Behavioral addiction can take root in habits that seem harmless or even enjoyable. As the brain grows more attached to a specific behavior, it can slowly shape how a person thinks, copes, and connects with others.

Such patterns often overlap with mental health challenges and substance abuse. Understanding this type of addiction is the first step to recognizing when a behavior is crossing the line.

What Is Behavioral Addiction?

Behavioral addiction refers to a condition where a person repeatedly engages in certain behaviors even when they lose control over them and continue despite negative consequences.

• It’s not about taking drugs or alcohol.
  
• It’s about doing something repeatedly because the brain craves it.
  
• The behavior becomes a way to escape boredom, stress, or heavy feelings.

When this happens, the warning signs often show up in your mood, relationships, and choices long before you realize it’s an addiction.

Common Signs and Symptoms to Watch For

Many people are surprised that these signs can appear even when the behavior looks normal or harmless at first.

Signs to look out for:

• Loss of control over the behavior – The person keeps doing the activity longer than planned or more often than intended, such as spending hours gaming after promising to stop at a certain time, or constantly scrolling on social media even when there’s work to do.
  
• Strong cravings or urges – The behavior feels necessary for comfort or excitement, and the urge grows stronger during stress or boredom, like immediately turning to shopping, gambling apps, food, or pornography as a way to escape heavy feelings.
  
• Prioritizing the behavior over responsibilities – Schoolwork, chores, job tasks, or relationships are pushed aside to make room for the activity, such as skipping sleep to binge a series, ignoring meals to continue gaming, or canceling plans just to keep doing the behavior.
  
• Negative emotions when trying to stop – The person becomes irritable, restless, anxious, or sad when they cannot do the activity, such as getting angry when the internet disconnects during a game or feeling panicked when a phone is not accessible.
  
• Continuing the behavior even when it causes problems – The activity keeps going despite financial stress, conflict at home, or declining health, such as spending money on unnecessary things despite debt, exercising through pain, or gambling again after losing savings.
  
• Using the behavior to cope with emotions – The activity becomes the main way to handle loneliness, stress, or frustration, shown when eating becomes a comfort after arguments, or pornography becomes a distraction from insecurity, or gaming turns into an escape from social anxiety.

These behaviors connect to deeper issues, especially when it comes to mental health. 

How Behavioral Addiction Overlaps With Mental Health Disorders

Behavioral addictions often do not exist on their own. They commonly show up alongside conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive traits. Researchers call this “comorbidity,” when more than one mental health condition is present at the same time.

Here’s how they overlap:

They share similar brain pathways

Both behavioral addictions and substance addictions involve the brain’s reward system, particularly circuits tied to pleasure, motivation, and habit-forming.

For instance, studies on Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) show changes in brain areas linked to impulse control, reward processing, and decision-making, which are similar to brain effects seen in other mental health and addiction disorders.¹

They often come with anxiety, depression, or mood disorders

Many individuals with behavioral addictions report persistent low mood, hopelessness, or constant worry. IGD has been associated with higher rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms.² Similarly, Gambling Disorder (GD) is often comorbid with mood and anxiety disorders.

They can resemble obsessive-compulsive patterns or impulsive disorders

Some behavioral addictions involve repeated behaviors, strong urges, and compulsive repetition that’s similar to what is observed in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or impulse-control disorders.

Additionally, traits like impulsivity and difficulty controlling urges are common both in behavioral addictions and in other conditions like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Behavioral addiction and mental health disorders can worsen each other over time

Research using network-analysis methods has found strong links between behavioral addictions (especially technology-based behaviors like internet use, gaming, and social media) and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).⁵

Because behavioral addiction can develop alongside other mental health struggles, the behavior itself isn’t always the main problem; it may be a sign of something deeper. That’s why some everyday habits can slowly turn into powerful coping tools, acting almost like a “substitute” for substance use. 

In the long run, these patterns can start to resemble addiction even when no substance is involved, and in some cases, they can open the door to future substance misuse.

Behaviors That Can Mimic or Lead to Substance Addiction

Some behaviors can activate the brain in ways that closely resemble the effects of drugs and alcohol. Scientific research shows that certain repetitive, rewarding behaviors can create similar pathways of craving, tolerance, withdrawal-like symptoms, and loss of control, even without a chemical substance.

