addiction Archives - Page 2 of 3

How Does Someone Become Addicted?

Posted on January 31, 2018 by JohnAdmin

Addiction is multifaceted in both its appearance and ill effects. Some people become addicted quickly, while others go through months of drug use and quit at the drop of a hat. Some people exhibit terrifying and destructive behavior, while others can successfully go through great lengths to hide their addiction, suffering underneath the surface.

There is a misconception that only certain “types of people” become addicted. It is true that addiction is more likely in times of distress, or as a result of escalating self-medication – but it is also true that anyone can fall prey to addiction. Society’s poorest addicts are every bit as human and personable as upper and middle-class families struggling with alcoholism, across all ages.

Drugs affect the human brain in the same way every time, but what that effect has on individual people is an entirely different matter. Understanding how addiction works, how individuals deal with it, and how drugs affect the human body can go a long way towards learning the how’s and why’s of addicted behavior, and making progress in your own recovery.

Drugs And The Human Body

Have you ever had a craving for a certain food? A certain activity? Or even a certain person? A lot of our needs and wants are driven by a predisposed code most humans have – we’re pleasure seekers in one form or another, and the things that give us pleasure (sex, chocolate, fatty food) have become human favorites due to thousands of years spent selectively surviving the Earth’s harsh environments.

We’re more complex than just our base instincts – but they’re there nonetheless, and to satisfy them can feel really good. This is all due to a part of the brain known as the pleasure center. When we do certain things or ingest certain substances, our pleasure center releases dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter. Drugs overstimulate the pleasure center by manipulating our neurons and changing the way dopamine is released, either by releasing more of it than usual or by preventing our cells from properly disposing of it, thus keeping it in our synapses for longer.

As this happens, our body and brain begin to form an addiction to whatever is releasing this unnatural amount of euphoria. Too much of a good thing is no good –and in the case of substance abuse, addictive substances cause a physical reaction as a result of consistent and continuous usage.

Once addiction kicks in and the cravings start, your mind begins to interpret them as needs, more than just wants. Addictive behavior – even the destructive and risky kind – stems from a combination of a corrupted pleasure center, and a decline in cognition and reasoning. Essentially, it becomes harder to keep a cool head and be reasonable about your behavior, and continuous use often leads to impulsive behavior, and worsening decision making as you become addicted.

Tolerance is another aspect of addiction that makes quitting all the more difficult. As addiction continues, the body begins to form a resistance to the effectiveness of a drug, reducing its effects. For example, it may take more alcohol to get drunk, or it may take more cocaine to achieve the same high. This is the body’s cells defending itself from a barrage of unnatural brain functions – but the result simply spurs an addict on to use more drugs in order to achieve the same effect. While the body can protect itself against a high, it cannot protect itself against the lethal side effects of an overdose.

When trying to quit after tolerance kicks in, it is not unusual for a person to go into withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms can range from discomfort and irritability to violent sickness, and even death if approached too drastically, depending on the drug. These occur because the body has gotten used to the drug intake, and depends on it for certain brain functions. Cutting off your own supply requires readjustment, the kind that is best done under medical supervision.

When Does Someone Become Addicted?

Addiction begins in the brain, but it is difficult to feasibly track someone’s addiction through constant brain scans – so the most reliable source for when someone can become addicted is the person themselves. For someone to be an addict, they have to admit to themselves that they are one, or exhibit enough symptoms so that denying it would be completely illogical.

A total inability to stop oneself from using – that is what makes someone become addicted. If a person can’t stop themselves despite promises or plans to do so, and despite negative consequences that would typically discourage behavior, then they’re addicted. If a person loses their job, destroys a relationship, or even commits a crime to satisfy their addiction, then it is clear that they have a serious problem.

Addiction And Mental Health

Addiction and mental health are intertwined for several reasons, the most glaring one being the fact that addiction is a disease of the brain above all else. While different kinds of addiction can lead to organ failure and cancer, the brain is what is first affected and causes the addiction to begin with. The combination of addiction and the destructive behavior it can help cause often triggers mental health issues that may have been under control in the past, or were lingering underneath a stable surface.

On the other hand, existing mental health conditions can be made worse when you become addicted, while often playing a part in causing addiction (trauma, anxiety and depression are all wrought with stigma, and are conditions that are prone to self-medication gone awry).

