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Why You Need To Be “OK” With Accepting Addiction

Posted on August 24, 2017August 24, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Addiction affects over 20 million Americans, none of whom “deserve” to struggle against a brain condition that sends their life into a downward spiral. Yet to effectively treat most of the country’s affected population and properly address the dangers of addiction, we need a mindset shift. Accepting addiction is important, and addiction must become something else than what it is in the eyes of the public – it must become a condition.

It’s okay to be in a wheelchair after an accident. It’s okay to take time off after the loss of a loved one to grieve and go through your thoughts properly. It’s okay to be injured in sports. Addiction is a disease, and an injury, and a temporary medical condition. It is not a damnation, not a curse, not a moral sentencing of any one individual. By treating addicts as deserving of their fate and “unclean” in a moral sense, we dehumanize millions of Americans based on their misfortune and terrible circumstances, rather than accepting addiction, sympathizing with them, and having the basic compassion and common decency to fight for their treatment.

We’re also ignoring the fact that at 20 million, many people personally know an addict. Be it alcoholism, opioid addiction or even chain smoking, most addicts aren’t bad people. There is a correlation between addiction and childhood trauma, and some addicts get high, lose their inhibitions and become violent individuals. Some – but not anywhere near most. Being sober won’t automatically change their disposition and make them pleasant, but the addiction isn’t what turned them violent – their past is.

But when it comes to addiction itself, we need to look at it as a debilitation, a downtime disease often linked to times of severe depression or anxiety, a symptom of a greater psychological issue. We need to be “okay” with accepting addiction and recognize that those struggling with addiction are part of society, people we sometimes know and care for, people who need our help to get themselves the proper treatment they need.

Addiction As A Disease

Addiction is commonly perceived either as a brain disease that changes the fundamental way in which pleasure is perceived, so a patient lacks the ability to feel any meaningful joy while still hooked on the drug, or it’s perceived as a developmental issue, one in which teens turn to drugs as a radical short-term solution for their lack of emotional development, eventually naturally getting off drugs in their later years to focus on life.

There is validity and research to back both theories up, yet they don’t necessarily contradict each other. While addiction may or may not be a chronic brain disease, it does exhibit many of the same symptoms. And while not every teenage addict gets clean all their own, most people struggling with sobriety manage the leap to clean living within a few years. Both sides recognize that addiction is a pervasive issue that requires the support and help of others in the community to solve, and accepting addiction as a struggle people go through makes it easier for those people to kick the habit since they aren’t being stigmatized.

Understanding Addiction As A Symptom

People take drugs not just to feel great or to party and forego all responsibility, but to hide something. To hide pain. Regardless of whether you see addiction as a developmental issue or as brain disease, the earliest factors for getting addiction typically correlate to emotional or long-term physical pain.

Yes, genes play a role in how addictive a substance can be – but the initial “abuse” usually comes from depression, anxiety, peer pressure or social insecurity, a lack of belonging and a lack of connection to people around you. In other words, when something fundamental is “lacking”, many people turn to drugs as a straightforward way to forget and to overwhelm that part of their thought process with as many “positive” emotions as possible, even if they’re coming from a very dangerous source.

Where there’s smoke, worry about fire. While it’s not true for every case, addiction is typically tied to a deeper issue, even if it isn’t a case of anxiety or depression. Feeling left out of society and deeply misunderstood can be enough for teens to make the misguided last steps into a drug addiction, and it can take years to mature into adults, recognize the issue, and end up accepting addiction treatment. The loss of a career due to an accident and the subsequent stress of being immobilized or even in chronic pain is often a cause of opioid addiction, as it not only takes the edge off the physical pain but it helps with combating all the emotional pain as well.

Accepting Addiction – Everyone Needs To Help

We need to recognize our society’s mental health issues more clearly, and make convincing steps towards creating programs and policies that will address them. It’s all fine and dandy if you personally made your way through life and managed to avoid every pitfall, even in times of severe stress and grieving. This isn’t the case for everyone. Instead of elbowing each other on the path to success and letting society decay into a state of continuing emotional havoc for a misguided argument of “personal responsibility”, we need to recognize that everyone’s situation is complex and that ignoring the problem won’t fix it – and it needs to be fixed.

