Impact of Behavioral Addictions on Quality of Life: Universal and Behavior-Specific Consequences

Quality of life (QoL) is a wide-ranging construct and includes one’s level of physical function or disability, economic security, availability of leisure/flexible time, social belongingness, physical safety, human rights/freedom, and one’s general sense of wellness. Several studies have been conducted on the QoL of persons suffering from drug use addictions. However, relatively little work has explored QoL among persons suffering from behavioral addictions. For this chapter, I envisioned how one nondrug substance/behavioral addiction (food) and seven focal behavioral addictions (gambling, electronic media, shopping, love, sex, exercise, and work) may impact QoL. To assist, I explored the co-occurrence of “behavioral addiction” with “quality of life” on the first 500 websites of Google Scholar, as well included previous work on the known consequences of these addictions. Common and unique consequential impacts are examined for these eight addictions, as compared to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug addictions. General recommendations for improving QoL are made. These include systemic changes, as well as social-level support groups and individual-level therapies.