The link between addiction and mental health issues must never be forgotten, especially because both are affected by a public perception of healthy vs. unhealthy.

Addiction, just like other conditions, does not reduce a person to the stereotype of their affliction, and it is important to treat every individual as an individual, and not “another junkie” or “another kook”. These generalizations often drive people to hide their problems, deny dangerous symptoms or lie in order to avoid unjust criticism and emotional harm.

Putting Addiction Behind You

It happens over time, and it takes time to heal and recover from. When you become addicted it can cause serious damage over the course of just a few months, but regardless of how long the disease has been ongoing, it can be put behind you with the right treatment and support.

Drug addiction treatment has gotten better than ever, with programs designed to accommodate any individual’s unique therapeutic needs and considerations. Treatment facilities have long recognized that there is no proper one-size-fits-all solution for addiction, and the result is a comprehensive, custom process.

As such, there’s also no telling how long it’ll take you to get over this period in your life – but as long as you think you can, you will.

Why Are More People Than Ever Getting Addicted To Prescription Drugs?

Posted on January 16, 2018 by JohnAdmin

America’s war on opioids has a long history, tracing back to the beginnings of addiction as a medical definition, and our first instance of fighting a “war on drugs”. To understand where things might have gone wrong, and what factors play into why people getting addicted to prescription drugs grew so prevalent, it’s important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

The Roots Of America’s Opioid Problem

Cutting back to a day and age when chronic pain became the main focus for pharmaceutical companies and modern Western medicine, drug companies began developing new pain medication that was less addictive and less powerful than morphine, but could help patients deal with their pain and reduce their complaints.

Research has since shown that opioids are either slightly or not effective at all for combating pain in the long-term, but at the time, it seemed like the best thing to promote. Production of prescription opioids and subsequent prescription of opioids shot through the roof, creating two issues. On one hand, it led to a large number of chronic pain patients getting addicted to prescription drugs. This is by far a minority, but the over prescription also led to an influx of unused prescription painkillers in households everywhere. Some people sold their medication – other pills landed in the hands of friends and family, creating new addicts here and there.

We are still facing the issues brought about by those addicted to prescription drugs today – and as both prescription drugs and heroin continue to be a problem, the overdose statistics rise.

How Strict Regulations Led To Heroin

Prescription drug use has actually dropped in recent years, contrary to popular belief – while it is true that a lack of understanding and easy profits has led to an excessive sale and use of prescription medication in the past few decades, the government has done a lot to curb this. But on the other hand, all this did was create a large population of those addicted to prescription drugs, and then tear away their only somewhat reputable source of opioids.

While pharmaceutical companies ultimately care mostly about their bottom line, they produced a clean product. After regulations were implemented without a proper protocol in place to help all the addicts seek treatment and get better, they turned to more dangerous alternatives – including heroin, wherever it could be found, in whatever form.

Today, the explosion in heroin usage has led to the creation of an influx of heroin from abroad and an increase in local production, leading to a new generation of heroin users who never had to transition into the drug from being addicted to prescription drugs.

Stronger Threats From Abroad

With a growth in demand, the vacuum left by tighter prescription drug regulations and a lack of local heroin production to keep up has led to the rising popularity of certain synthetic opioids – including massively dangerous drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil.

Synthetic drug production is nothing new, especially today. Homegrown designer drugs are hitting the market faster than the law can keep up with them, and the threat is one that is still in the process of being tackled by policymakers.

Meanwhile, those formerly addicted to prescription drugs who turned to heroin, and people who started out as heroin addicts are increasingly going to run into the risk of a fatal overdose from a bad batch, or an excess of fentanyl. Many suppliers cut their heroin with fillers to reduce the cost, then mix in fentanyl to increase potency, often proving fatal to customers.

How Opioids Kill

Opioids trigger an analgesic effect, while releasing neurotransmitters that cause an enormous swell of pleasure and happiness. However, this also makes them incredibly addictive. The major side effect to this is that, if taken excessively, opioids will slow a person’s breathing to the point that they completely cease to breathe, and choke.