That means we all must pitch in to help improve society, even if that just means changing your mindset. It’s in your best interest to help your neighbor feel better and work better – only if most of the country is healthy can a country properly function. By tearing at others for things largely out of their control such as mental health issues, addiction, or even poverty, far too many people are simply perpetuating the growth of inequality, anxiety, depression and dependence.

Some people can get out of an addiction alone, and get back on track in life. For most people, however, support is necessary. They need treatment plans, solutions, medical advice and continued therapy to help them work through the underlying issues in an addiction and get to what it really is that drives them to their drug or drugs of choice.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, then don’t give up. Don’t give up helping them, and don’t give up on yourself. Staying sober is about more than just resisting a drug, it’s about finding a good set of reasons to do so.

Staying Sober – Running Against Addiction

Posted on August 22, 2017 by JohnAdmin

It’s been done before – replacing one high through another, far healthier kind. Running to cope with addiction isn’t just a matter of getting away from your problems – it’s about chasing new goals, achieving dreams, and, as science may tell you, it’s about staying sober and teaching your brain to associate new things with pleasure.

For many, exercise has become the key to defeating addiction. But it’s not quite as simple as turning one obsession into another, or simply taking the drive of addiction and turning it into the tenacity to run a marathon.

Staying Sober Through Exercise

Running and exercise have a track record of being proven ways to deal with addiction, but their success depends entirely on you and your passion to get moving. While general exercise to bolster your physical health, and maintain a strong body is recommended in any case, coping with the day-to-day stresses of addiction recovery through sports and training is different from simply exercising enough to take care of your health. The clear differences are:

Exercise with a goal: Exercise, or physical activity, is healthy and necessary. The human body isn’t designed for an entirely sedentary lifestyle – even if you end up spending most of your day in a chair staring at a screen or working a counter, you need to spend some time moving every day. This can be as little as turning some of your commute into walking/cycling rather than riding, and taking a few minutes every few hours to stretch a little.

But to train is different – training means having a goal in mind, something to work up to. It means losing weight, or gaining it, or reaching a personal record, or improving your technique for a sport. It’s not just about maintaining physical health, but about achieving something for yourself, entirely through your own efforts and thanks to the support of those around you – a perfect outlet for staying sober.

Training to make sense of life: When you discover a passion for exercise, you discover what it means to work on something you love. That means not just working towards a certain goal for the sake of the goal itself, but because you actively love putting in the hard work and the effort to reach that goal.

Directing passion in life will help you better understand yourself. Many people struggle with addiction because they lack the support in life to do what they want to do, and to chase after the dreams they have. They also struggle because they find themselves put down, either by others or by themselves, and the pressure of feeling worthless has them paralyzed.

Getting off an addiction and working through the emotions of early recovery while chasing after goals and self-improvement is a magical combination – it allows you to, perhaps for the first time ever, truly get to know yourself. Your boundaries, your personality, your shortcomings and, most importantly, your strengths and best qualities.

Translating passion into results: Addiction eats away at a person’s self-esteem, often either feeding off depressive thinking, or becoming a factor in the emergence of depressive symptoms. Exercise, and any constructive passion or healthy coping mechanism, will help you make a clear change in life. Aside from helping you define yourself, it also helps you discover your true potential and learn to trust in your ability to achieve your own goals, and empower your efforts in staying sober.

Cope: Addiction is a coping mechanism, in one way or another. When an addiction develops, this is because the brain has made a powerful association between certain substances/actions, and immense amounts of pleasure or relief. Depressants like alcohol, stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine, and opioids like heroin all share the quality of addictiveness due to how our brains seek out pleasure as a sign of being “on the right track” of something in our best interest. When things get bad – when we lose a job, when a relationship breaks down, when the stress mounts and piles up and we find ourselves buried under worries – then addiction becomes a prime coping mechanism.

Going on recovery eliminates addiction, and that leaves a gaping hole. Depending on how long you’ve been addicted, it can take a while before you cut the association between pleasure and relief, and drugs. Using training as an alternative to help you keep your mind off the stress or channel your frustrations is far more constructive and beneficial in the long-term and helps in staying sober after the recovery process as well.

Your Brain on Training

Perhaps the biggest benefit of physical activity as a new coping mechanism in your fight against addiction is that it speeds up the mental recovery from drug abuse. It can even be preventative towards the development of an addiction. Certain substances, especially very harmful ones like cheap methamphetamine, can cause serious damage to the brain.

