12/21/2021
A Digital Interchange on the Topic of Addiction
Two counsellors from the Addiction Counselling Agency in Friedrichshafen held an online meeting with the ninth grade.

On December 6, 2021, as part of the newspaper project in grade 9, two counsellors from Friedrichshafen’s Addiction Counselling Agency were invited to speak with our class – digitally, rather than in person, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The counselling agency employs twelve counsellors who hold workshops at youth welfare sites, family centres and in schools. Our guests explained how addiction can be detected and which criteria must be met in order to speak of an addiction at all.

Our online session focussed on the topic of media addiction. We learned that only about five percent of the agency’s clients have an addiction to media. The majority suffer from addiction to drugs or alcohol, or other addictive habits. To detect an addiction there are primary and secondary criteria. Primary criteria include, for example, loss of self-control and withdrawal symptoms. Secondary criteria involve other physical phenomena, such as sleeplessness. Individuals who turn to the agency in Friedrichshafen because of media addiction are between 15 and 30 years old. Usually, they seek help as the result of the influence of others, such as pressure from friends or family members. In most cases, these clients do not have an addiction that meets the defining criteria, but, rather, a milder form of dependency. Individuals who are over the age of twenty are more likely to seek help on their own initiative and also have a more serious form of dependency or addiction. We also learned that it could take up to seven years before an addiction is recognized as such.

Constantin Maier, 9D1

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