Drug Addiction

No doubt you’ve seen, heard, or know someone personally who’s tried to quit smoking and ends up gaining weight. Or the pot head who eases up for a while, only to find he’s going through cigarettes faster than weed. Maybe you’ve sworn off cocaine and discovered crystal meth, traded shopping sprees for sex, gambling instead of drinking. Whatever your poison, if you rely on it to help you feel better and you just can’t stop yourself, it’s an addiction and addictions are chronic medical issues that require medical treatment.

Legal vs. Illegal Drugs

Narcotics that have been found to be easily addictive are placed on the DEA’s controlled substances list, but the legality of a substance doesn’t mean you can’t be addicted to it. Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol are the most commonly available drugs, found in nearly every type of grocery and convenience store, and soda can still be found in most school vending machines. An estimated 8 million men, women, and teenagers have an eating disorder, 17 million Americans are compulsive shoppers, and countless millions struggle with obsessive-compulsive sexual urges.

Once an Addict, Always an Addict

New research comes out all time about certain genes being linked to certain types of addictions, but what’s important to note is the effect on the brain’s operating circuits when addiction kicks in. Chemical messengers (known as neurotransmitters) are damaged when consistent levels of drugs or alcohol interrupt the flow of information. Your body begins to rely on the chemical reaction produced by the addictive substance and is unable to recreate that response sufficiently to justify being without the drug. (For non-drug addictions, the activity itself elicits heightened pleasurable responses in much the same way as drugs or alcohol.)

Some drugs are so similar in their effects that your body may not notice there has been a change. Other times, a substitute drug might fill the void temporarily if you’re unable to find your favorite for a while, but the end result is still the same.

Take Back the Power of Choice

Addressing the underlying addictive personality and learning how to take control before cravings commit you to another binge is the only way out of the cycle. Recovery is a long, difficult journey, and you’ll need as much support as you can get. Start with a comprehensive drug addiction treatment program to give you a solid foundation in recovery and go from there. Realizing you don’t have to tackle it all at once may bring some relief – the only day you need to work on being sober is today. Say that to yourself every day and little by little it will get easier.

Know someone who seems completely wrapped up in their own greatness and mystique?  Then you might consider them to be narcissistic.  It’s one thing if a person gets a little too proud of themselves from time to time.  It’s another problem entirely if they have narcissistic personality disorder.  They do anything and everything to protect their fragile sense of self, mostly by inflating it and creating an “admiration society” that they can depend on.  When their emotional pain and anxiety get too overwhelming, people with narcissistic personalities often turn to drugs and alcohol for soothing escape. 

How Narcissistic Personality Disorder Looks and Feels to Others

The narcissistic does a tricky dance between getting the admiration and from others and keeping people emotionally distant from them.  If they feel threatened or someone gets too close, they crank up their narcissistic behavior.  This is often offending or irritating enough that others are happy to put some distance between them.  He or she blames others for their anger, which allows the narcissist to ignore reality and keep their elevated self-perception intact.   

Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Drug Addiction

One study highlighted the course of narcissistic personality disordered client going through a course of outpatient cocaine treatment.  The narcissists generally had unrealistically high demands of perfectionism for the therapist, other clients in the treatment, and anyone else associated with the drug treatment program.  When these private standards of perfection weren’t met by the other people, the narcissists tended to quit outpatient cocaine treatment (probably casting blame on everyone as he or she walked out the door).  A narcissist usually denies their drug use is addictive (even if it clearly looks like it).  They describe their use as enhancing their energy and their life. 

Narcissism and drug addiction have similarities in that the person relies on something from the outside to fill up their empty inside.  The narcissist depends on the attention and admiration from others (whether this attention is imagined or real) for their sense of well-being.  They do things to draw attention to them and create situations of achievement that set them up for congratulations and possible envy from others.  This is done in much the same way that an addict makes sure their supply of drugs is steady and secure. 

They have a lot of effort and time put into creating the situations and maintaining the appearances that keep their emptiness “filled up”.  However, just like a drug addict, the admiration and attention does not fill the emptiness as well as it used to.  When it seems they aren’t getting the admiration and attention they need, they become anxious and sink into depression.  If they are using drugs, they may simultaneously be chasing the high of drugs when they can’t get the admiration they demand.  The narcissist often has people around that will remind them of all their “greatness”  when they get depressed.  This storytelling and encouraging gradually “fills them up” again, bringing their mood back up.  Once again, they are in the pursuit of ultimate admiration and notoriety. 

Starting Drug Rehab

Getting a person with narcissistic personality disorder into treatment can be a real challenge, especially since they are not likely to admit problems resulting from their drug addiction.  However, if you know someone with this disorder who really needs this help, find a way to extend your helping hand to them.  They need you more than they want to know.  If you need help setting up an intervention or need to get information about dual diagnosis drug rehab, contact The Canyon right away.   

Addiction is a process that retools your brain, emotions, and body to accept a foreign substance as your boss. You risk life and limb for it, it changes your emotions, it distorts how you think. So once you stop using drugs and alcohol, why doesn’t everything just go back to normal? The changes made by the drugs stick around for a lot of different reasons.

Genetic Vulnerability to Addictive Behavior

What really causes one person to become addicted to drugs when another person won’t? Researchers don’t know exactly how this happens, but they have uncovered one important factor. A person can have a genetic predisposition to addictive behavior. That means they have the right personality and physical “recipe” to grab on to an addiction in whatever form it might take - gambling, drugs, shopping, etc.

So say a person with genetic vulnerability to addictive behaviors is exposed to a lot of stress or rapid adjustment. They are also presented with an opportunity to escape from this stress (drugs, alcohol, etc). When these two forces come together, they can create the perfect storm of emotional pain and emotional cover-up. This is when the addiction is born.

