Why do people become addicted? What is the fundamental mechanism? Of course, this question has been answered to varying degrees and in varying ways. Whether you consider the physical aspects of addiction where changes occur in the brain, or the psychological mechanism that triggers an addiction many theories already exist.
This article is strictly my opinion. It is my personal attempt to understand addiction and I don’t claim to have any scientific backing for my model of addiction. Nor do I seek any. I’m merely trying to understand addiction in terms that make sense to me personally. If this is useful to you in some way, then so much the better.
Addiction can be a powerful force in our lives. I hold that addiction occurs with each of us to varying degrees. Drug and alcohol addictions are the most obvious to us because their destructive effects are very evident. But what about those addictions that are not so obvious. Do you have a favorite food? A favorite song? Why do we choose one thing over another? Why do people choose differently?
On a purely physical realm it appears that our brains become stimulated in a certain way that we enjoy and therefore we are left with a memory that is pleasurably associated with a certain stimulus such as a sound or a taste or a sensation. Could this be the basis for addiction?
Since we are beings with an organic component, this makes complete sense. Once an impression is made on us it is either postivive or negative and we have a ‘feeling’ that goes with that. Being creatures that enjoy pleasure over pain we naturally seek to relive positive experiences and avoid negative ones.
Therefore, if we had an experience that triggered a negative feeling, such as the taste of garlic, then we may forever hate the taste of garlic. Yet, someone else’s early experience or experiences with garlic may have been quite pleasurable. Therefore, they actually enjoy the taste and smell of garlic even to the point that they always use it or cook with it.
Being similar in our organic components, how can such divergent reactions occur? The only differential seems to be the original experience itself and how we reacted to it. That experience and reaction creates a record in our brains. This must be how two different brains can have such different reactions to the same substance or experience.
Then are we at the mercy of our first experience in regards to any particular stimuli? Yes, if we don’t do anything about it. However, if we really exert our will, we should be able to change our reaction to virtually anything.
Therefore, through exertion of willpower an addiction, any addiction, should be defeatable. Of course, things are not necessarily that simple in the real world. But in principle and in my opinion, it seems to be this way.
Otherwise, we would simply be robots at the mercy of these addictions that exist to varying degrees. I think most people would agree that is not the case. Also, it would contradict the gift of freewill that I believe we all have been granted. There are some things that we don’t get to choose in this life yet there are many things that we may exert our personal choice over. I believe that addiction is one of those things we can choose not to have. Maybe it takes hard work to beat an addiction but I think we do have an option in this regard.
If I’m correct, then the most important component to beating an addiction is the willingness to do so, coupled by the intensity of the desire to beat the addiction. It seems certain that the person must be willing at some level to be rid of an addiction in order for that freedom to occur.
Author: David S.
*If you have or think you might have a drug, alcohol or other dangerous addiction, you should seek the help of a qualified physician and get proper treatment as soon as possible.
To think of addiction as meaning only drugs and alcohol is a disservice, it is a broader subject than that alone.
In addition to substance use addictions such as alcoholism, prescription pill, and controlled substances, there are process addictions. Addictions such as shopping, gambling, and disordered eating are related to compulsive behavior. Being active in addiction not only hurts the user, but also those associated with them such as friends and family. This raises questions. What actually is addiction? How does all this get started? Crossing the line from a behavior into addiction is a difficult point to ascertain?
It is a fact that some people can engage in a behavior or use alcohol and chemicals and not become addicted. Those engaged in addiction have lost the ability to control or stop their use. Who you are or your social standing does not matter when it comes to addiction.
All addicts are not alike. There is no poster child. Despite a lot of study researchers cannot agree on the causes or cures for addiction. The part of addiction and that is the most difficult to quantify and evaluate is the emotional part of it. Often addiction is fed by the seeming relief it can bring from uncomfortable emotions. It is strange that the more one indulges in addiction the worse the negative consequences and the greater the need to soothe the negative effects.
While addiction manifests itself in different people in different ways, here are the most common signs and symptoms of addiction:
Symptom 1 -Â Unable to meet responsibilities of relationships or at home, school or work.
Symptom 2 -Â Compulsive preoccupation, meaning one spends a great deal of time thinking about the substance or behavior
Symptom 3 -Â Has tried but failed to stop using the substance or end the behavior. Control is sacrificed.
Symptom 4 -Â Engages in the behavior or substance use knowing it is dangerous or in dangerous situations such as driving.
Symptom 5 -Â Because of the addiction, one stops activities or hobbies that were fun or enjoyable.
