I want to start this brief reflection by introducing the story of a young user, who I will call fictional name Simona; I met her at the Addiction Department of Ancona at the beginning of the millennium as she had asked for help for problems arising from the use of narcotic substances, in particular cocaine and hallucinogens.
Simona and Goan music
During the welcome interview, Simona told me that she used to take hallucinogens at parties where Goan music was listened to, a musical genre unknown to me, which is why I had to research both the particular type of music and the type of parties in which it was played. listened to: anamnestic elements, these, very important in trying to understand the problem that Simona was bringing to the Service.
Andrea Bocchini
From my research I discovered that it was a genre of electronic music that owes its name to the state of Goa, the smallest state in India, a favorite final destination for hippies who used to gather on its beaches especially in the 1980s, to participate in parties, dancing to the rhythm of new sounds, born from the fusion between techno and trance music.
Goan music reached its peak between 1994 and 1998 and then merged into psy-trance.
In Goa music festivals, fluorescent colored decorations are usually used that recall themes such as religion, psychedelic art and extra-terrestrial life. Listening to music, using hallucinogenic substances and the aforementioned decorations create a psychedelic experience in the public.
The importance of documentation
Researching Goan music was important to fully understand Simona’s storygiving me a clearer and more detailed picture of your problem.
All this to underline that the details that users tell us are fundamental to better decipher their request for help. In Simona’s case it was important to have a clear understanding of the context in which she took drugs, in order to outline a precise anamnestic picture; not reading up on Goan music would have meant leaving out an essential aspect of her story and equally of her problems.
Roberto’s betting exchange
Roberto’s storyanother fictitious name, constitutes a further example.
«My problem is online betting, in particular the betting-exchange»
When the aforementioned user told me these words a few years ago, I had no idea what the betting-exchange.
The fact, however, that he immediately told us that he had this particular addiction represented a first important element of the anamnesis.
I was clearly in the presence of a problem of gambling addiction, in particular sports betting, of which I did not know the precise modality which was causing a significant loss of money to the person who was asking me for help.
Gambling is one of the forms of pathological addiction that characterizes this new millennium, together with drug addiction web and from gamingthe latter especially with regard to adolescence.
Managing new forms of addiction
Social workers, together with other service professionals who deal with pathological addictions, have found themselves, for years now, increasingly often being called to manage these new forms of addiction. If we think about the case of gambling, the problem is not at all new, given that it has accompanied human beings since ancient times; it, therefore, does not constitute a new addiction, but rather a return, a resurgence of a problem that has afflicted us for centuries.
But let’s go back to Roberto and his addiction to sports betting, in particular to betting-exchange. As already reported, I had no idea what this particular type of bet was, which is why I documented myself. Betting-exchange: a particular method of betting inspired by the financial stock market, and more generally by trading. A kind of peer to peer in the betting sector, launched by Betfair (an English sports betting company) in 2000 in Great Britain and legalized in Italy in 2014.
In essence, with this game mode you overcome the bookie-bettor duo, where the former acts as the dealer and the latter places the bet. For every market there are always two components: on the one hand there are those who think that an event will occur (players who bet) and on the other those who believe that it will not occur (players who lay).
Clearly the social worker does not have to be an expert connoisseur in the field of gambling, but his knowledge, even if only superficial, can help him in approaching the user’s problem.
Luca and the “tinderate”
In 2012 a user, who I will call by his fictional name Luca, asked for help from the addiction service where I worked, for a sex addiction; during the reception interview she told me that the last “tinder” she had had just the evening before the interview.
I didn’t know the term “tinderata”; it, however, became clearer during the continuation of the conversation in which Luca spoke to me about the reality he was experiencing, a reality almost unknown to me. His request for help forced me to find information on the matter, effectively discovering a world that was new to me (also because it had only recently been released).
The term “tinderata” refers to meeting a person known through platform dating Tinder online, very well known today, but at the time of my conversation with Luca, she had recently landed in Italy. Today there is no longer just Tinder; in the panorama of dating in fact, there are also other platforms such as Once, Clover, Happn, Meetic, Badoo, Hinge, OKCupid, Grindr, Settle for Love.
Luca turned to the health service as he realized that he had now become dependent on this type of meeting method, mostly for sexual purposes.
If at first Luca found that world funny, a world made of like, swipeencounters that are sometimes satisfying and others less soas time passed he realized that he could no longer do without it: it had become the only way to approach the opposite sex.
Obviously not only Luca has shown this type of addiction, just think that one relationship in three is born online, and the significant numbers of subscribers to the main online platforms dating are tangible proof of this: Meetic, 7 million, Badoo, 60 million, Tinder, 55 million.
It is important to underline how the recent pandemic has facilitated the increase in the number of members, even if, fortunately, most of the members do not develop addiction phenomena.
Internet e social media
Luke’s story introduces the theme of addiction to the internet and in particular to social mediaa problem that today especially affects younger people and whose not only treatment but also acceptance into the service is not simple.
From research by the 2020 Scientific Observatory of the Digital Ethical Movement, it emerged that 79% of the children interviewed between the ages of 11 and 18 spend more than 4 hours a day on social media, i.e. 28 hours a week, 120 hours a month, basically two whole months in a year.
Teenagers access the internet mainly using smartphones, more rarely via personal computers as emerges from a 2018 Censis research, which showed that only 27% of teenagers accessed the web via PC.
The online world of teenagers
The Internet for young people, i.e. those born in the new millennium, means above all social media ed online gaming, “mondi” very often little known to us social workers. It’s thanks to the story of Antonio, a teenager who had closed himself in his online worldthat in 2018 I approached the world of Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (Mporg), where many players connected from all over the world challenge each other at the same time, each with their own character and with multiple communication possibilities, from simple chat to speaking directly to each other while playing.
Therefore, many friendships are born within these games, also thanks to apps like Telegram and Whattsapp which facilitate contacts and make interaction simpler. Beyond the dangers of the internet, however, we must pay attention to online friendships. Zygmunt Bauman was enlightening on the topic: «Human bonds have been replaced by connections. While human connections require effort, connecting and disconnecting is child’s play.”
Social workers and increasingly complex challenges
In conclusion, the social worker who increasingly finds himself faced with new and complex challenges in which he must implement incisive therapeutic interventions, must constantly take care updating, an element that undoubtedly contributes to providing a more precise professional performance and responsive to the problem expressed by the user.
The stories of Simona, Roberto, Luca and Antonio have taught me a lot, stimulating my updating on the various declinations of pathological addiction. Users can teach us a lot if we know how to listen to them, something that should never be taken for granted.
We dedicated an investigation to substance use, particularly by young people, in the issue of VITA magazine “Drugs, let’s open our eyes”. If you are a subscriber or subscriber to VITA, read now “Drugs, let’s open our eyes” (and thank you for the support you give us). If you want to subscribe, you can do so from Who. If you want to read the magazine, receive the next issues and access dedicated content and features, subscribe here.
In apertura photo by Florian Schmetz on Unsplash
The article Drugs, sex, internet: to help you need to learn to listen to the discomfort comes from Vita.it.