| Course | MSW 535 Drugs and Addictive Behaviors |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Behavioral addiction paper |
| Length | About 500 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 535 Week 6
Behavioral Addiction Paper Auditing the Substance Use Criteria Against Gambling and Gaming: Which Criteria Carry Across With No Compound Present, Where Tolerance and Withdrawal Strain and What the Diagnostic Manuals Decided
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 535: Drugs and Addictive Behaviors
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Behavioral Addiction Paper Auditing the Substance Use Criteria Against Gambling and Gaming: Which Criteria Carry Across With No Compound Present, Where Tolerance and Withdrawal Strain and What the Diagnostic Manuals Decided
The Criteria, Listed to Be Tested
DSM-5-TR sorts the eleven criteria into four clusters: loss of control over use, social consequences, hazardous use, and the physical pair of tolerance and withdrawal (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). The question is whether each still means something when no drug enters the body.
Impaired Control
Carries across. A person who gambles longer or with more money than intended, tries to cut down and fails, and spends a great deal of time on gambling shows loss of control in the same way as with a drug.
Continuing Despite Harm
Carries across. Continuing to gamble after losing savings, or gaming through the night despite failing classes, mirrors continued drug use despite known problems.
Social Impairment
Carries across. Lying to family to hide gambling losses, or withdrawing from friends to game, are recognized in both gambling disorder criteria and proposed gaming criteria.
The parallel is close enough that clinicians use similar questions for both: whom have you hidden this from, and what have you missed because of it? The answers tend to sound the same whether the activity is drinking or betting.
Where Tolerance Gets Difficult
For drugs, tolerance reflects adaptation in receptors and brain circuits (Volkow et al., 2016). In gambling, tolerance is described as needing to bet larger amounts to get the same excitement. That is a plausible parallel: the same activity does less, so the person increases it. In gaming, tolerance is harder: needing to play longer may reflect the game's design, which adds new levels and rewards, rather than an adaptation in the person.
Withdrawal Without a Compound
Gambling disorder includes restlessness or irritability when trying to cut down. That is a psychological state, not the physical syndrome of opioid or alcohol withdrawal, and it is never dangerous in itself. Calling it withdrawal borrows a word that, for substances, carries medical weight.
Gambling Is Not Gaming
Gambling involves money at risk on chance outcomes; gaming usually does not, except through purchases such as loot boxes. The evidence base for gambling disorder is much larger.
What the Bodies Decided
The American Psychiatric Association moved gambling disorder into the chapter on substance-related and addictive disorders in DSM-5, while internet gaming disorder remains a condition for further study (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). The World Health Organization's classification includes gaming disorder as a diagnosis. The two manuals disagree on gaming.
What It Means for Practice
At the harm reduction program, clients who gamble are usually also using substances. The gambling deserves a screen and a referral of its own, not just a mention.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Volkow, N. D., Koob, G. F., & McLellan, A. T. (2016). Neurobiologic advances from the brain disease model of addiction. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(4), 363-371. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1511480
What the MSW 535 Week 6 assignment asks for
The behavioral addiction paper reads as an audit. List the substance use criteria and carry each one across to a behavior, asking whether it still means something when no compound is present. For each, decide whether it transfers, transfers with strain or does not transfer, and explain why. Pay particular attention to tolerance and withdrawal, the pharmacological criteria that strain most. Distinguish behaviors from each other, since gambling and gaming have different evidence bases. Report what the diagnostic manuals decided and where they disagree. Close with what the audit means for practice. Avoid concluding simply that behavioral addiction is or is not real.
How this MSW 535 Week 6 example is built
The opening lists the four criterion groups from American Psychiatric Association (2022). Impaired control, continued use despite harm and social impairment each carry across with examples from gambling and gaming. The tolerance section notes drug tolerance as receptor and circuit adaptation, citing Volkow et al. (2016), accepts larger bets as a parallel in gambling and questions gaming tolerance given game design. The withdrawal section describes restlessness as psychological and never dangerous. A section separates money at risk from play. The manuals section reports gambling disorder in the substance chapter, gaming as a condition for further study and gaming disorder in the WHO classification. A practice section closes the paper.
Reading the MSW 535 Week 6 grading rubric
The paper earns most when every criterion is tested rather than assumed to transfer. Faculty deduct for a paper that argues behavioral addiction is real or unreal without auditing anything. Credit goes to careful treatment of tolerance and withdrawal, a distinction between gambling and gaming and an accurate report of what each manual decided. The practice implication should follow from the audit. Pharmacology belongs only where it explains why a criterion strains. Sources, including the manuals, should be cited in APA. Writing about phone or social media use is acceptable if the same audit is applied. A short table showing each criterion and whether it transfers can make the audit easier to follow. Faculty also look for an example of each criterion in each behavior.
MSW 535 Week 6 help: mistakes that cost points
Papers most often lose points by declaring that gaming or gambling is an addiction and listing harms. Another common gap is skipping withdrawal, the criterion that strains most. Some papers treat gambling and gaming as one behavior, though the evidence differs. Others misreport the manuals, especially the status of gaming. If your behavior is different, perhaps social media use, carry each criterion across in the same way and say which ones survive. Ending on which criteria survived, rather than on a verdict about the behavior, leaves the reader with something to use. Write one example of the criterion for each behavior before deciding.
Get a MSW-535 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 6 instructions with the behavior your section assigned and any required element list, and a custom example is written to them and returned inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. If the assignment asks you to compare the behavior against a particular substance class, name that class too, because the comparison decides which criteria carry the weight of the paper.
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MSW 535 Week 6 questions, answered
Does the paper have to conclude that behavioral addiction is real?
It has to conclude something and defend it, which is different. Papers arguing that only some criteria transfer, and that the category is useful for gambling and thin for shopping, tend to score better than either blanket answer, because the criterion-by-criterion work is what the assignment set. A verdict reached without walking through the list is graded as an opinion however confidently it lands.
Can I write about phone use or social media?
Many sections allow it and the research is thinner, which makes for a harder paper rather than an easier one. If you choose it, be explicit that the evidence base is younger and that most measures were adapted from gambling instruments. That honesty reads as competence. Where your section fixes the behavior, work with theirs and mention the alternatives only in comparison.
How much pharmacology belongs in a paper about a behavior?
Enough to make the borrowed criteria legible, which usually means a short passage on what tolerance and withdrawal mean where a compound is involved. That passage is doing real work, because it sets the standard the behavior is being measured against. What the paper does not need is a full mechanism section, since the substance is present here as a comparison rather than as the subject.
Where can I find a free MSW 535 Week 6 sample paper?
A complete MSW 535 Week 6 audit of substance use criteria applied to gambling and gaming appears on this page, annotated criterion by criterion.
What did the manuals decide in the MSW 535 Week 6 sample?
DSM-5-TR places gambling disorder in the substance chapter and lists gaming as a condition for further study, while the WHO classification includes gaming disorder as a diagnosis.