Являемся ли мы свидетелями новых зависимостей

A few decades ago the range of pathological forms of addictive behaviour was determined by the clinical consequences of excessive consumption of psychoactive substances. Today a lot of descriptions of new psychopathological phenomena appear, they are connected with a person’s new activities or opportunities under present-day conditions rather than with a person’s taking previously unknown chemical substances. These opportunities are connected with both having access to varieties of new gadgets and a wide range of means of creating illusions of the complete and prompt satisfaction of needs of communication, security, recognition, love, creativity, development. How much has the new opportunity era changed into the time of new addictions? The analysis showed that the prevalence of many forms of behavioural addictions is significant, particularly among young people. A disharmonic personality may shift from one addiction to another over time, illuding the people around them and specialists into thinking that this personality is “cured”. But the addiction will take another form, which will be “new” in a behavioural or technological way only. The “new” addictions reflect the ontogenetically ancient desire of a disharmonic personality to use an artificial method or technique to release high emotional tension, whether it is a psychoactive substance, communication in a social network or an impulse purchase in a shop. This way of getting rid of emotional discomfort makes a person feel pleased for a while, creates the illusion of solving a problem easily. Eventually, it leads to a reduction in the constructiveness of behaviour and the formation of addictions in a large variety of their forms. Under today’s conditions of intensive technological development behavioural addictions become more and more widespread, their definite clinical and scientific classification is not elaborated. Addictive behaviour takes various forms without changing the psychological and sociocultural mechanisms of its formation, and the degrees of social importance of these forms are varied.