INTRODUCTION

1. Look at the photographs. Discuss these questions.

a. What is the connection between the unit title, 'Compulsion' and these
photographs?
. Which of the activities shown in the photographs do you do or have you done? Why
do you do them?
c. Which things have you never done, or would you never do? Why not?
d. Which activities can cause serious problems for individuals who do them regularly?
What problems can they cause?
2. Now discuss these questions.
a. Do you think some people have a tendency to become addicted to activities more
quickly than others? If so, do you think it is something in a person's character that
causes this tendency?
b. What can or should be done to help young people to avoid becoming addicted to
substances or activities?

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VOCABULARY
1. Read this text. How does the writer of this text feel about their addiction?

m a chocoho ic. Don't laugh it's serious At the moment, my addiction isn't too
bad. 've cut down my intake to one block a day, and some days get by on a
chocolate biscuit or two. But at its worst, it's a complete obsession the sweeter, the
stick ier, the r icher it is, the better. My eyes light up just thinking about it.
I can eat any kind, even the cheap cook ing chocolate that turns most people off . And
fortunately, I can eat as much sugar as I ike without putting on weight Like other
addicts, most chocoholics deny they have a problem. know I'm hooked on
chocolate, but don' t intend to g ive it up.
2. Are you addicted to these or any other foods? Exchange ideas with a partner.
cheese chillies chips chocolate
coffee hamburgers sugar tea
3. Find and underline six phrasal verbs in the text above. Replace the phrasal verbs
with the correct form of a word or phrase from the list below.
Example a
disgust gain reduce shine stop survive (on)
4. Match the phrasal verbs with give in a-e with their meanings 1-7. Some verbs have
more than one meaning.
1. surrender or admit you can't do something
a give away 2. distribute things to people
b give back 3. stop being involved with someone because
they disappoint you
c give in
d give out 4. reveal secret information
e give up on 5. return something to its owner
6. let someone have something without paying
7. hand (home)work to a teacher

5. Complete these sentences with the correct form of a phrasal verb with give.
a. I've been watching this DVD ever since Rachel lent it to me. I really ought to _______it
________to her and buy it for myself.
b. I feel like________James ­ he never does what he says he's going to do.
c. One of the supermarkets in town is free samples of a new kind of non­addictive
chocolate. You should try it.
d. I haven't had a cigarette for three days, and I'm not going to__________now.
e. All over town there are people _________ leaflets about how to stop smoking.

READING AND USE OF ENGLISH

1. Read sentences a-f. Then, find the correct follow-on sentences in Underline
the words or phrases that helped you decide.
a. People are always claiming they're addicted to things.
b. I know there are people who sue fast food companies because they blame their health
problems on the addictive nature of fast food and the refusal of restaurants to provide
healthier alternatives.
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c. Would you be able to recognize someone who had a serious gambling habit? Would he
look rich?
d. The belief that addiction is a disease is becoming more accepted.
e. Habitual behaviour is a natural part of our lives and includes everything from shutting
down your computer to combing your hair. It isn't difficult to break these habits because
we usually do them without thinking.
f. We offer this eating plan to help food addicts

1. Or would his eyes have a worried , slightly mad look?

2. Addictions , however, are conscious choices that can become very difficult to control.
3. A recent case involved a man who sued a restaurant for not telling customers that it used
a certain kind of cooking fat.
4. It is not meant to be a diet, but a permanent change in eating habits.
5. I've heard them say, 'I'm addicted to coffee' or 'I'm hooked on that TV programme'.
6. This is not surprising as the loudest voices involved in defining conditions come from
doctors and other health workers.
2. You are going to read an article about dealing with addiction. Six sentences
have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one
which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to
use.
A. Half an hour of intense aerobic exercise can produce five times the amount you'd have
if you were sitting down.
B. Low concentrations of these are closely linked to depression .
C. It may be, though, that the thrill can never quite compare with that achieved by taking
drugs.
D. People become addicted to something because there's an underlying unhappiness.
E. Steve, a personal trainer, used his work to mask his secondary addiction.
F. The thrill from the exercise is the thing, the drug­like feelings brought about by the
activity are what addicts want.
G. With a negative addiction, on the other hand, exercise overrides everything.

3. Discuss these questions.

Do you think addiction is mainly an individual or a social problem?
Do you think that some addictions are harmless or are they all harmful?
If you thought that you were becoming addicted to something, what would you do
if you found it difficult to simply stop?

KICKING THE HABIT

The term 'exercise addiction' was coined in 1976 by Dr William Glasser when he was
studying long­distance runners. He noticed that many of them experienced low moods
when they couldn't train, and he came to differentiate between positive and negative
addictions: a positive addiction involves a love of the activity, and the exercise is
scheduled around other everyday activities . You run your running schedule, for example,
rather than it running you, and an enforced day off isn't the end of the world. The results
are increased feelings of physical and psychological wellbeing. 1_______ Relationships
and work suffer, a day away from the gym causes distress, and health can decline as
overtraining leads to injury and illness.

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Two types of negative exercise addiction have since been defined. Secondary addiction is
probably the most common, where the compulsion to exercise is driven by a need to
control and change one's body shape, and is often accompanied by an eating disorder.
2_________'Whatever workout my client was doing, I'd do it, too, alongside them,
supposedly to motivate them, bL!t in fact it was to keep my weight down. In total, I was
doing several hours of cardio every day, and I didn't actually enjoy the exercise. I hated
the feeling of not having the perfect body even more, though.'
With Primary addiction, body image isn't so central. 3________It works like this: when we
exercise strenuously, we activate our sympathetic nervous system, causing a rise in the
concentration of serotonin and other chemicals in the brain which make us feel happy.
At the same time, the body produces endorphins which shut down pain signals reaching
the brain. 4______. Add all these together, and you have a recipe for mild euphoria.
Unfortunately, just as the body's tolerance of drugs increases, so it is with endorphins:
more are required to produce the same thrill, so the exercise intensity has to be increased.
5________.
Tony, who took drugs daily for almost a decade, then took to running half­marathons. He
admits that getting the kick got harder. He said he'd lie awake at night thinking about the
next day's session. It still wasn't as good as the drugs he was on before. Sports and exercise
psychologist Paul Russellhas encountered many people like Tony. 'Exercise addiction
tends to be a more temporary addiction, marking time before the person returns to the
basic ones, like drugs. 6________ If they haven't sorted out the reasons for this state, via
counselling for example, they'll have to direct that need to something else.'

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