Aside from the fatal nature of an overdose, constant misuse of opioids can drastically alter the body and leave lasting effects, including liver damage, brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen, and in the case of a survived overdose, partial or full paralysis. When left without oxygen for an extended period of time, the body begins to shut down certain functions in order to preserve vital organs – including cutting off major muscles and nerves.

Most prescription pills abused today are opioids, but thousands of Americans are also struggling with stimulants such as amphetamine (Adderall) and anti-anxiety drugs (Valium, Xanax, etc.).

Tackling The Problem At Home: Addicted To Prescription Drugs

It has rather succinctly been explained that the key behind America’s issue with being addicted to prescription drugs – and drugs in general – is that “it’s much easier to get high than it is to get help”. That’s not an attack on the moral character of anyone who has ever used drugs, but a condemnation of the state of our current healthcare, and inability for most Americans to seek help when it’s needed, both out of stigma and out of a lack of finances.

On one hand, getting treated for addiction isn’t cheap, especially when the first option that comes to mind for some is either rehab or attending a twelve-step program. On the other hand, many who can seek treatment do not, either because they do not recognize their problem, or because they’re convinced that they can solve the issue before it becomes apparent, thus saving them the trouble and stigma that comes with admitting to being addicted to prescription drugs.

When someone is addicted, everything they do is second-guessed. For a misguided few, they go from being a human being, to a caricature. Many others simply struggle to reconcile the person they once knew with the disease. All of this is due to a flawed understanding of addiction – and that flawed understanding contributed to the rise of prescription drug addiction in America, alongside a failing healthcare system, and the consequences of a post-recession economy at a time rife with optimization, digitalization, and the economic crisis.

That does not mean all hope is somehow lost. There are things we can all do, as long as we stand united in doing the best we can for our loved ones. By protecting our friends and family, we can all make a difference throughout the nation – and it starts with proper education.

Read up on addiction, and all the latest material on the subject. Reach out to the people you know who are struggling with addiction, and speak to them from a place of compassion, rather than judgment.

Find out what behavior you might have been engaging in that could be enabling someone. See what you can do locally to raise awareness on the issue of opioid abuse, and encourage families to put aside their beliefs or misconceptions, and embrace their sons and daughters and help them fight addiction. It’s a long road for every single person struggling with addiction, but through treatment, support and time, everyone can heal.

How to Talk About Addiction To Your Loved Ones

Posted on December 19, 2017 by JohnAdmin

It’s incredibly difficult to talk about addiction. Not only is it an issue that permeates you to the point where your own will becomes difficult to follow, but it can also be a tremendous source of strife in families, tearing them apart.

Finding a way through an addiction with your relationships intact takes a massive amount of dedication, understanding, love, and work – on everyone’s part. Regardless of whether you’re struggling with addiction and need the help, or if your loved one is struggling and needs your help, you’re going to have to learn to talk about addiction with one another and fight this fight together, keeping in mind that it will be very difficult at times.

If You’re Struggling With Addiction

It takes a lot of strength to realize that you have a problem. Overcoming denial is often the first step to truly making a difference in your situation, although where to go from here largely depends on your means, and the problem at hand. Sometimes, addiction warrants medical attention, medication, and strict therapy. At other times, it might just be enough to check into a treatment center for a regular outpatient program.

For when things are very serious, consider sober living in your talk about addiction. These are programs that exist as communities, designed to hold together and teach one another to live in sobriety, in their own way. Sober living communities don’t hold one single way of life to be true – they accept that everyone must walk their own path of recovery, utilize different treatments, tackle different problems, and work within different limitations.

No one can dictate your life to you. It’s on you to decide where to go – but you can seek help, guidance, and knowledge, and there are no better places for these things than in a sober living community.

If You Think They Have A Problem

If your loved one is the person who seems to be struggling with an addiction, then it’s important to distinguish between them accepting this struggle, or them denying it. Both have very different paths, and require a very different approach to talk about addiction.

An intervention to talk about addiction may be in order if your loved one is in denial. Get the family together, contact a professional, and create an opportunity for the intervention to take place. Be prepared, and be pragmatic. This isn’t a bait for a fight, but a plea to open their eyes to the reality – that they’re hurting those they love, and that they need help.