Research has shown that aside from affecting the brain and making new connections between exercise and pleasure, training affects the speed at which the mind repairs itself, partially reversing the effects of methamphetamine use.

Staying Sober In Your Own Way

In the end, running – and exercise in general – is part of a large collection of possible paths for healing. But that means understanding the context of what you’re doing, and having a healthy attitude towards it. Look at it this way – if what you truly enjoy doing is cooking, and it’s something that lets you shut out the worries of the world and actively focus on the art of your craft, then that is a great way to deal with addiction by giving you an outlet to unleash your stress and your emotions and develop your creativity, putting your brain to the test.

However, if you end up going to the kitchen every time you get depressed to make yourself a plate of cookies or a delicious, yet high-calorie soufflé, then you’ll quickly turn one problem into another.

Practicing responsibility and understanding the difference between what makes a coping mechanism positive, and what makes it negative, is critical to establishing a lifestyle that allows you to heal and move past the consequences of your addiction, regardless of how you choose to go about that lifestyle. Is painting your thing? Meeting new people in book clubs? Limiting yourself to a small circle of friends while focusing on a large writing project? Visiting local gyms and competing in sports or martial arts?

Whatever your passion is, using it as a major outlet against the potential stress of recovery to help reshape your life while staying sober and make a major change in who you are as a person is important. It’s not just about making a distinction between your old days and the new you – it’s also about crafting your own identity through positive accomplishments and associations, rather than feelings of shame or another kind of negativity. It’s also about challenging yourself, pushing yourself to find new limits and rediscover the boundaries of what you used to think you could do while practicing sober living.

The Four Things You Need For A Successful Recovery From Addiction

Posted on August 17, 2017September 11, 2017 by JohnAdmin

There are many reasons addictions are hard to break. For one, an addiction is a relationship between your brain – the very hardware of the mind – and a substance. The smell, the taste, and any other associated memory of that substance can trigger feelings of euphoria, of intense want and, in some cases, need. A small fraction of people is genetically inclined towards physical dependence to such drugs. They develop a fast relationship to the high and require medical assistance for a successful recovery from addiction.

Drugs – particularly those synthesized from nature and turned into concentrated stimulants and depressants – are incredibly hard to resist because they’re designed to create a powerful high and leave you with a deep longing.

Yet beyond the physical, there’s also the mental aspect of drug use. While drugs are incredibly dangerous due to nature of the black market and due to the relative ease with which someone can overdose, addiction is a smaller risk for drug users than most people realize. Only about a tenth of people who try a drug become long-term “problem users”, or addicted, as defined by the UN. Others give it a go, have their fun, and quit the habit without it ever becoming an issue.

Drugs are dangerous, and they’re deadly in the long-term. Most drug users eventually realize this. Yet it’s those who fall into the cycle of addiction who can’t simply “give up” the habit, and the reason is two-fold. But most people who go in and out of rehab seek drugs as a form of medication – as part of a deeper issue, a greater problem. In other words, ending with a successful recovery from addiction isn’t the hard part.

The hard part of recovery is figuring out why you were so drawn to drugs in the first place, and figuring out what the best way is to enrich your own life and cut out the need for that artificial high. Here are four things that are absolutely necessary for recovery – because without them, you’re less likely to be able to address the issues feeding the addiction.

1. Mended and New Relationships

Relationships are the bread and butter of being human. From our very first few days in this world, we rely on our relationships to other human beings for our safety, survival and sanity. We need parents, to connect with and call our own. While Freud’s concept of the three-person relationship between mother, father and child is somewhat outdated, it’s self-evident in modern-day psychology that parents are vital for the mind of an infant.

In time, socializing with other children is important as a way to keep developing and figuring out, slowly, what it means to be a person in society. We learn about roles, differences in gender and individuals alike, and we develop biases and opinions. We mold a self-image based on how others perceive us, and in turn, how that makes us feel about ourselves.

Fast forward in life, and past puberty the distinctions between people become clearer and more drastic. Preferences in social interaction become apparent and cement themselves – some people lean more towards introverted traits, others prefer to be more extroverted. Yet even the most introverted of individuals shares contact with a close few confidants, people whom they trust the most, through whom they can get the interactions they need in life in order to feel secure.

This concept plays an integral role in successful recovery from addiction. Without others, we grow insecure, restless, and worst of all: lonely. When addiction causes us to lose the people we love and care about, it only pushes us further down the depressive hole that drug abuse creates. For many, experiences like that feed notions of self-deprecation.