Mental Disorders and Emotional Pain Go With Addiction

Many times, psychological factors like depression and low self worth go along with addiction. You have the stress, the poor outlook on life, and a bottomless mixed drink or endless round of marijuana joints. It’s the recipe for a full-blown addiction to form.

An untreated mental disorder can be like gasoline on a fire. It makes an already bad situation worse in a moment’s notice. A mental disorder does many things to distort reality and magnify various emotions for a person. This provides perpetual fuel for the addiction. Some rough days at work through the lens of depression seems hopeless - drown it in alcohol. Too much to do at home and constant fear that their effort isn’t good enough - escape with marijuana.

Family Patterns and Surroundings

Another ingredient in an addiction is a person’s environment and experiences, especially from their childhood. Let’s imagine that Sara grows up with parents who do a lot of shouting and fighting mixed with cold silence. Mom spends the whole paycheck before the next one comes, dad goes out with the guys all night long, both of them have affairs.

Sara copes with this chaos by burying her head in the sand however she can as a child - fantasizing, making herself too busy, being a little parent to her brother. Meanwhile, no one is really teaching Sara how to deal with her own stress and feelings. Her parents do a lot of avoiding, showing intense emotion, and getting stuck in their own world.

As an adult, Sara faces ordinary and usual stresses of being on her own but has no idea how to cope in healthy ways. She makes herself overly busy, has friends but feels lonely, and marries a charming guy who ends up being abusive. The pain from this “life of extremes” is so overwhelming, she eventually escapes through drugs and alcohol.

Drug Rehab Helps A Person Focus Their Life With Balance

Holistic drug rehab is the most comprehensive way to deal with dual diagnosis situations. The Canyon is a known leader in the field of residential drug treatment for co-occurring disorders. The genetics, the mental disorders, the family factors - The Canyon is equipped to deal with all of them. They teach a person with dual diagnosis how to balance their life, something they may be learning for the very first time.

An addiction to sex and porn is one of those things that few talk about openly. Those who struggle with sex addictions sees to struggle under derogatory stereotypes as well, so few discuss their issues openly. For that reason, it’s not always easy for those who need help to find it initially, or even to find out information about what it is and how it’s treated.

The Definition of Sex Addiction

Recovery Nation defines sex addiction as: “Sexual addiction is nothing more than a continuing pattern of unwanted compulsive sexual behavior that has had a negative impact on an individual’s personal, social and/or economic standing.”

Like other addictions, indulging in the action whether it’s drugs and alcohol, gambling or sex provides a relief at first but, ultimately, living actively in addiction only serves to create more stress and problems in your life. If cravings and indulgence in your addiction hurt you, your life and those you love but you continue to act on the urges anyway, it doesn’t matter what that action is: it’s an addiction and one that requires treatment. For those suffering from sex addictions—just like those struggling with gambling addiction or drug and alcohol addiction—information and help is available for those who are ready to heal.

Get Help for Sex Addictions

Professor of Addiction Studies at the University of Cincinnati Chris Tuell calls addiction to sex and porn “… a silent epidemic.” It doesn’t have to be. There’s help out there if you or someone you love is suffering from an addiction to sex or porn. If you need help now, find a Sex Addicts Anonymous group near you or choose an online group instead.

Anyone know of any books or resources that will help those who are wondering whether or not they or someone they love needs treatment for a sex addiction?

( photo credit: rfmphotography)

Uncovering a dual diagnosis can be a challenge. There are so many different patterns and levels of use associated with addictions and mental health. Some of the symptoms or problem from addiction can look like symptoms of a separate mental health diagnosis.

What Is Dual Diagnosis?

Here is an example to consider: a person who regularly binges on alcohol may alienate themselves from their friends. This person may then report increased loneliness and despair, showing a great deal of sadness because of their social loss. This can look like a depressed person who has isolated themselves because of the nature of depression symptoms (increased sadness, negativity, being snappy at others, etc). The root cause of each person’s sadness is different, but the outward appearance is similar.

It takes a skilled therapist to sort out the details of symptoms that seem to overlap. It may also take some time to fully understand whether a person has a dual diagnosis. History of mental illness in the family can be a good indicator, but it does not always manifest itself in every family member.

For some diagnoses, it may be easier to tell right away. For example, clearly defined panic attacks or psychotic episodes that do not seem directly associated with patterns of substance use can present a more clear picture. Also, if it seems a mental illness had begun before substance use started, a dual diagnosis can be easier to spot.

Which Comes First: Drug Addiction or Mental Illness?

Sometimes, a person with an addiction may be in denial of the problem and they have more trouble with their mental health situation. They may seek counseling for grief, anxiety, relationship problems, or depression first. Their addiction may reveal itself later on in the process.

Other times, someone’s addiction may be the more obvious problem. They get arrested for possession of an illegal substance, lose their driver’s license from a DUI, or something similar. They may get quite a ways through the legal and substance treatment process before the larger underlying problem becomes apparent.

What is Dual Diagnosis Treatment?

No matter how a diagnosis is uncovered, the proper treatment and rehabilitation program is vitally important. An untreated mental illness can undermine the progress of a recovering addict. It can also become somewhat harder to treat with success if it continues for a long time without treatment.

The Canyon is well equipped to not only make or confirm your condition, but also effectively help with your dual diagnosis treatment. When you have more than just an addiction to deal with, you need specially trained professionals on your side. The experts at The Canyon literally wrote the book on proper dual diagnosis treatment. This can give you the best chance at a having a revitalized, peaceful, and sober life.

What’s been your experience with dual diagnoses? If you have been addicted, how challenging was it to figure out your entire set of diagnoses? If you are a mental health or addictions professional, what has been your greatest challenges making a dual diagnosis?