Offering Help & Talk About Addiction

If you know your loved one has a problem and they know it too, then something as simple as standing by them, and giving them your unconditional love and support can mean a great deal. You don’t have to pledge to anything specific, or even take charge in “fixing” them. Recovery is very much an individual path, but it relies massively on the help of others. But you can’t be the captain to their journey. Be there for support and to talk about addiction, not more.

How To Support Your Loved One

The first thing you should do is inform yourself. There are things you should and shouldn’t say, and things you should know. Some things are blatantly obvious: you shouldn’t shame an addict when you talk about addiction, because they often carry more than enough self-guilt and shame, and adding onto it will do nothing but make things worse. You also shouldn’t blatantly insult them – it won’t “anger” them into betterment, but will just destroy your relationship. Here are a few other examples:

“It’s not a problem.”

It is a problem. Addiction is a huge problem, and there should never be any qualms about it. This is a fight, one that you are fighting together as a family. Don’t accept the misery as part of your lives – work together to create a better life, and even when things are looking down and the thought of giving up is tempting, you must be the rock that helps your loved one work their way through it all, and get better despite it all.

Don’t undermine them by minimizing the issue when you talk about addiction.

“You’re not trying hard enough.”

You cannot truly tell how hard someone is trying, unless you are in their shoes. This goes for addiction, as well as any other mental health issue. Undermining their efforts by telling them they’re not “enough” in any shape or form when you talk about addiction simply pushes them away from you, and deeper down a hole of self-doubt.

If you don’t like that fact, then you need to consider whether this is about you or them. Your opinions of how things should be to them are irrelevant, when they’re the ones struggling with the condition.

Instead of telling your loved one that they aren’t doing enough to get better, support them in what they’ve already taken on. If you have successfully gotten help and entered treatment, it’s just a matter of getting through each day, a day at a time. There is no magic switch, no confetti and fireworks when the addiction is beaten. It’s a long road, and you must create your own happy little celebrations.

“Aren’t we important to you?”

There is no greater accusation that this. Someone who has gone out of their way to get help most definitely cares about you – otherwise, they would see no reason to summon every ounce of their willpower and strength to take a step against what has become their very instinct, need and want. Addiction is powerful, especially if it’s something as addictive as heroin or alcohol. Breaking from these substances isn’t just done on a whim – it takes incredible determination, and many years.

If your loved one is still fighting, even after a relapse or two, then that is a testament to their love for you – and their willingness to go through the pain again and again just to get to those blissful, sober days spent loving one another and being happy.

The Most Important Bit

Addiction treatment and recovery takes as long as it takes. There are no set timelines. No strict deadline for total sobriety. No statistics through which you could establish a rough outline for when you’ll have your “normal” loved one back. Life will never be the same, and it can take years for the addiction to finally take a backseat once and for all.

But that isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can be a good thing. Now can be the moment for you to reinvigorate and reinvent your relationship, and take the time to better yourselves. Why should only one of you go into recovery and treatment? Become better people together, by undertaking a journey of your own, and embracing this change as a positive one. No matter how terrible things get, there is one thing we never lose – our ability to choose how to feel about our circumstances, and our ability to draw strength from one another to survive any ordeal.

What Are Some of the Worst Addictions to Have?

Posted on November 21, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Addiction is bad, and there’s no way to talk around that. It’s a debilitating psychological and physical condition that takes many forms, and leaves lasting effects – sometimes for decades. Depending on the drug, an addiction can completely change your life, or even kill you. And far too often, it will. That said, some of the worst addictions will affect you far more than other.

However, the worst addictions are arguably more difficult than others. Some are harder to kick, more dangerous to the body, and more widespread. While all addictions are hard, and a person’s individual journey with any one drug is completely different from that of another, here are some of the worst addictions to get hooked on.

Anti-Anxiety Meds

Anxiety is one of the most pervasive mental health problems in the country. And just about anything can trigger it, or make it worse. Anxiety exists in the form of phobias, PTSD, social anxiety and more – and its effects on life range from causing flash sweats and hyperventilation at the thought of going to a public event, to mental breakdowns.

To combat anxiety, psychotherapists have spent decades refining therapeutic techniques like CBT and DBT – but ultimately, patients early on may need to be prescribed medication to stave off their condition. This is where anti-anxiety meds like Xanax and valium come into play.