No matter how much some people insist that man is an island, the truth is that we’re but one small island in a global archipelago. Regardless of how many other islands you’d prefer to socialize with, having people that matter to us in our life is important for successful recovery from addiction. Create a support network of friends and loved ones, whether through meeting new people or by mending broken relationships. This is one of the reasons a sober living community is a good option for recovery; It gives a place for like minded individuals to support each other and build lasting friendships throughout the recovery process.

2. Mindfulness in Life

Mindfulness is the simple yet difficult act of purposefully focusing on something. Its usefulness in addiction – and life in general – is highlighted by the fact that it allows us to reign in our thoughts and perceptions of life. Controlling how you feel about things can help you cope with emotional devastation by helping you take on a different perspective, one that helps you move on and feel strong enough to keep on living.

Mindfulness also helps you keep bad habits in check by introducing newer ones, crafted and kept fresh in your life through constant discipline.

Most importantly, however, mindfulness lets you keep depression and anxiety in check. It lets you contradict your more negative thoughts and fight against that inner urge to overthink and overcomplicate. Mindfulness allows you to realize that some things are a lot easier and simpler than you may have first given them credit for – it helps you rationalize away unnecessary fears that can impede a successful recovery from addiction and embrace chance as something good, rather than something to fear.

3. Management for Stress

Stress is unavoidable in life. From career troubles to family issues and more, there are countless reasons to be worried about something. But we can’t let that stress drive us to despair, or paralyze us in life. Managing stress – creating an outlet for it, and learning how to function and live despite the many blows life deals – is integral to successful recovery from addiction. If you can’t deal with stress, then the potential for a relapse grows exponentially in the face of any challenge.

Don’t fear stress. Stress isn’t just a potential for problems – it’s a potential for growth. But overcoming stress is impossible if you’re buried in it – finding ways to let loose and recover every now and again from life’s challenges lets you keep your levels manageable.

4. Finding Meaning For A Successful Recovery From Addiction

We all need purpose – something to do, something to strive for, something to achieve. Some of us find our lifelong purpose early on and stick with it. Others haven’t found a singular purpose, but follow goal after goal, looking for meaning in life through accomplishments and achievements. Others yet spend their entire time looking for the meaning of their life, and get so caught up on the search that they never really have the chance to create any meaning for themselves.

Whichever way you prefer to phrase what keeps you going – whether it’s family, or love, or ambition – you need something to hold onto in your mind when things get dire, even if you can’t commit to it as the purpose of your life.

With these four things – stress management, mindfulness, connection and purpose – your journey to successful recovery from addiction will become more than just about staying clean. It’ll be a journey about finding contentment, and happy living.

Resisting Drinking Socially

Posted on September 16, 2016 by JohnAdmin

When you come out of a treatment center, there are always those around you that think you’ll be fine just hanging out like you used to. Yet those friends don’t quite understand that being around these situations could act as a trigger to revert back to old ways.

Restraint is something that is a much needed coping mechanism to help deter one from falling down that old path again. Resisting drinking socially, is quite hard once you are out of recovery, especially when all you want to do is be with your friends. Putting your best interests in front of others is key to staying sober. Sobriety first. If the situations are making you uncomfortable maybe it’s not the right time to be there.

Perhaps if you plan on going out to a party for the evening, you bring your own non-alcoholic beverages. Most people who are hosting parties will be perfectly fine with that. Find other people around at the party that are doing something else besides drinking. Start playing a game with others to keep you busy and entertained. Some people there will want to try and delve into why you are now sober. You don’t have to answer that question, as it’s none of their business.

There might come a time when you are more than comfortable talking about your journey to being sober. Other times, not so much. The only thing you can do is what feels best for you. Maintain relationships with those around you that make you feel comfortable and respect your decisions. It’s perfectly fine to be a little apprehensive about going out with others. Trust your instincts and keep company with those that can help you keep you in check.

For more on how to deal with these situations read more on The Fix HERE

NPR’s Houston Matters Interview: Ryan Leaf & Transcend Texas Exec Director, Joni Ogle, Discuss Addiction, Recovery & Hope

Posted on September 15, 2016September 5, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Over the past year, Transcend Program Ambassador, and former NFL QB, Ryan Leaf has traveled around the country sharing his story of addiction, past opiate abuse, and his new life of sobriety and service to others.

