Behavioral Addictions

You don't need a substance to get hooked. This section covers the compulsions that run on the same machinery as drug and alcohol addiction — porn, gambling, phones, food, gaming, even people and work — and separates the real science from both the moral panic and the dismissiveness. This is also where the addiction half of the Atlas connects to the behavior-change half: the mechanism that makes a slot machine or a feed hard to put down is the same one behind a lot of everyday behavior.

Start here

• Am I addicted to my phone? — the hook-cycle lens, bridging to behavior change

• Is porn addiction real? — contested science handled honestly

• How is social media designed to hook you? — the mechanism, not the panic

Every question in this section

• Is porn addiction real?

• How do I stop gambling?

• Am I addicted to my phone?

• Is food addiction real?

• What is gaming disorder?

• Can you be addicted to a person?

• How is social media designed to hook you?

• Work addiction: when does drive become compulsion?

Link up: The Behavior Change Atlas Curated by Dr. Adi Jaffe, PhD (UCLA), author of The Abstinence Myth and Unhooked.