Symptom 6 -Â There is a need to increase the amount and frequency of the behavior or substance to achieve the desired felling or affect.
Symptom 7 -Â Ones life has become centered around the addiction, isolation from others occurs.
The time has come to seek some help if any of the above signs and symptoms are prone in your life. Everyone agrees that addiction is a progressive disease. If you do nothing, the disease will progress toward the worse.
The obsession with Crystal Methamphetamine, sometimes called crank, ice and glass, is at a record high. Folks of each age and in each strata of life, from children to adults, are experiencing the high that incorporates the employment of this dangerous drug. Unfortunately, they must also experience the horror of the side has effects on that comes along with it. Usually, when someone begins to use Crystal Meth, it is simply an once-in-a-while thing for fun, often used when partying with chums. Then, it gets more and more frequent and before you know what has happened, you are hooked. It’s not simply because you want it, or like it, it’s because you want it. Eventually, you can’t get thru the day without it; that’s because Crystal Meth is extremely addictive and very dangerous.
The use of this drug has many complications which can be ravaging both mentally and physically. Anyone taking Crystal Meth are extraordinarily sure to suffer short- term is affecting including loss of appetite, insomnia, mood swings, and haphazard, violent behavior. Some have had hallucinations; you will begin to see and hear things that are not truly there, or start to feel insects crawling all over your skin. No matter what you do, you will not make them go away. You may also exhibit signs of paranoia and have mad episodes. Then too, some crystal meth users even become suicidal.
Crystal Meth addiction may also cause irrevocable, long term, physical has effects on such as heart and blood pressure problems, and can cause damage to blood vessels leading to the brain. This can end up in a stroke, convulsions and quite probably death. The more of this drug you put into your system, the more your body becomes accustomed to it and the more you’ll need to have the required high.
Drugs are one of the leading causes of birth defects, and Crystal Meth is not an exception. Early birth, underweight newborns and even deformities have been associated with mummies who used crystal methamphetamine whilst pregnant.
There is help for those that need to kick this deadly habit and get their life back. There are agencies like Crystal Meth Anonymous that have helped many addicts to rid of the poison which has taken control of their lives. With their 12-step program, they teach you how to take it one day at a time. All the group’s folks work together to help heal one another, with the help of sponsors that have worked through the same issue of addiction, and know the way to support one another. They do not judge any one needing help either, since as previous addicts, they know what exactly what you are going through. You may also search the Internet for other programs that are available to help reclaim your life. In fact, what have you have got to lose particularly, when you factor in the alternative?.
Alcohol addiction is a condition that disrupts every area of a person’s life. The drunk suffers in more ways than one due to their drinking habits….they also are suffering from a mental, social, and spiritual handicap at this point. Their entire life is adversely affected by the disease. Jobs are lost. Relationships are out of whack. People drop out of school, lose touch with their good friends, and so on. In short, alcoholism affects everything.
In many of these instances, alcoholism is taking things away from the individual. Any sense of spirituality is stripped away and replaced by the booze. Whatever used to provide entertainment and genuine value for the alcoholic was eventually replaced with drinking. In short, alcoholism becomes the answer for every event in the alcoholic’s life, and it is the cure for any ailment. It becomes the spiritual savior and the emotional balance mechanism.
So when someone tries to stop drinking, the task at hand is so much more than just quitting drinking. The task at hand is to completely recreate the entire life that was once ruled by drinking. Not only this, but also in seeking out a new way to live that can give us purpose that the booze used to provide for us, such as by how we dealt with our emotions.
The key to doing this is in creation.
In traditional recovery, such as with a 12 step program, there is a focus on creative efforts. The alcoholic is encouraged to progress through 12 steps in order to create a spiritual connection with a higher power and thus overcome their drinking. This is an act of creation, though I would argue that is too narrow of a focus. The reason for this is because the disease is more than just spiritual….It is also spiritual, physical, mental, and so on. So the answer should be comprehensive and needs to consider the whole alcoholic and every area of their lives, not just the spiritual.
So the answer for achieving sobriety is in making a purposeful life for yourself in these different areas. That is the holistic approach to recovery and when you follow it and attempt to grow in several areas then you will be involved in the act of creation. This then is the ultimate secret of overcoming alcohol addiction.
There are a lot of alcoholics and addicts who keep screwing up in recovery and then return to their AA meetings, completely confused about how they can not “get it.” They believe that they are missing out on the secret to staying clean and sober, when in fact they are just screwing up whatever program it is they are trying to work in their lives. It is not lack of wisdom that causes relapse, but rather a lack of application.
