Earlier this year, teen star Demi Lovato made the brave and courageous decision to enter treatment for an eating disorder and issues with cutting. These are issues that Demi had been dealing with since she was eight years old and long before she ever entered Hollywood. In an interview after the conclusion of her 3 month treatment stay, Demi said that she had been suffering from addiction. I was really surprised to hear Demi say that. If she had not been doing drugs or drinking alcohol, how could she be suffering from addiction?

When one hears the word addiction, they usually think of drugs or alcohol and they usually think of adults, not teens. However, addiction is not just related to drugs and alcohol and addiction does NOT only affect adults. Each year, millions of teens in the US suffer from addiction and many of these teens may not be aware of it. Addiction can be in form of being addicted to an eating disorder, shopping, relationships, work, food ect. Regardless of what form of addiction someone is suffering from, addiction can unravel a teen’s life and affect every aspect of that teen’s life. It wasn’t until I hear about the different forms of addiction that I learned one of my close friends was suffering from addiction. My friend had no awanress of her addiction either and if I hadn’t learned of the different forms of addcition, she may never have gotten the help she needed to turn her life around.

A lot of schools do not make an effort to educate students on addiction other than drug and alcohol addiction and that is not ok. Addiction comes in many different forms and teens need to be educated on all forms of addiction as well as resources to seek help. People often look at addiction as a dirty word and don’t want to talk about it. People can no more control getting addiction than a person can control getting cancer. Addiction typically happens because there are other issues going on such as psychological or emotional issues and that is why it is so important for people to be aware of the forms of addiction so that they can seek help and recover.

Make an effort to educate yourself, your peers and your friends on addiction and all of the forms of addiction. You never know when it will enter your life. It may be your best friend, a family member or even yourself. It is important to know the forms of addiction, the symptoms of addiction and how to get help.