It usually starts with one hit or a glass of wine or is sometimes due to peer pressure. Sometimes it is because you think you don’t have any other method to cope with challenges in life.
Other times, it’s the trend that everyone is following right now. But, whatever the reason for abusing drugs or alcohol, addiction is a disease, and each year, millions of Americans struggle with overcoming drug or alcohol addiction, and only a handful of these people know why or how.
That said, people don’t become addicts by choice. It is a big misconception about addiction that people need to correct. At the same time, it might be true that consuming alcohol or drugs for the first time is an individual’s own choice.
However, asking an addict to stop abusing drugs is like asking a person with diabetes to quit diabetes or a person with cancer to quit cancer. In the end, it doesn’t work that way for either. Like any medical condition, there will be obstacles and challenges during people’s journey to recovery, making it harder for them to overcome addiction.
With that in mind, let us look at a few reasons it is challenging for an addict to quit drugs or alcohol. Some of these reasons are listed down below:
Addiction is a chronic illness, not a choice
As mentioned above, just like with any other chronic illness, even when you want to quit using drugs or alcohol, you will find it challenging to do so without professional help. Because even when you may want to stop, chances are you won’t be able to because your body has become dependent and won’t function properly without consuming certain amounts of drugs.
Hence, addiction requires professional treatment by enrolling in recovery programs such as the ones available at the Delphi Health Group, which has a reputation for hosting various effective programs.
However, when you take the step to quit, your body will experience changes that will be harder to cope with, as your brain won’t accept these bodily changes initially, and there will be a high chance you will start using again.
Addiction affects your brain’s reward system
When you consume alcohol or drugs, they enter your bloodstream and travel throughout your body. Your brain’s receptors pick up the drug molecules and affect your brain’s reward system. After all, the reward system is vital to reinforcing behavior via positive feedback. It is something that allows us to feel good when we eat our favorite food or exercise.
However, drugs hijack our reward system by introducing a high dose of chemically induced feelings of euphoria that overpowers even the best of us. After that, our brain eventually builds up a high resistance, and we have to consume more to feel normal again. In the end, the results are predictable.
The more we consume, the more resistance we build-up for that particular amount. As a result, it becomes harder to quit. After all, you’ve built up a high tolerance, and going cold turkey will most likely be an ineffective strategy, leading to relapse sooner rather than later.
Addiction affects your motivation to see through your recovery till the end
Motivation has a connection with your brain’s reward system. We inherently motivate ourselves when we consume drugs because of the bursts of endorphins our drug of choice releases.
So, as individuals struggle with addiction, they will become less and less likely to be motivated to commit to an addiction recovery program. The drug or alcohol addiction will make it more challenging for them to be motivated enough to see through their recovery program, and they deviate off track and start using again.
Addiction decreases your dopamine levels
When you abuse feel-good drugs, your brain produces large amounts of dopamine. However, when you constantly use drugs day after day, your brain will find it challenging to make such large amounts of dopamine and temporarily run out of it. As a result, you will feel flat or depressed a day or two after using. But, as you quit, your brain will try to pick up dopamine production again, which improves your mood.
However, suppose you’re a long-time addict. In that case, even if you try to stop, your brain won’t regulate these dopamine levels due to a damaged dopamine production system in your brain’s prefrontal cortex. You will have to abuse drugs again to feel pleasure again! When such a thing happens, you will find it more challenging to think of the consequences of drug addiction, due to which you will start using again.
Dealing with withdrawal is no joke!
Our brains quickly adapt to anything we throw at it. So, long-term drug abuse forces our brain to adjust to the increase in the production of neurochemicals that allow us to feel normal. Ask any long-time addict, and they will tell you that they consume alcohol or drugs to feel ‘normal’ again. Such is the case because their bodies have adapted to the side effects of alcohol or drugs.
However, if your tolerance for a particular type of drug or alcohol increases, you might experience withdrawal when you finally decide to quit, and withdrawal is no joke at all! It can be mentally and physically painful and requires tons of assistance to counter.
It is harder to quit because of the stigma associated with addiction
Stigma is an underlying issue with various health problems ranging from HIV to cancer to various mental illnesses. Some public health efforts have reduced stigma related to many medical conditions via widespread education, making them less taboo than how things were a few decades ago. However, little to no progress has been made to reduce the stigma related to drug addiction.
Conclusion
Although not every individual who abuses alcohol or drugs will develop an addiction, some will become dependent on them to function normally. That said, we must realize that addiction is like any other physical or mental disease and requires the same level of care and support. Hence, if you or someone you know is on the path of addiction, get the required help and support ASAP!
