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The definition of addiction is not always agreed upon among professionals. In general it would be any type of behavior that becomes compulsive and interferes with an individual’s daily life. Building a tolerance and needing more of whatever activities or substances are being used is often a substantial element of addictions. Finally, losing control over the behavior is the hallmark of an addiction. The following are 10 prevalent addictions affecting men in the United States and all 10 addictions have available treatment support in rehabs for men.
Alcohol
Men are twice as likely as women to be addicted to alcohol. It also takes men approximately five years longer than women to seek help for an alcohol addiction.
Smoking
According to the CDC approximately 20 percent of men in the United States smoke cigarettes. The number of men who smoke by age group is fairly evenly divided.
Drugs
While drug addiction covers a wide range of prescription and street drugs, the most commonly abused drug is marijuana. Painkillers appear to be the prescription drug of choice for men and women.
Gambling
Between 15 and 20 million adults have a gambling problem. The majority are men. Research indicates that men tend to be “action” gamblers, preferring games like poker that take a certain amount of skill. Women, however, are more likely to be “escape” gamblers and participate in games based on luck.
Pornography
Studies have revealed that the same brain changes that occur in drug addicts occur in those addicted to pornography. Men between the ages of 18 and 24 make up the largest percentage of men using pornography on a regular basis.
Cell Phone
Nomophobia is the official term for anxiety if there isn’t access to mobile technology. Nearly 47 percent of men have two phones. If a guy constantly checks his phone before getting out of bed each morning or can’t get through the first course in a restaurant without texting, there may be a problem.
Work
This is a tough addiction to pinpoint since a hardworking man is often viewed as successful. About 25 percent of American men work more than 50 hours each week. While working long hours is not necessarily a problem, when it interferes with health or personal relationships it may qualify as an addiction.
Sex
Sex addictions are not the same as addictions to pornography. One is primarily living in a fantasy world while the other is actually having sex with another person. About 8 percent of men in the United States suffer from this affliction.
Internet/Social Media
While online addictions are often connected to other addictions such as porn and gambling, constantly visiting places like Facebook and Twitter can also become a problem. Men may be especially susceptible to social media addiction because it’s an easy way for them to connect to others while still remaining disconnected on a certain level.
Food
Yes, men can struggle with food addictions, though usually not as much as women. Like so many other addictions, the release of dopamine in the brain is the driving influence behind this behavior.
While women’s addictions seem to be more severe, men are more likely to become addicts. Men are also less likely to seek help for their addictive behavior.
Communications Market Report 2012 has found that texting is now the most popular way to stay in contact.
Its study found that 90% of 16 to 24-year-olds text daily to communicate with friends and family, compared to only 63% who talk face-to-face.
The Communications Market Report 2012 said that talking on the phone was also less popular than texting among this younger age group, with only 67% saying they make daily phone calls.
The findings come as the SMS celebrates its 20th birthday today.
The first ever SMS was sent on December 3rd, 1992, when Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old British engineer used his computer to send the message “Merry Christmas” to an Orbitel 901 mobile phone.
But the origins of the idea date back further to Matti Makkonen. Over a pizza at a telecoms conference in 1984, the former Finnish civil servant put forward the idea of a mobile phone messaging service. This was to become the SMS (short message service) standard.
According to research by Ofcom, the media regulator, the average UK consumer now sends around 50 text messages every week.
In 2011, more than 150 billion text messages were sent in the UK, which was almost triple the amount sent five years previously in 2006 – when 51 billion texts were sent, according to an Ofcom report.
It also found that texting was now most prolific among 12-15 year olds, who send an average of 193 texts every week, almost four times the UK average. This has more than doubled from 12 months ago, when just 91 were sent each week by the same age group.
The first ever SMS was sent on December 3rd, 1992
Girls aged between 12 and 15 are texting significantly more than boys, sending an average of 221 messages a week – 35 per cent more than boys of the same age, who send 164 a week.
The average 8-11-year-old sends 41 texts each week, almost double the number (23) sent in 2011
The first half of 2012 saw two quarterly declines in the volume of SMS messages sent in the UK (Q1 2012: 39.1 billion; Q2 2012: 38.5 billion), falling slightly from their peak of 39.7 billion in Q4 in 2011.
This decline could be attributed to people using alternative forms of text-based communications, such as instant messaging and social networking sites.
The recent increase in ownership of internet-connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones, could also be behind this trend. Four in 10 (39%) adults now own a smartphone, making it easier to gain access to web-based communications.
James Thickett, Ofcom’s director of research, said: “When texting was first conceived many saw it as nothing more than a niche service.