These drugs affect the same parts of the brain as alcohol, and create the same calming, tipsy feeling. As sedatives, they act in the exact opposite to stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine – but they’re just as dangerous when abused and cna be counted among some of the worst addictions.

Much like someone in chronic pain struggling to get off opiates, if you’re struggling with anxiety like 40 million other people in the US, and find yourself hooked on your meds, then the prospect of stopping becomes even harder.

Heroin/Opiates

Heroin is one of the worst addictions to have, because:

It’s far too common for people on pain medication to fall into a cycle of opiate addiction
Heroin is a rising problem in the States, fueling the ongoing overdose epidemic
Opiate addiction can lead to accidental overdose through extremely potent drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil, which are sometimes used to cut heroin and are indistinguishable.

While there are more immediately dangerous drugs, they’re not as widespread. Of course, at the end of the day, the worst addictions to have is any at all. Whatever you end up struggling with the most, whatever vice it is that has you in its grips, that addiction will haunt you for decades and keep you on-guard well throughout your sober life.

But given the effect it has on the country, and the widespread damage it has caused over centuries, there are few drugs with the combined potency, availability and danger as heroin and assorted opiate derivatives.

Nicotine

Ultimately, smoking is known by some addicts to be the hardest habit to kick, making it rank among some of the worst addictions. This is typically based on ratings given by people with several drug addictions, when asked to describe and rate which addiction is toughest to get rid of. However, on the dependence rating scale, the nicotine in cigarettes sits just under heroin and crack cocaine, which is more potent than snorted powdered cocaine.

There are a few key differences that shed some light onto why smoking is one of the hardest habits to kick – and why people manage to kick it so often anyways.

Cigarettes are everywhere.
Cigarette smoking starts early.
Cigarettes take decades to kill.
Cigarettes are easy to use.
There is far less stigma attached to nicotine addiction (than other addictions).

Up until quite recently, cigarette smoking has been very popular, and even touted as healthy. Cigarette smoking also often began at an early age, and lung cancer takes years to develop, giving smokers ample time to work on quitting. Their ease of access and ease of use also meant there was no paraphernalia needed when smoking – unlike in the past, when smoking tobacco involved pulling out the pipe and preparing a pinch of herb.

This is what makes nicotine so insidious and one of the worst addictions. Due to being so common and so hard to quit, it can often lead to a life-long addiction and death.

While many state that nicotine is an incredibly hard drug to kick to the curb, many still quit anyway. According to the CDC, there are more former smokers than current smokers in the US today. A common way to quit has been by going cold turkey – others rely on a more gradual progress.

Worst Addictions From Other Drugs

We’ve all heard of monster drugs like krokodil and flakka, street concoctions abroad and sometimes found domestically, and each capable of ruining your life over the course of a few hits. These are synthetic drugs known for causing organ failure and tissue death, and permanent psychological damage.

Krokodil is the subject of many online horror stories, but it isn’t very widespread or dangerous to non-users – the wounds it causes aren’t contagious. Made of a mixture of industrial cleaning agents, lighter fluid and painkillers to create desomorphine, it’s extremely addictive and extremely cheap. Its major side-effect? It rots your flesh to the bone.

Synthetic cathinones (bath salts) and synthetic marijuana (spice) have also been in the news for the severity of their side effects – in addition to being addictive, they can cause strong hallucinations and end in a deadly overdose.

The reason these addictions might not necessarily rank among the worst addictions, is because of both their rarity, and their potency. Methamphetamines, opiates, and Xanax each can lead to months of declining health and an increasing risk of overdose.

New drugs are regularly being discovered – many of them far worse than most of what we’ve seen in the past. From drugs like carfentanil that possess the lethality of nerve gas, to homemade concoctions like krokodil and “DIY” synthetic drugs like spice, the world is full of dangerous substances. Struggling with an addiction is a challenge however and sometimes a Men’s Sober living program in Houston might be the solution to keeping yourself clean for good.

How Does Recreational Use Turn Into Addiction?

Posted on October 31, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Drugs are highly addictive. There is no sense in arguing against that. The science supports it, and there are countless cases and anecdotes of how continuous drug use led to the destruction (and, too often, end) of someone’s life, even in cases of recreational use.

