Lesson video

Hello there, everyone.

My name's Ms. Shaw.

I'm really pleased you're joining me today for today's lesson, which is about the Spiral of Addiction.

So this lesson, we'll focus on the Spiral of Addiction.

The incremental seeking of more extreme materials over time and the difficulties in stopping viewing explicit material online and how to get support.

This lesson does cover sensitive topics, so therefore, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

For this lesson, you are going to need an exercise book or some paper.

You'll need a pen, and you'll need your brain for thinking.

So hopefully you've already completed your intro quiz.

Firstly, we'll going to take a look at what is the Spiral of Addiction? Next, we'll look at how incremental seeking of more explicit content occurs over time.

Then we'll look at the difficulties in stopping and how we can get support.

And finally, you'll complete your key learning points and we'll do the exit quiz too.

So to recap from some prior learning, two of the keywords listed below were covered in previous lesson.

I would like you to pause here, read through them and choose the correct ones.

So which two were covered in previous lessons? Were you correct? Mistreatment, which refers to the improper treatment of someone or something and exploitation, which refers to selfishly taking advantage of someone or something in order to benefit yourself or to gain from it.

We've covered in previous lessons.

Now, the other two, which were addiction and incremental, we're going to be looking into in more detail in today's lesson.

So the keywords for today's lesson are addiction, which means having no control over what you are doing, taking or using and it becomes harmful to you.

The Spiral of Addiction, which refers to how an addict becomes more and more addicted or dependent over time, starting small and then escalating.

Incremental, which means increasing in a small series of steps.

And explicit content, which refers to any media which contains content of an adult or harmful nature.

So in this first section, we're going to investigate what is meant by the Spiral of Addiction.

So what do we mean by addiction? I'd like you to pause here and to jot down your own definition, what you think we mean by the term addiction.

So according to the NHS, addiction is defined as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you.

And the longer that a person is addicted, the more they will end up losing and eventually, if they cannot control that behaviour, they could end up ruining their lives.

So what do we mean by the spiral of addiction? Think of any suggestions that you might have.

Pause here while you think about the Spiral of Addiction.

So becoming gradually addicted to something is often referred to as a downward spiral of addiction where, over time, the benefits of using or doing something become outweighed by all of the negatives.

So what do you think are some of the issues associated with the downward spiral of addiction? I'd like you to pause here and make a list of any problems that you can think of.

Then come back and we'll compare lists.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, I put that some of the issues associated with a downward spiral of addiction are potential mental health problems and anxiety and depression.

If you're feeling guilty or shameful about the addiction, then you might have potentially low self-esteem.

You could have drug and alcohol problems, which can escalate and you could end up with relationship problems with your family or your friends or your partners.

It can lead to difficulty dealing with stressful situations.

And also potential financial difficulties.

You might be less able to take care of family or friends.

You might be struggling with school work or social commitments.

You might have increasing problems with loved ones.

And unfortunately, you might develop a tolerance, which subsequently leads to you needing more.

So in this next section, we're going to look at the incremental seeking of more extreme material over time.

So what I mean by that is small steps that are taken for you to seek more extreme material.

So I'd like you to pause here just to think about which of the following statements about the need for viewing more explicit content over time is false.

So pause, read through the options, choose which one of the options you think is false.

Did you get it correct? Well, as a person's need for more increases, so do the problems associated with the behaviour.

And other parts of their life will begin to suffer.

And over time, a person's need for more becomes greater as they build up a tolerance.

Our attitudes, behaviours and responses do vary between people.

And unfortunately, addicting can become a major problem for those people who are affected by it.

I'd like you to consider this scenario now.

John is the class-clown.

He's a bit of a show-off at school, and he appears overly confident.

However, this behaviour masks some difficulties that he has at home.

He's got issues with his dad, who he lives with, and spends a lot of time surfing the web.

There are no parental control restrictions placed on the content that he can view and he often finds explicit content popping up.

He's become normalised to the behaviours and it's led to him searching for more explicit content.

He's not interested in socialising with his friends, as he just want to get home from school and search the web.

It's impacting upon his school work and John is becoming more withdrawn.

Now, for this task, I'd like you to consider in what ways we can tell that John is at risk of becoming addicted? I'd like you to explain the reasoning behind your decision.

So pause here while you complete this task and then resume once you've done.

So in what ways can we tell that John is at risk of becoming addicted? Explain the reasoning behind your decision.

Does your answer match mine? So John is spending too much time on the internet, and it's impacting upon his relationship with his friends and family, also his social life and upon his mental health.

John's need for spending more time on the internet indicates the potential to become obsessed or addicted, and the fact that his attitudes towards viewing explicit content have become normalised is really worrying, as is the impact that it's having on his schoolwork.

Now, in this section, we're going to investigate the difficulties associated with stopping viewing explicit materials online, and how we can get support for this.

So which of the following are difficulties associated with trying to stop viewing explicit content? I'd like you to pause here to look at the slide and choose which ones are difficulties associated with trying to stop viewing explicit content.

So did you get them right? Well, some of the difficulties associated with trying to stop might be that there is a denial that there is an issue in the first place.

Or perhaps they think that they've got control over the addiction.

Or maybe they're even fearful of it being unpleasant for them to try and stop.

If they've developed a tolerance, they might be quite high functioning and able to hide it from other people.

They also might have a misunderstanding about the spiral of addiction and they may have alienated themselves from those who are around them.

And they might not be able to reduce the time that they're spending on their internet or devices.

Also potentially, they could be around people with other or similar addictions.

Knowing and accepting that they are addicted is the first stage in getting help because they want to be mentally and physically healthy but being addicted to something is not conducive to that.

So if you know that there is an issue and you accept that there is an issue, then actively seeking support or help from a trusted adult is really important in getting that help.

Now, there are many sources of support available to help with issues relating to addiction.

So I'd like you to pause here to make a list of suggestions.

Who do you think you could turn to to get help with issues relating to addiction? So how did your list compare with mine? Well, sources of support can include speaking to a trusted adult, such as your teachers or family member of your GP or even your school nurse or a youth worker.

Perhaps the police.

Anyone basically that you trust, that you can turn to who you know will support you and give you help and guidance.

You can also access online agencies and charities, either online or you can call them up for advice and support.

And it is really important that you do reach out and get that support.

So the key learning from this lesson is that people can become addicted to viewing explicit content.

And that the spiral of addiction can have potentially damaging consequences.

It's really important to be able to recognise the difficulties of stopping addiction and that spiral of addiction occurring.

And getting appropriate help and support is absolutely vital.

I'd now like you to pause the video to complete your exit quiz to check your understanding of the content of this lesson.

Very well done on completing the fourth lesson in this unit.

I look forward to seeing you again for the next one.

Bye bye for now.