Addiction help comes to those who seek it. If you want to know how to stop drinking it is not going to happen if you are sitting at home on the couch and trying to wish your problem away. There are a bunch of different programs out there for staying clean and sober but the most popular one is AA and NA. Regardless of which program you follow, the key is in taking action.
None of the recovery programs out there are special or have the secret sauce that the other programs are lacking–it doesn’t work that way. If you are wondering how to help an alcoholic or addict then the key is in applying a program; not in choosing one. The secret is in the follow through. You have to put forth the work and the effort if you want to receive the benefits.
One of the biggest keys is in finding a way to connect with others in early recovery. Many will do this and still relapse, but the support you get from networking with others in recovery cannot be denied. If you want to do well in recovery then you should understand the importance of peer support from others who are trying to accomplish the same basic goal as you are. Whether or not you believe in the 12 step program is irrelevant because anyone can benefit from the peer support you can get from that fellowship.
So this process of making friends in recovery is crucial for new people in early recovery but as you go further along then a change needs to happen. The reason for this is because what got you clean and sober will not keep you clean and sober. The strategies you employ for early recovery are only useful up to a point and then you will have to make a change to pushing yourself for holistic growth. If you can do this then eventually you will transition to a creative life of recovery in which you are no longer dependent on meetings.
Of course we try our best to assist an alcoholic, but most of the time our help will actually hurt them instead because it does not move them any closer to surrender. So how can we know how to avoid enabling? How do we know when we are genuinely helping someone?
Here are some strategies that might serve you well:
1) Do not give them money – This is an easy rule that cuts right to the chase. Alcoholics need money in order to drink, but you should never give them money, even if they need to feed their children. This can sound really bad for a moment but try to comprehend for a moment how devious and coniving alcoholism can be. They might have already spent their money on booze, knowing that someone would step in and not let their children go hungry. So if you happen to have given them money then instead of helping the family or feeding the kids you are merely supporting an alcohol addiction. Don’t be deceived by this.
2) Suggest treatment but do not threaten or force them – if you try to force the issue this will only create resentment and more drinking. People who are forced or strongly coerced into treatment do not stay sober. They really have to want sobriety in their heart so your best route in most cases is just to notify them that treatment is open to them if they become willing.
3) Consider a formal intervention – think long and hard before doing a formal intervention because there is a chance that it can backfire and strain the relationship even further. That is why this is really a last ditch effort, because sometimes the intervention can make things worse instead of better. On the contrary, going forward with the intervention might be that final push that is necessary to motivate the person to make a lasting change. More likely, an intervention is a step along a path….it might not produce immediate sobriety, but it could be a piece of the puzzle for some people.
How can we give addiction help to addicts who are struggling with addiction?
The real secret to this lies in empowering the drug addict to take control of their own life. In what way can we do that? It can be a hard truth to accept, but we can’t really convince another person to change, no matter how much we desire for them to be clean. Some addicts are not real willing to do that and so it can be hard to give them any sort of assistance in making a change.
The first thing you will want to do when trying to help an addict is to examine your own behavior. Are you allowing them to continue their destructive habits or behaviors in any way? If so, then you need to change your own behavior first, so that you are not sabotaging their recovery efforts. For example, if their drug use lands them in jail, and you automatically bail them out of jail, then you are probably enabling them. How? Because you are not allowing them to experience the natural outcomes of their destructive behaviors.
If you are rescuing them from the natural process of their destructive habits, then in fact you are not assisting them but could actually be prolonging their addiction. Another situation might be when they are at a party all night and get completely wasted and you end up covering their bases for them by calling off at their job. Doing things such as this might seem helpful at first, but you are actually enabling them to continue to use drugs. If they are really going to make any sort of major change in their using behavior then they will have to go through some pain initially in order to motivate that change.
The moment of surrender is when the addict is willing to accept help on someone else’s terms. This is how you know when they are truly ready for change and are no longer just manipulating and playing games. When they ask you for help in the form of guidance and direction about how to live, then you know they are ready for real change.
Getting the addict to this point is not easy and there isn’t much that you can do that will directly push them towards the point of surrender. The important part is that you no longer enable the addict and therefore allow them to hit bottom. The less frequently that you try to intervene and save their skin the faster they will be driven to real change.
For the true alcoholic, the idea that they can just stop drinking is no light matter. Given that there are a number of different methods to stop, which are most effective in most cases?
1) Willpower – This is essentially the same as not using any technique at all, but only relying on one’s own willpower to avoid picking up another drink. Of course this has been attempted by numerous drunks over the years and time and time again we prove to ourselves that we cannot quit successfully without serious help. Ever.