However, there is a line between being addicted to drugs, and using drugs. Recreational use can turn into an addiction, but one is not the other. Knowing the difference, and understanding how some people get hooked after the first few tries while others can continue using a drug for months before eventually quitting without major consequences requires understanding just how addiction occurs, and why it’s never an easy thing to determine.

The Difference Between Recreational Use And Addiction

Some drugs are far more addictive than others. Coffee is one of the world’s most-consumed beverages, but caffeine overdose through coffee is nearly unheard of. Neither does coffee possess serious withdrawal symptoms and legitimate coffee addictions, while possible, are not very common. On the other hand, addictions to stimulants like cocaine are very much a real problem in America, and the US opioid crisis alone has claimed thousands of lives annually over the past few years.

That does not mean that everyone with an Adderall prescription, a bottle of OxyContin, or even a cocaine habit is an addict. The differences between recreational use, medical use, and addiction are vast.

Medical use obviously implies the need for a drug to combat a disease or disorder. Doctors are careful to prescribe drugs in such a way that they achieve the necessary effect to combat certain symptoms without ever reaching a lethal dose. A mark of addiction is increasing a drug’s dosage to dangerous levels to combat rising levels of drug tolerance.

Recreational use implies using the drug recreationally, without medical need – but without the symptoms of addiction. Someone who uses cocaine recreationally may not crave it nearly as much as someone struggling with an actual addiction. Additionally, they are still able to cut themselves off from the drug without emotional or physical pain.

Addiction implies an inability to stop. Someone facing addiction may not know until they try to cut themselves off and then find themselves in a loop of relapses and withdrawals. Unlike other types of usage, people with an addiction have a different brain response to the drugs they’re addicted to.

Someone who has a drug for recreational use will feel its effects, and may even develop a tolerance, but they can regulate their drug use or even stop if it becomes unfeasible. With addiction, all logic or reason goes out the window in the face of the insatiable craving to use.

The thing about addictive drugs, however, is that continuous use will either lead to addiction or abstinence regardless of if it starts as recreational use or not. And that is a big danger.

Are Recreational Drugs Safe?

Some drugs are inherently dangerous and pose major health risks. Illicit drugs from unregulated, unknown sources are often cut with many unidentified substances, to lower the cost of production. As a result, these drugs can be incredibly dangerous even for recreational use. Heroin with added fentanyl can easily cause an overdose, while additives used to cut cocaine can often cause major health problems and even death. It’s not uncommon to find cocaine mixed with laundry detergent, laxatives, anesthetics, corn starch, vitamin powder or baby formula.

Even the purest of illicit drugs can never be considered “safe”. Recreational use of any druh shouldn’t be encouraged, and any drug should be treated with extreme caution. While addiction does not occur instantaneously, every road to addiction begins with one hit.

Knowing When You’re Addicted

The transition from recreational use to addiction is one that most people miss. It is the kind of thing you typically don’t really notice it until it’s too late.

Addiction can be defined in several ways. While it always refers to an inability to stop, the reason is typically different from case to case. In most cases, physical dependency plays a significant role in the addiction of a person: this is when their drug use has developed into a physical habit for their body, to the point where their cravings and withdrawal symptoms make it incredibly difficult to stop.

Emotional dependency is another factor that affects just how addicted a person is. This is when a drug becomes a crutch for someone to deal with stress and other emotional issues in their life. Some people use drugs to medicate themselves and eliminate the pain of a traumatic experience – that can develop into an unwillingness or inability to let go of drugs, to avoid going through a world of psychological pain.

When these transitions happen, the relationship between the body and the drug transforms. While tolerance is inevitable over time, physical dependence develops in some people much faster than it does in others. When it does, the body has trouble performing basic neurochemical functions without the presence of a certain drug in its system. This is where the most severe withdrawal symptoms come from.

Combatting addiction at this level can’t be done without a significant amount of medical and emotional help. Struggling against your own mind and body is extremely difficult – but it isn’t impossible. Through rehab, Houston sober living and support groups, every addiction patient can make their way back towards a normal life.

How To Make Your Addiction Recovery Stick For The Long-Term

Posted on September 21, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Drug addiction is not a matter of choice, but it is a matter of survival. Addiction recovery is not just about deciding not to follow an unhealthy lifestyle – it’s about prolonging your life in general, and making yours a happy one again.