Yesterday, Ryan shared the mic with Transcend Texas Executive Director, Joni Ogle, LCSW, CSAT, for an interview with NPR’s Houston Matters podcast. It was an amazing conversation that highlighted both Ryan’s story and Joni’s wealth of clinical experience in the field. Their combined perspectives on the topic of addiction, the importance of structured, long-term care, and the value of community in recovery, make this an interview not to be missed!

This was an inspiring experience and we are honored to have been invited on by the team at Houston Matters!

We hope you give it a listen, HERE.

Recovery Support: When to Get Extra Help

Posted on September 12, 2016September 15, 2016 by JohnAdmin

Once you’re begun your sobriety and you’re a few months into it, you probably have a lot of recovery support in place. You might have a sober community because of the 12-step meetings you’re attending. You might feel supported by your family and friends. And you might be working with a therapist, sponsor, or mentor. Although you might feel supported in your recovery, there are times when you might need to reach for extra support. You might need to call your sponsor or mentor out of the blue because you’re feeling triggered, stressed, or overwhelmed.

It’s important to have a crisis plan while you’re in recovery. You never know when there will be a situation in which you need recovery support. And in worst case scenarios you might feel like reaching for a drink (or drugs) instead of the phone. Instead of calling your sponsor, you might call an old drinking friend. You might resort to old coping methods when things get tough. Having a crisis plan gives you clear instructions for what to do when you’re having trouble in recovery.

Here are examples of situations in which your sobriety might be jeopardized. These are situations in which you might need to call for extra recovery support:

Too much stress at work or school.
Stress in your relationship.
Family responsibilities are too overwhelming (such as many children to care for).
Running into old drinking or drug using friends.
Feeling alone or lonely.
Experiencing symptoms of a mental illness, such as depression or anxiety.
Experiencing overwhelming feelings (that substances used to keep at a distance).
Financial trouble.
Not having basic needs met, such as housing, income, and clothing.
Worried about friends or family members who are still using.
Death of a loved one.
Physical health issues.

These are just a few examples of circumstances that can make recovery difficult. You might have all the support you need, but certain situations can create triggers and cravings. In these situations, it’s important to call for extra support.

Here is a list of people you might reach out to in order to make it through a difficult period:

Sponsor
Sober Mentor
Therapist
Psychiatrist
Psychologist
Drug Counselor
Sober Friend
Family Member(s)
Staff at Out Patient Facility
Staff at a Treatment Center

When you face difficulty in your recovery, you can make a list of those you might call as a part of your crisis plan. In fact, you can include their name, number, and an emergency number, if they have one. You might also list them in order of priority to you and under what circumstances. For instance, you might call your sponsor over your therapist if you’re experiencing cravings. But if you find out your cravings are a result of a possible mental health condition, then you calling your therapist would be better.

In fact, you can work with a mental health provider to create a crisis plan that works best for you. He or she might have ideas to add to your plan that you might not have thought of. Or you might create the plan with another sober friend who wants to do the same. Either way, having a crisis plan can you feel more supported throughout your recovery.

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Brett Favre Talks about His Painkiller Addiction

Posted on September 8, 2016September 15, 2016 by JohnAdmin

Brett Favre who was just recently inducted into the Football Hall of Fame has spoken out about his past with pain killer addiction.

Although Favre has overcome his addiction many years ago, he looks back knowing he could have easily died from his problem.

The former Green Bay Packers team player eventually cut himself off from his double digit pill popping habit and claims his love of football is what inspired him to get clean.

For the full article from NBC Sports click HERE

Goals in Recovery Keep You Moving Forward

Posted on September 6, 2016September 7, 2016 by JohnAdmin

Recovery is often a two-step forward, one-step back kind of experience. Because of the many opposing feelings a recovering addict feels (wanting to get sober and not wanting to get sober at the same time) it can feel difficult to keep your eye on recovery. For instance, you might be doing well with your sobriety and then suddenly you run into an old drinking friend. You remember the good times, the laughs, and the how much fun it was. And you find yourself being pulled back to drinking.

That kind of going backwards (even if your mind) can create obstacles for moving forward. Truthfully, relapse begins with one thought. And with enough attention to that thought, you might think to yourself, “Well, one drink won’t hurt.” It’s this kind of back and forth in recovery that can make abstinence difficult to sustain.

