Welcome to my page on Addiction!!
This page is just to be used as an information source
I have researched and gathered information to possibly help you or someone you know
1.How Addiction Happens
No one wants to be a addicted to something, but this doesn't stop people from getting
addicted. One of the most asked questions is "How" How could my son, daughter,
father, sister, or brother become someone who cannot be trusted? How could
this happen? And why won't they stop?
2.Drug Addiction At Its Roots
The first thing you must understand about addiction is that mind-altering chemicals are
basically to stop the pain (mental, emotional or physical). For a person to want to use
a drug (of any kind), there must first be some unhappiness, feelings hopelessness,
or physical pain.
3. The Cycle of Addiction
Addiction follows a cycle like this:
A person has some problem, sense of unhappiness or hopelessness, or physical discomfort.
It could be a teenager experiencing his first romantic rejection, or a grandmother with
arthritis, or it could be a man in his prime, wondering why he keeps failing on the job.
Or it could be someone at any age in between.
This person drinks or tries drugs. The alcohol or drugs APPEAR to solve his problem.
He feels better. Because he now SEEMS better able to deal with life, the drugs become
an asset to him.
The person gradually increases his usage of his drug of choice. He is then trapped.
Whatever problem he was initially trying to solve by using drugs or alcohol fades
from memory. At this point, all he can think about is getting and using drugs. He loses
the ability to control his usage and disregards the horrible consequences of his addiction.
The addict will now attempt to withhold the fact of his drug use from friends and family
members. He will begin to suffer the effects of his own dishonesty and guilt. He may
become withdrawn and difficult to reason with. He may behave strangely.
The more he drinks and uses drugs, the more guilty he will feel, and the more depressed
he will become. He will sacrifice his personal integrity, possibly lying and stealing to
finance his drinking or drug habit. His relationships with friends and family and his job
performance will go drastically downhill.
4. Addiction and Tolerance
The drugs and alcohol are now the most important thing
in his life. He has thrown
away his job, his life-savings, his dreams and ambitions, all in an effort to maintain
the pain killing and emotion killing effects he once obtained from the drugs. But
ironically, his ability to get "high" from the alcohol or drugs gradually decreases as
his body adapts to the presence of foreign chemicals. He must take more and more, and he
now has to have them to be able to function at all.
As he continues to drink or use drugs, his body continues to adapt to the presence of
the drugs. This is when the newly created addict begins to experience drug cravings. He
will experience an overwhelming obsession with getting and using his drugs, and will do
anything to avoid the pain of withdrawing from them.
He has crossed an invisible and intangible line. He is now a drug addict or alcoholic.
5. Progression of Addiction
As his alcoholism or drug addiction progresses, he will become increasingly haggard and
ill-tempered. He will be riding on a drug or alcohol induced emotional roller-coaster
which may actually be mistaken for mental illness. He may seem very "up" and enthusiastic
when he is high, but when the drugs wear off, he becomes depressed and lethargic. He may
go into a drug-induced depression. At this point, the addict is stuck in a vicious downward
spiral. He faces the problem of having to find money to buy drugs and to attempt to appear
normal to his friends, family and employer. Whether he wants to stop or not, he is now
trapped. By now, the drugs he abuses will have changed him both physically and mentally.
6.Personality Changes
Long-term alcoholism and drug addiction can cause one's personality to change.
This is called the Biochemical Personality. Some of the characteristics are:
Mood swings
Unreliable. Unable to finish projects.
Unexpressed resentment and secret hatreds.
Dishonesty. Lies to family, friends, employers.
Withdraws from those who love him. Isolates self.
May appear chronically depressed.
May begin stealing from family and friends.
7. Addicts cannot stop using drugs for two reasons.
These are:
Cravings caused by drug residues which remain in the body.
The Biochemical Personality caused by drugs and the lifestyle of the addict.
I would like for everyone to understand that Addiction does not mean ONLY to drugs and alcohol.
Addiction also includes nicotine, food, sweets, eating disorders and so on. When we do not feel
good about ourselves then we search for what will make us appear to be OKAY.
My personal experiences with Addiction include:
Anorexia, Bolemia, alcohol, drugs,
I battled all of these things in my teenage years, I was in sports and I needed to
run faster, swim better, hit the ball harder and on and on. So naturally I felt I needed
to lose wieght. Well then my mom wanted to know why I was not eating. So I moved on to the
Bolemic part of it. Well then I started drinking and doing drugs and on and on it went.
That was the progression for me. When mom showed me a picture of myself after a few months
of therapy, I just cried I was about 95 lbs and it looked like you could see thru my skin.
I was so upset over what I had done to myself,that I cried for days. Well I cleaned up my act for
a few years. And Went right back at the drinking and drugs. It took me 4 more years to clean up again,
but I did it. I have been clean for 8 1/2 years.
I am telling you this to give you an example of the progression can do. I still battle with the
eating thing but it seems to be only when I am not dealing well with what is going on around me.
If you know someone that has a problem with addiction Please remember ONE thing,
they have to be tired of it themselves if they try to clean up for anyone else it probably
won't stay that way.
I have included some links below for you.
The top portion of this page / the information came from Narconon's page, I added their
information so that you had a resource that was more than personal opinion.
Here are some resource links
Narconon
Narcotics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
|
|