2) AVRT – this stands for “Addictive Voice Recognition Technique,” so this is essentially an example of a cognitive therapy for quitting drinking. The idea here is to recognize when your “addictive voice” is speaking and recognize it as being “your addiction” instead of the real you. Then you are able to tell this addictive voice that you do not want to drink when it starts to get active with you.
There are other therapies out there that are similar to this, each with the concept that we can change up our thinking in order to change our behavior. Some of us in sobriety can likely do well by using cognitive tools such as this, but for most alcoholics we will probably need to expand our solution set beyond these therapies by themselves and seek more help.
3) AA – Twelve step programs are probably the most widespread solution for alcoholism, and because of this, they offer the most amount of hope and the most realistic solution for most people in most situations. But there are problems and limitations with AA as a solution as well. For starters–while it is very hard to prove statistics regarding this fellowship–the rate of sobriety in 12 step programs likely runs around the rate of 5 to 10 percent. To be fair, though, no other treatment method seems to offer substantially better numbers than this, and AA certainly has helped a lot of those who wanted to know how to stop drinking.
It is not that Alcoholics Anonymous is not a good solution for recovery, the problem is that it is just not a complete solution for most people. The real solution for recovery is a holistic approach that addresses all aspects of the recovering individual. This is what we might call the creative theory of recovery in action. Finding your way to this solution requires a holistic approach if you want to stop drinking.
If you have decided that you want to go beyond merely trying to control your drinking then it is time to make a decision and attempt to quit drinking entirely. Now this might sound like a death sentence at first but it really is not so bad once you get past the initial detox and start living a real life again.
Please note that the physical detoxification from alcohol is extremely dangerous and can actually be fatal, so do seek out medical supervision if you are serious about quitting drinking. It is actually safer to continue drinking alcohol than to go through a serious withdrawal from it because the withdrawal can produce life threatening seizures.
If you are serious about quitting drinking altogether then one of the best choices you can make is to go attend a local rehab in your area. There are numerous benefits to going to a treatment facility
1) A detox center with medical staff
2) Residential program – to learn about recovery
3) Peer support – in treatment you will have the support of a peer group with similar problems and goals as yourself
4) Professional help – therapists and counselors can give you guidance
5) Medical help – doctors might prescribe certain pills that can help with cravings or long term withdrawal symptoms, etc.)
6) Aftercare – the treatment center can provide you with additional programs and tools for after you leave to help you out in the “real world”.
So do consider treatment if you are truly want to stop drinking.
An option for anyone who is hesitating on quitting drinking can always try some more moderation and see how that works for them too. There is no rule against doing so but you must exercise extreme caution while doing so. But be honest with yourself about how well the moderation strategy is working for you. If you can stop your drinking for a week or two then this does not prove much for you. If you can limit your drinking without going overboard for a full year then that is quite good.
There is a lot to learn regarding sobriety and if you truly want to change your life then you should do whatever you can to learn more as the payoff is really tremendous.
Here are some tips for recovering addicts to engage the creative life in recovery.
What is creation?
Creative recovery is the solution to the problem of “What can I do with myself now that I don’t do drugs and alcohol anymore?”
But before you can engage the newcomer in creative efforts, they have to get through stage one recovery. This means that they have to establish a brief period of sobriety and find their footing before they can really start making progress with creation.
Getting through this first stage of recovery can be accomplished in several different ways. The most effective method of gaining some sober time in early recovery is to use overwhelming force. This means that the recovering drug addict must go above and beyond what they think is necessary in order for them to stay clean. If they are going to AA or NA groups, they should try to go to multiple meetings every day instead of just doing the usual 90 in 90. If the person is considering rehab, they might think about attending a halfway house or a long term facility instead of the usual short stay. This is a brute force approach, and it works pretty good for newcomers who are struggling to stay clean in the first stage of their recovery. If you don’t follow this path, then it will be very difficult for you to remain sober for a long time or even make it past early recovery. Using a brute force approach in early recovery is the best way to insure success.
After an addict has established a few months of clean time, they are ready to transition into the creative life of recovery. What this means is that the person is going to start a brand new life with new goals and new aspirations for themselves that can fill up the void that is left from their drinking and drugging lifestyle. Creation is the method by which someone starts filling their life back up with purpose after the chemicals are removed. It is not a workable solution to simply quit the drugs and alcohol and then try to resume a normal life of some sort. For many newcomers in recovery, there is no baseline of normalcy for them to relate too, and they have to start relearning how to live all over again. This is the power of creation and it is necessary for long term sobriety.