However, when you have a goal, there’s something that’s drawing you forward. You have a vision, an idea of what you want in the future. Many life coaches describe it as having a compass and a direction. With a goal, you have the power to direct your life to stay on one course. And depending upon how badly you want that goal, you’ll work hard to ensure that all your choices are in favor of reaching your goal.

Here are a few common goals that recovering addicts are reaching for and what’s propelling their sobriety:

Go back to school and earn a degree.
Find meaningful work or achieve in your career.
Better tend to the needs of your children.
Heal your marriage.
Get married again.
Restore your health.
Rebuild family relationships and friendships that were damaged by the addiction.
Express yourself in healthy ways such as through painting, playing music, or dancing.
Get out of financial debt.
Learn coping skills to manage life’s stress without substances.
Find a community of friends who value sobriety and who I can have fun with in safe and healthy ways.
Learn how to overcome character flaws, such as impulsiveness, which can contribute to relapse.
Learn how to stay in touch with what I’m feeling and when so that intense feelings don’t lead to substance use.
Learn to love yourself and others.

To help you with feeling like you are moving toward your goals, you may want to come up with smaller objectives. Because as you get closer and closer to your goals, there are many benefits to be gained, which in turn can support your sobriety. For instance:

Experiencing a greater self esteem and self worth.
Experiencing a greater sense of self-confidence.
Feeling good about your life in general.
Boosting your commitment towards sobriety and where your life is headed.
Depending upon the goal, it can bring a great sense of joy. For instance, if you got sober to get your children back, then having this happen can be a great success.
It can boost your confidence in reaching other goals.
It can give you a more optimistic view of their life.
Reaching a goal can prevent relapse.

You might see that setting goals and reaching them creates a positive cycle. Achievement brings positivity and positivity brings more good feelings. This ongoing cycle can help you feel great again and again!

Can You Prevent Addiction?

Posted on September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 by JohnAdmin

It’s hard to completely avoid alcohol in a society that is forever promoting it. At any kind of celebration, you’re likely to find alcohol being served. And with the changing laws regarding marijuana, it too might be a substance that you can access easily. If you’re concerned about your loved ones or developing an addiction yourself, can you prevent addiction?

First of all, it’s important to remember that addiction is an illness. It’s a disease that affects the functioning of the brain. And once the brain is altered by the continued use of substance use (or addictive behaviors such as gambling, shopping, eating, and sexual activity), then a person begins to lose the ability to stop.

It’s possible for a person to be using drugs or alcohol and never develop an addiction. However, there are some factors that can influence the functioning of the brain and make a person vulnerable to developing addiction. These factors include:

Genetics
Environment
Lack of coping skills
History of trauma
Mental illness

According to research genetics plays a 50% role in whether addiction will develop. However, it’s important to keep in mind that someone might have addiction in their genes, but if they never touch a drink or drug in their life, then genetics won’t be a factor. However, if a person had a tendency to drink on occasion and if he or she went through a difficult period in her life as well as having a genetic predisposition to addiction, then the illness of addiction might develop.

Along with genetics, a person’s environment can have an influence on them. For instance, research has found that children who are raised in families with addiction are 8 times more likely to develop an addiction. It’s common for family members to develop certain roles in response to the one who is suffering from the addiction. Other environments that can have an effect on someone include a drug-using college scene and an at-risk neighborhood, in which many individuals are using substances to cope.

Lack of coping skills can also contribute to addiction. If a person does not have the tools to manage uncomfortable feelings, they may develop the habit of using drugs and alcohol as a means to feel better. Over time, this continued habit can turn into the illness of addiction. Along those lines, a person with a history of trauma will likely also have many uncomfortable feelings that they will try to avoid. They might also turn to alcohol and drugs as a way to cope.

Also, an addiction might develop when someone with a mental illness continues to turn to substances to manage their symptoms. It’s common, for example, that someone with depression, might turn to drugs or alcohol as a way to manage their depression. And it’s common for people to do this despite not knowing that depression is what they are experiencing. However, the low mood and sadness prompts them to drink or get high in order to shift their mood.

The best way to prevent addiction is to remain abstinent. Because virtually anyone can have any one of the above factors that contribute to addiction. When a person avoids alcohol and drugs (and addictive behaviors) entirely, they have a greater chance of avoiding addiction as well.

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