors For Addiction?

Just to clarify, a risk factor (or risks to addiction) is something that raises the chance of a person beginning or continuing a trend toward advancing or establishing a condition or disease. For example, many tests have shown that lung cancer is a risk factor for long term cigarette smokers.

Addiction has no regard for people. It could happen to anybody regardless of their status, age, or sex, but there are some instances that the chance of addiction can increase.

Temperament

Any person could try a substance, but certain temperaments are prone to addiction. Many times, counselors will treat their patients incorrectly just because they don’t know what their temperament is. This is why it is vital to have a temperament counselor help you.

Their are others who may not have the “addiction temperament”, but do have the temperament to give in to peer pressure. They will try to fit in and gain acceptance sometimes by any means necessary, thus end up becoming addicted. This applies especially to youth and teenagers.

The temperament who gives into peer pressure can also become addicted from loneliness. The lack of social activity in their life causes stress, thus the quick fix would be to numb themselves with drugs or alcohol.

The substance itself

Studies show that some substances have a much higher chance of bringing about risks to addiction. Some obvious ones are crack, heroin, and cocaine.

Hereditary and Family History

Think of the people in your family. Can you think of anyone who is an addict? Well, a child of an addict is 8 times more likely to develop an addiction. Many argue that the highest risks to addiction come from those who bond most with the addict. Children of alcoholics are 6 times more likely to develop problems with alcoholism. Some studies show that this can be passed down genetically. Studies have also shown similarities to cigarette smoking. Some may try smoking, yet never care for it, while others become addicted. The gene’s inherited have much to do with that as the response to the nerves vary between genes.

Age

Studies have shown that depending on what age the user was exposed to the substance will give a greater indication on its addiction. For example, some alcoholics may have been exposed to alcohol at a very young age, thus created a pattern early on in life to drink, and eventually becoming full on addicts. This is not all people and all cases, but it should still be noted that the risks to addiction is raised if one is exposed at an early age.

Family behavior

People from broken and divorced homes have the highest of risks to addiction. The imbalance especially of lacking a father in the home increases the risks dramatically. The disconnection of a parent to their child has become devastating to our nation and culture.

Gender

Most addicts are male and in the US, male drug addiction beats out women 2 to 1.

Stress

The persons temperament will tell us their stress threshold and what they will do to attempt to create balance in their lives. Some temperaments have a lower threshold and will most likely resort to anything to numb their minds. Some stress hormones have shown to be linked to alcoholism.

Body metabolism

Over time, the user will need higher doses to create the same effect they experienced when they first started using. This will eventually change the way the body metabolizes a substance and will begin to change the body’s chemistry. That will usually be the beginning of the addiction. The higher the frequency and dosage, the higher the risks to addiction.

Mental illness or special condition(s)

Those who suffer from clinical depression or any other similar illness have a higher chance of becoming addicted. Many times it will be because of doctor or psychiatrist prescribes drugs that may have the side effect of habit formation or addiction. Other times, the user will attempt to numb their depression or anxiety “self-medicating” without a professionals supervision. They tend to have a higher chance of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol.

If you feel like you or someone you know might be suffering from an addiction, contact us now so we can talk about our addiction counseling in Brea. Your first visit will be complimentary.

The next section we’ll deal with “What causes addiction?”

Are there risks to addiction?