According to a study published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, growing evidence shows that behavioral addictions share many features with substance addictions, including:

• Natural history (how the disorder develops and progresses)
  
• Phenomenology (how it is experienced by the person)
  
• Tolerance (needing more of the behavior to get the same emotional effect)
  
• Comorbidity (often occurring with other mental health disorders)
  
• Genetic vulnerability (overlapping biological risk factors)
  
• Neurobiological mechanisms (shared brain reward circuits)
  
• Response to treatment (similar therapeutic approaches show benefit)

These findings support the DSM-5 Task Force’s proposal to categorize both substance use disorders and behavioral addictions under a broader grouping called “Addiction and Related Disorders.”

Behaviors With Strongest Evidence of Resembling Substance Addiction

• Pathological Gambling (Gambling Disorder) – Recognized as the first official behavioral addiction in DSM-5. It shows measurable changes in brain reward pathways similar to those seen in cocaine and opioid addiction.
  
• Internet or Digital Addiction (e.g., Internet Gaming Disorder) – Repeated exposure to digital rewards (likes, gaming wins, novelty) activates dopamine pathways and can produce craving, withdrawal-like symptoms, loss of control, and neglect of responsibilities. Evidence remains limited but strong enough for continued DSM study.

Behaviors Still Under Investigation

Some behaviors are suspected to involve addiction-like changes but lack enough scientific evidence for classification. These include:

• Compulsive shopping
  
• Pornography or sexual behaviors
  
• Excessive exercise
  
• Binge-eating behaviors outside of recognized eating disorders
  
• Work addiction

A review published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine confirms that behavioral and drug addictions share similar diagnostic symptoms, but researchers emphasize that not all compulsive behaviors should automatically be labeled as addictions. More data is needed to determine which ones show true addiction-like biological patterns.

Choosing the Right Level of Care for Lasting Recovery

Finding the right support is an important step in healing from behavioral addiction. The best type of care depends on how strongly the behavior is impacting daily life, relationships, and emotional well-being.

Outpatient & Virtual Support Through Oceanrock Health

At Oceanrock Health, this option supports individuals who can keep up with work, school, or daily routines but still feel overwhelmed, stuck, or unable to control a behavior on their own.

• Sessions happen online or in person while the person stays at home.
  
• Treatment can include therapy for anxiety, trauma, depression, or ADHD, which are the issues that often drive addictive behavior.
  
• People learn coping skills, build routines, and strengthen emotional control without stepping away from everyday life.
  
• It’s flexible, private, and a good choice when someone is ready to make changes with professional guidance.

Residential Treatment at South Coast Counseling

Through South Coast Counseling, this setting is best for people who feel unsafe, can’t stop the behavior on their own, or are experiencing serious effects on their relationships, health, or recovery from substance use.

• Clients live in a safe, structured environment with 24/7 support.
  
• The focus is on deeper healing by addressing stress, trauma, mental health conditions, or relapse risks that outpatient care may not fully reach.
• Daily therapy, community support, and clear routines help remove triggers and create space to recover without pressure or distraction.
• This level of care gives the brain time to reset and rebuild healthier habits.

Both levels of care share the same goal: helping people feel more in control of their lives and emotions, not controlled by a behavior. 

If you or someone you care about is beginning to feel overwhelmed by a behavior, reaching out for help can be the first step toward lasting change.

Sources: 

1. Bélanger-Lejars, V. O. (2015). Internet Gaming Disorder and Gambling Disorder: A Comparison of Individual Psychological Factors. Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Science, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.15640/jpbs.v3n2a12
2. ‌Burkauskas, J., Griskova-Bulanova, I., Đorić, A., Balhara, Y. P. S., Sidharth, A., Ransing, R., Thi, T. –. V. V., Huong, T. N., Kafali, H. Y., Erzin, G., Vally, Z., Chowdhury, M. R. R., Sharma, P., Shakya, R., Moreira, P., Faria, S., Noor, I. M., Campos, L. A. M., Szczegielniak, A. R., & Stevanovic, D. (2022). Association of Internet gaming disorder symptoms with anxiety and depressive symptoms and substance use: an international cross-sectional study. Middle East Current Psychiatry, 29(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-022-00180-6
3. ‌Sharma, R., & Weinstein, A. (2025). Gambling disorder comorbidity a narrative review. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 27(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/19585969.2025.2484288
4. ‌Dvora Shmulewitz, Levitin, M. D., Skvirsky, V., Vider, M., Roi Eliashar, Mikulincer, M., & Shaul Lev-Ran. (2024). Comorbidity of problematic substance use and other addictive behaviors and anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder: a network analysis. Psychological Medicine, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291724002794