“But texts have now surpassed traditional phone calls and meeting face to face as the most frequent way of keeping in touch for UK adults, revolutionizing the way we socialize, work and network.
“For the first time in the history of mobile phones, SMS volumes are showing signs of decline. However the availability of a wider range of communications tools like instant messaging and social networking sites, mean that people might be sending fewer SMS messages, but they are <<texting>> more than ever before.”
Austin Weirschke, a teenager from Wisconsin, has out-tapped the competition to hold onto the title of being the US’s fastest texter.
Austin Weirschke, 17, beat 10 other competitors at the sixth National Texting Championship held in New York.
Contestants had to do one task with their vision blocked and another with their hands behind their back.
Austin Weirschke said he planned to put the $50,000 prize money towards paying for his college education.
Austin Weirschke, 17, beat 10 other competitors at the sixth National Texting Championship held in New York
The competition – which is sponsored by LG Electronics and featured one device with a physical keyboard – put three skills to the test: accuracy, speed and dexterity.
Two of the tests were straight-forward – memorizing and then typing phrases as quickly as possible, and translating text abbreviations into “regular speak” such as TTYL (talk to you later).
But others were more challenging, including writing words backwards – or text sdrawkcab as the round was dubbed – and having to tap out the words to the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star within 45 seconds while wearing darkened glasses that blocked the competitors’ view.
The champion said he typically sent 500 texts a day to his friends, but attributed his success to added practice with his mother.
The writer Malcolm Gladwell once wrote that studies suggested that it typically took 10,000 hours – or 417 full days – of practice to become an elite performer.
This suggests that despite Austin Weirschke’s proficiency, he still has room for improvement.
American transportation safety regulators want to ban the use of mobile devices while driving, going so far as to say they should never be used in cars unless in case of emergency.
The National Transportation Board said Tuesday that states should ban all driver use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices, even including hands-free devices.
NTSB made the radical recommendation following a deadly highway pileup in Missouri last year when a 19-year-old pickup driver sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately before the crash which killed him and a 15-year-old student.
The pickup, travelling at 55 miles per hour, collided into the back of a tractor truck before the pickup was rear-ended by a school bus that overrode the smaller vehicle, and a second school bus rammed into the back of the first bus.
NTSB made the radical recommendation following a deadly highway pileup in Missouri last year when a 19-year-old pickup driver sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately before the crash which killed him and a 15-year-old student
The recommendation, unanimously agreed to by the five-member board, significantly exceeds any existing state laws restricting texting and cell phone use behind the wheel.
While the NTSB doesn’t have the power to impose restrictions, its recommendations carry significant weight with federal regulators and congressional and state lawmakers.
NTSB has previously recommended bans on texting and cell phone use by commercial truck and bus drivers and beginning drivers, but it has stopped short of calling for a ban on the use of the devices by adults behind the wheel of passenger cars.
The problem of texting while driving is getting worse despite a rush by states to ban the practice, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week. In November, Pennsylvania became the 35th state to forbid texting while driving.
About two out of 10 American drivers overall – and half of drivers between 21 and 24 – say they’ve thumbed messages or emailed from the driver’s seat, according to a survey of more than 6,000 drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Even more, many drivers don’t think it’s dangerous when they do it – only when others do, the survey found.
At any given moment last year on US streets and highways, nearly 1 in every 100 car drivers was texting, emailing, surfing the Web or otherwise using a handheld electronic device, the safety administration said. And those activities spiked 50 per cent over the previous year.
Driver distraction wasn’t the only significant safety problem uncovered by NTSB’s investigation of the Missouri accident.
Investigators said they believe the pickup driver was suffering from fatigue that may have eroded his judgment at the time of the accident. He had an average of about five and a half hours of sleep a night in the days leading up to the accident and had had fewer than five hours of sleep the night before the accident, they said.
Regardless of the personal contributions to the accident, the fatal Missouri crash is a “big red flag for all drivers”, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said at a meeting to determine the cause of the accident and make safety recommendations.
It is not possible to know from cell phone records if the driver was typing, reaching for the phone or reading a text at the time of the crash, but it’s clear he was manually, cognitively and visually distracted, she said.
“Driving was not his only priority,” Deborah Hersman said.
“No call, no text, no update is worth a human life.”
Missouri had a law banning drivers under 21 years old from texting while driving at the time of the crash, but wasn’t aggressively enforcing the ban, board member Robert Sumwalt said.
“Without the enforcement, the laws don’t mean a whole lot,” Robert Sumwalt said.