But getting there – to the point where it seems possible to live without drugs again, and stay satisfied – is tough. It’s a long road, and not everyone makes it. However, there are many ways to ensure that you’ll stay on the right track, even if you fall off the horse now and again.

Before we can go into how to make your addiction recovery stick for the long-term and work on your sobriety, it’s important to first understand why addiction is so hard to beat; especially if you haven’t had to suffer through it.

Why Addiction Recovery Is So Difficult

Addiction is a combination of different physical and psychological symptoms, which appear in tandem but rarely in their entirety. Each case of addiction has its own unique factors, its own unique causes and inherent risks, and its own ideal method of treatment. Some people suffer from a highly emotional addiction, one where the issue lies more in their pre-existing mental condition rather than a neurological issue. Others suffer through an addiction that runs in the family – some alcoholics tend to have an inherent risk towards developing an addiction towards alcohol, and this risk is hereditary. Addiction recovery needs to be approached differently depending on the circumstance of the addiction in the first place.

There are different risk factors concretely tied to developing an addiction. While substance use does not necessitate any pre-existing conditions, and all addictive substances carry the inherent risk of creating a physical dependence, some people are at far more risk than others. Here are some of the more common risk factors:

Mental health disorders: Depression, anxiety, ADHD and post-traumatic stress are all tied to an increased risk of addiction. When coping with the massive stress tied to mental illness, many people see drugs as an effective short-term solution, despite their long-term consequences. There is also a higher risk of abusing medication.

Peer pressure: Teenagers are susceptible to this, as they are inherently less aware of risks and tend to ignore dangers in the face of high social rewards (i.e. fitting into a certain social circle).

Loneliness: A lack of personal connections with others can turn people towards drugs to escape many of the mental consequences of long-term loneliness, such as depression.

Family problems: Being on bad terms with your family tends to increase the risk of using drugs, due to a lack of support.

Genetics: Family history of addiction tends to correlate with a high risk of addiction, especially for specific substances.

Chronic illness: People struggling with chronic pain have a higher likelihood of becoming dependent on painkillers, especially due to the prevalence of opioid prescriptions in cases of chronic pain.

Each of these risk factors have their own hard counters – chronic illnesses can be addressed through alternative treatment methods, genetics can be used as a warning to avoid certain substances, families can be replaced by a strong network of life-long friendships, and dedicating yourself to being open and meeting more people can cure loneliness.

Even mental health issues can be addressed with modern-day psychotherapy and other forms of therapy – and in many cases of addiction, they must be addressed to truly help someone overcome their drug dependence. Besides treatment, much of which takes place during rehab, the hardest part of addiction is sticking to sobriety long after you’re done with a residential program or outpatient treatment program.

This process, often hardest in its “early recovery” stage, requires a system of commitment and a proper understanding of how to steal back the reward system of your brain after addiction hijacks it.

The Science of Commitment

Psychological health is really all about learning how your mind works, and then tricking it into working as well as possible. As humans, we’re subject to all sorts of psychological problems – we tend to avoid pain and suffering for good reasons, but that also means we at times rob ourselves of opportunities to grow by avoiding rejection, and instead suffer the ire of loneliness. Sometimes we experience so much pain and misery that we develop a trauma.

Sometimes, all our ills compound into a dependence on the immense short-term high of a drug. Our minds begin to rely on things like alcohol, cocaine and opioids to forget about all the things that worry us and instead just be satisfied, or even happy. Our mind becomes committed to drugs – in our brains, drugs rise to the top of the agenda and take over everything else.

Taking that drive back to develop a commitment towards something else isn’t quite so easy, because drugs come with an inherent abnormally high pleasure factor. There’s nothing else on the planet as immediately satisfying as a dangerous drug. So, you must utilize some discipline to get to the point where the commitment really sticks and you can begin your addiction recovery.

Commitment in the scientific sense, that is, sticking to one partner and making things work, is part of the essential toolkit we humans carry around to make and raise babies. We commit to a partnership at least long enough to ensure that our offspring survive in this world, and that takes years. This is because ultimately, it’s worth it – it’s natural, and we’re inclined to do so.

Trick Yourself into Sobriety

The trick is not committing yourself to sobriety. Sobriety isn’t fun by nature. We’re not inclined to deny ourselves the pleasure of drugs (that’s the whole problem). It can be fun, but not because of what it is – rather, because of what you can make of it. Instead of making a commitment to sobriety, make a commitment to something you really enjoy. Pick any hobby you feel passionate about, and use it as a replacement for drugs – turn to it in times of stress, hone your craft or your ability, get better and better and use it to release stress when things get a little much during addiction recovery.

The take-away point is this: learn not to focus solely on your sobriety.

Instead, learn to focus on living again. Drugs rob you of the ability to really live, to feel and love and focus on others and the things you enjoy the most. They make life dull and boring, they take out all the things that make it worth living. You must bring those things back through your addiction recovery, and remind yourself of how awesome sobriety can be, not how awesome it’s supposed to be from the get-go (you may be disappointed).

Celebrities With Addiction Issues

Posted on September 30, 2016 by JohnAdmin

15 Celebrities Who Have Experienced the Challenging Life of Addiction

We tend to believe that celebrities have easy lives, that because they have fame and fortune, why would they turn to drugs to avoid their problems? But sadly, regardless of the success, money, and fame they have, celebrities also find themselves addicted to drugs and alcohol. In fact, sometimes it is because of the success, money, and fame that they drink and use drugs. Perhaps with too much freedom, there are more temptations.

The following is a list of 15 famous actors, singer, and other celebrities who have experienced the challenging life of addiction:

Heath Ledger – Ledger is an Australian actor who died of a prescription drug overdose in 2008. There was a combined toxicity of oxycodone, hydrocodone, doxylamine, and other drugs.
Joan Rivers – She was an American comedian who died because of an overdose to prescription drugs. She was 81 years old and died just last year in 2014.
Philip Seymour Hoffman – He was an actor who died at the age of 46 from a heroin overdose. Although the cause of death has not been confirmed in the media, most speculate that he died because of his heroin addiction. He died last year in 2014.
Michael Jackson – This pop star was well known around the world. He died of a cardiac arrest and acute propofol intoxication because of an addiction to prescription drugs.
Billy Holiday – She is an American jazz singer and songwriter who died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959. She was 44 years old when she died.
Lenny Bruce – He was an American comedian who died of an accidental drug overdose using illegal drugs, including morphine. He was 40 years old when he died in 1966.
Russell Brand – Brand played a major role in the movie The Guardian. He admitted that he used heroin to neutralize his pain and that eventually he lost power to say no to heroin as his addiction developed.
Steven Tyler – The lead singer of Aerosmith wrote in his autobiography that he was spending over $2000 a week on heroin, cocaine, and alcohol.
Eric Clapton – This famous musician and songwriter was addicted to heroin in the early 1970’s, but with the support of friends he was able to quit in 1974.
Samuel L. Jackson – Jackson is an actor who has played a variety of roles in movies. He admitted to overdosing on heroin two times in his life. He said that it was a bad time in his life and that he was not happy with who he was then.
Corey Feldman – Feldman has been an actor since a young age. Sadly, he was arrested in 1990 for possessing heroin, and later he told a major news magazine that heroin was the only drug that really took him down fast.
Ozzy Osbourne – This American rock star struggled with heroin for many years, and he went in and out of rehab to get sober.
Nicole Richie – This supermodel once admitted that she was using cocaine before the age of 18. Sadly, soon after she got involved with pills and then heroin.
Robert Downy Junior – This American movie star was arrested many times for drug charges, including heroin possession. He got sober and has had a flourishing acting career since.
Angelina Jolie – Jolie is an American actress who admitted on a 60 Minutes TV program that she tried almost every drug out there, including heroin.

Fortunately, some of these celebrities were able to get help and get sober. Like Robert Downey Jr., life after addiction can be successful and meaningful. If you’ve lost your power to drugs and alcohol, seek out addiction help today.

Read HERE about other celebrity addictions

For more information about getting help for your addictions visit Transcend Texas 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.

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!

If you are reading this on any blog other than TranscendTexas.com,
it is stolen content without credit.
Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Stay informed with the latest industry news, here on our Living Sober Blog.